Judge orders Trump administration to reveal PPP loan data it sought to obscure
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Small Business Administration to release details on coronavirus pandemic-related loans that would disclose information on businesses that benefited from $717 billion in federally backed borrowings.
The judge ordered the agency to disclose all the names, addresses and precise loan amounts issued through the Paycheck Protection Program and Emergency Injury Disaster Loan program. The decision comes after a lawsuit was filed by a dozen news organizations, charging that the agency was not fulfilling its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act.
The SBA had previously released only summarized and anonymized data for loans under $150,000 — which account for about 4.5 million of the 5.2 million loans made — claiming they would violate borrowers’ privacy by revealing the size of their payroll.
When the SBA denied the FOIA requests by news agencies, it argued that releasing government loan information would reveal business and personal information that should be kept private.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/judge-orders-trump-administration-reveal-180657644.html
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