Job Creators Network Supports House Bills on Covid Fraud But Calls for PPP Perspective

Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of Job Creators Network, released the following statement on two House bills headed for markup on Thursday aimed at recovering stolen pandemic relief funds:

“The House Committee on Small Business is doing valuable work for American taxpayers in advancing bills to recover stolen pandemic relief funds. But it’s important to keep the scale of the Paycheck Protection Program problem in perspective. The recent Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General fraud report finds that there was $64 billion worth of fraud in the $800 billion PPP. This 8% fraud rate is lower than many standard government programs. When you exclude the fraud facilitated by fintech, the PPP fraud rate falls to only about 4%. In contrast, the OIG report finds that there was $136 billion of fraud in the $400 billion SBA-administered Economic Injury Disaster Loans program, a 34% fraud rate. Lawmakers and commentators shouldn’t conflate the high fraud rates in EIDL and other pandemic relief efforts with the PPP, which saved America’s small business economy and had relatively low levels of fraud.”