The Federal Government has been pushing out trillions of dollars over the past few weeks in an effort to stabilize the U.S. economy during this turbulent time.

Watchdog groups, like the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG), have been calling for real-time transparency to know where the money is going and which companies are getting it.

Now, at least one federal authority, the Federal Reserve System, has announced it will answer that call. The Fed has promised it will begin publishing the names of those corporations receiving assistance under its emergency programs on a monthly basis.

“Honestly, it was pretty incredible that the Federal Reserve agreed to this kind of disclosure,” said R.J. Cross with U.S. PIRG. “I am hoping that that level of transparency will be carried forward to all the agencies in the CARES Act.”

The Fed’s move comes amid growing concern around the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). A week ago, reports revealed at least a handful of large publicly-traded companies had received PPP loans. The fast food chain Shake Shack, with a market capitalization or value of nearly $1 billion, was one of them. Shake Shack, though, was also one of the first companies to return its PPP money, which amounted to $10 million.

However, after initial concerns over some larger companies receiving PPP loans intended for much smaller businesses, a data analytic company, FactSquared, used its resources to dig through some Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Publicly-traded companies are required to report “material events” to investors and getting millions of dollars in loan money from the federal government would be a material event. So, FactSquared, decided to go through thousands of SEC filings, and was able to compile a report that revealed far more larger companies received PPP loans than initially thought.

FactSquared found at least $900 millions in forgivable small business loans went to more that 240 public companies. For example, The Lakers basketball franchise received $5 million and one luxury hotel chain was able to treat each of its hotels as an individual business and applied for 117 loans, getting at least $40 million so far.

That luxury hotel chain, Ashford Hospitality Trust, plans to keep all the funds, according to a recent statement, while the Lakers and more than a dozen other businesses have committed to returning their PPP loan money. Combined, amongst 15 businesses that have stated they will return their PPP loan money, more than $116 million is expected to be return.

“The fact that some companies are saying ‘oops, our bad’, this gets back to the purpose of transparency and why this type of information should be released,” said Bill Frischling with FactSquared.

FactSquared was only able to find less than 1 percent of the companies that took PPP loans through the public SEC filings, but its report is now being used as a real-time example of why real-time transparency is needed.

“It doesn’t do us any good three months down the line to have found out this list of companies, that money would’ve already been spent,” said Cross. “It is because this transparency happened so quickly that we are able to course correct, and companies can give that money and the treasury can readjust its rules moving forward, so that way, this money can actually help those it was intended to help.”

The SBA has not yet agreed to release the information around all businesses that receive a PPP loan. However, the treasury department has now announced every company that got more than $2 million will be fully audited, but companies have until May 7 to return the money to avoid that.

The government’s small business lending program has benefited millions of companies, with the goal of minimizing the number of layoffs Americans have suffered in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Yet the recipients include many you probably wouldn’t have expected.

Kanye West’s clothing line. The sculptor Jeff Koons. Law firms and high-dollar hedge funds. The Girl Scouts. Political groups on both the left and right.

All told, the Treasury Department’s Paycheck Protection Program authorized $520 billion for nearly 5 million mostly small businesses and nonprofits. On Monday, the government released the names and some other details of recipients who were approved for $150,000 or more.

That amounted to fewer than 15% of all borrowers. The Associated Press and other news organizations are suing the government to obtain the names of the remaining recipients.

Economists generally credit the program with preventing the job market meltdown this spring from becoming even worse. More than 22 million jobs were lost in March and April. But roughly one-third of them were regained in May and June — a faster rebound than many analysts had expected.

The government acted quickly in early April, with Treasury lending the first $349 billion in just two weeks. The program got off to a rocky start, one marked by confusion and difficulty for many companies that sought loans.

“The process was messy, and they couldn’t target it as much,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at accounting firm Grant Thornton, said of Treasury.

Here are seven unlikely recipients of the PPP loans:

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JEFF KOONS

Koons, a modernist sculptor, is known best for his work with large, metallic balloon-like animals. His “Rabbit” sculpture fetched $91 million at auction last year.

Koons’ studio was approved for $1 million to $2 million, the government’s data shows. (The data shows only ranges for the amounts of approved loans.) His studio said it employed 53 people before the pandemic. The PPP loans can be forgiven if employers use most of the money to keep their workers on the payroll.

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WALL STREET AND PRIVATE EQUITY

Nearly 600 asset management companies and private equity firms were approved for money from the PPP, according to government data.

Financial firms were generally not badly hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. Their employees were largely able to keep working, and they weren’t among the industries that had to be shut down by government orders. In addition, of course, investment managers and private equity employees tend to be exceedingly well-paid occupations.

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According to the data, those 583 companies reported supporting roughly 14,800 jobs collectively with the money from the program. That’s an average of 25 employees per company.

One other notable financial company that borrowed from the program: Rosenblatt Securities, which commands one of the largest physical presences on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Rosenblatt borrowed between $1 million and $2 million.

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KANYE WEST’S CLOTHING LINE

Kanye West’s clothing-and-sneaker brand Yeezy received a loan of between $2 million and $5 million, according to the data released by Treasury. The company employed 106 people in mid-February before the pandemic struck.

Yeezy, best known for its $250 sneakers, just announced a major deal with Gap that will have the rap superstar designing hoodies and T-shirts to be sold in the chain’s 1,100 stores around the world. (A representative for Yeezy didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Last weekend, West, a notable fan of President Donald Trump, tweeted that he was running for president.

Some other well-known fashion and retail names whose businesses were pummeled by store shutdowns were also approved for loans. The list included high-end designers Oscar de la Renta and Vera Wang and suit maker Hickey Freeman. All their loans were in the $2-million-to-$5 million range.

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POLITICAL GROUPS

The Americans for Tax Reform Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the anti-tax lobbying group Americans for Tax Reform, was approved for a loan of up to $350,000. ATR, led by the anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, who has long supported a smaller federal government, said it didn’t oppose the PPP. It described the program “as compensation for a government taking during the shutdown.”

The Center for Law and Social Policy, a research and advocacy group focused on policies supporting low-income Americans, was authorized for a loan of up to $1 million, according to government data.

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THE GIRL SCOUTS

More than 30 Girl Scout chapters across the country received PPP loans, the Treasury said. The Girl Scouts of Montana and Wyoming were approved for between $350,000 and $1 million.

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JIM JUSTICE, BILLIONAIRE GOVERNOR

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s family companies received at least $6.3 million from the program.

Justice, a Republican, is considered to be West Virginia’s richest person through his ownership of dozens of coal and agricultural businesses, many of which have been sued for unpaid debts. At least six Justice family businesses were approved for loans, including The Greenbrier Sporting Club, an exclusive club attached to a lavish resort that Justice owns called The Greenbrier.

Justice, a billionaire, acknowledged last week that his private companies received money from the program but said he didn’t know the dollar amounts. A representative for the governor’s family companies didn’t immediately return emails seeking comment.

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RESTAURANT CHAINS

TGI Fridays and P.F. Chang’s China Bistro were among the major restaurant chains that were approved for loans.

Dallas-based TGI Fridays, which has around 500 restaurants nationwide, obtained between $5 million and $10 million in loans from the program. In 2014, TGI Fridays was bought by the the New York private equity firm TriArtisan Capital Advisors. That firm also owns P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, which was also approved for a loan.

Though the PPP program was designed to help small businesses, big hotel and restaurant chains were also allowed to apply. A message seeking comment was left with TGI Fridays.

P.F. Chang’s China Bistro says a PPP loan helped it keep 12,000 workers employed and transition its restaurants to carry-out-only during the coronavirus pandemic. Scottsdale, Arizona-based P.F. Chang’s, which has more than 210 restaurants around the country, was approved for between $5 million and $10 million from the PPP program, according to the government data.

More than half a million businesses received the federal funds the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The program was created in March to help small business and their employees survive the financial impact of the pandemic. The program lent businesses money at a low-interest rate, with the potential for the loans to be forgiven or turned into a grant if the company retained and paid their workers for a given time.

Watchdog groups, like U.S. PIRG, were among many groups and elected leaders that called for transparency with PPP. After initially resisting, in May, the U.S. Department of Treasury and the Small Business Administration announced they would release the names of all businesses that received a PPP loan in the amount of $150,000 or more.

Earlier this month, that list was released. What has come to light is that millionaire, billionaires, and even some celebrities received the federal aid intended to help struggling small businesses. For example, rapper and fashion designer Kanye West, with an estimated net worth of $1.3 billion, received a PPP loan for his company Yeezy.

“From the very outset, the public, watchdogs, and elected officials had a very good reason to want data to see where this money was going,” said R.J. Cross with U.S. PIRG. “As we just learned, we had good reason to be questioning is this program going to do what it was intended to do?”

Cross is calling for the federal government to take steps to find out how much money went to small businesses and how much went to larger companies that may have had access to other sources of cash to get them through the financial hardship.

“A big improvement on the program would be true audits on all of the loan amounts,” said Cross. “That, say, if we find that you could’ve probably gotten money somewhere else we are going to take those taxpayers dollars back.”

Currently, only loans over $2 million will be audited, but most of the loans taken out, including some by millionaires and billionaires, were just below that threshold.

“We don’t have any proof to say that they picked that amount strategically, but it certainly raises questions,” Cross added.

Watchdog groups say the only way to answer those questions for the American people is continued transparency and expanded audits.

“Fraud and corruption are a real concern anytime the government is spending and giving money to companies, and especially, the pace in which it is happening right now,” Cross said. “There is reason to keep a very close eye on what is happening next. The biggest bailout in U.S. history deserves the most transparency in U.S. history.”

The SBA and treasury department have not given an indication that they will expand audits. Even if they did, it would take months, and potentially years, to get the results of those audits, followed by a potential hurdle to make the results public.

The latest stimulus package passed by Congress is one of the longest bills to be pushed so quickly through the Senate and the House. The final bill was handed to lawmakers just hours before they voted on it.

“This bill is too long, too complicated,” said Thea Lee, president of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

EPI expects the $900-billion package will provide an instant jolt to our economy by extending unemployment benefits and enhancing them by $300 a week. It also includes a $600 stimulus check for millions of Americans and $25 billion for housing and eviction protection.

There are hundreds of billions of dollars for Paycheck Protection Program loans, intended for small businesses. However, those touted benefits only take up a couple of pages in the nearly 5,600-page bill.

"There are things in there that don’t belong in there,” said Lee.

In fact, as more experts and government watchdog organizations start to sift through the stimulus bill, which was also tied to an ominous spending bill, the list of non-pandemic related funding and measures grows.

“Some of it is things like horse-racing commissions [funding] and so on, but some of it shouldn’t be in there because it is helping either people or businesses that don’t need the help,” Lee explained.

For example, there’s a tax break on alcohol, and Lee pointed out the alcohol industry is one that has actually thrived during the pandemic. Legislators also included a tax break for what has been dubbed the Three Martini Lunch.

“It’s a deduction for business people who are having expensive lunches out. That has been extended in this bill,” said Lee. "That is not the best way, the most targeted way to help the restaurant industry.”

For all of the non-pandemic-related measures squeezed into this latest deal, there is a surprise in what did not make it in.

“The most important thing that is not in the stimulus bill is aid to state and local governments,” said Lee. "If they don’t get enough aid from the federal government, they will have to start laying off workers.”

Another thing not in the stimulus bill was an extension on the student loan payment pause. Many student loan borrowers will have to start repaying loans in January and interest will begin accruing again.

There is also, notably, no transparency requirement tied to small business PPP loans. Watchdog organizations, like U.S. Public Interest Research Group, have been calling for it for months, given all the issues seen with the first round of PPP loan funding.

"The Department of Justice has actually indicted 57 people so far from stealing over $175 million from the PPP loan program,” said RJ Cross with U.S. PIRG.

Also, lawsuits filed by several news organizations forced the Small Business Administration to reveal more names of companies that have received the forgivable loans. The result has shown that most of the PPP loans issued in the first round, more than $250 billion, went to larger than intended business. The smallest businesses, in which the loans were intended for, actually struggled to get the funding they needed.

U.S. PIRG has fought for months to get transparency requirements tied to PPP loan money to prevent further fraud and corruption in the program, and the group was surprised that was not included in this latest stimulus package.

“If folks are very clear on the fact that information about their loans, their application, and their businesses will be made public, it helps to deter a lot of fraudsters in the beginning,” Cross added. “Congress largely squandered that opportunity to strengthen those measures that would increase public trust in the PPP program.”

Congress is expected to immediately begin working on yet another stimulus bill in January and could address some of the concerns with this latest bill.

"I hope that Congress can come back in 2021 and take up the elements that are missing from this bill,” said Lee.

CINCINNATI — Pastor Brian Tome was surprised in April when he learned Crossroads Community Church was eligible for a Paycheck Protection loan.

“We were going, 'wait a minute, really?' Churches are generally left out of those kind of programs,” he said.

But Tome is convinced taxpayers got plenty of value from extending a $3.6 million forgivable loan to his congregation.

Although its buildings were closed from March through September, Crossroads actually increased employment during the pandemic – from 371 jobs when it applied for its loan to 403 when it requested loan forgiveness in October. The new employees helped the church beef up its community outreach.

“When you take a look at the value churches offer the social sector, it is enormous,” Tome said. “I think that the government at least this time around recognized that in this emotional crisis, financial crisis, spiritual – it’s a crisis of every kind of category possible – churches provide a meaningful service to the communities.”

That same story played out in churches all over the country, said Matthew Manion, director of the Center for Church Management at Villanova University. It published a study in December of 169 Catholic parishes on the east coast. Eighty percent of them secured PPP loans and 72% found new ways to connect with parishioners, including online masses, virtual prayer groups and outdoor gatherings.

“It kept people employed and it kept the ministry happening,” Manion said. “The ones that really seemed to thrive were able to tap into creativity and I think the PPP loans created the space for them to say, ‘How do we rethink our roles? How do we rethink our jobs in order to be able to do them in light of this pandemic?’”

At Crossroads, Tome said the expanded outreach spilled into the broader community. Here’s a partial list of activities in which the church engaged last year:

• $1.8 million in donations to local nonprofits.
• 79,000 meals to families who live near Crossroads locations.
• 9,000 health kits to organizations that support vulnerable children and the homeless.
• More than 3,000 care kits to senior citizens.
• 27,500 homemade masks to frontline medical workers.

“Who knows the number of additional suicides that would take place, who knows the number of additional divorces that would take place, who knows how many people would be hungry if it weren’t for our church’s engagement?” Tome said. “And that’s just ours. That’s not all the churches all around the region.”

Constitutional boundaries

However laudable, those achievements do not justify giving churches special treatment to enable their use of PPP loans to fund their ministries, said Alison Gill, vice president, legal and policy, for American Atheists Inc. in Cranford, New Jersey.

“I don’t think anyone would deny that churches do amazingly good work,” Gill said. “However, that work can be done and be funded by these programs without necessarily going to religious activities by the churches.”

In a letter to the SBA and in blog posts, Gill’s group has argued that the SBA is violating the U.S. Constitution by agreeing not to enforce longstanding SBA rules that prohibited religious groups from receiving loans before last year and exempted churches from new SBA rules that restrict loans to organizations with 500 employees or less.

She also claims the new rules make the Paycheck Protection program more vulnerable to fraud. She points to examples like Daystar Television, which reportedly bought a jet within weeks of receiving a $3.9 million PPP loan in April and ASLAN International Ministry in Florida, which was named in a federal civil forfeiture complaint alleging PPP loan fraud in December.

“They are not subject to the same sort of oversight as other sorts of businesses or nonprofits,” Gill said. “They don’t have to file with the IRS ahead of time, nor do they have to file annual tax updates. So, there’s very little government oversight, and because of this they’re especially susceptible to fraud.”

Digging into the numbers

The WCPO I-Team has been looking for local evidence of fraud in all kinds of government stimulus programs since April. We didn’t find it in the $108 million in Paycheck Protection loans issued to churches and religious schools last year. We did find some evidence that religious groups in Greater Cincinnati spent PPP money more efficiently than other kinds of employers.

For every job that applicants said they were protecting with their Paycheck Protection loans, local faith-based organizations received about $7,900, according to the I-Team’s analysis of SBA data. That’s about 17% less than the $9,500 average loan amount per job for the entire universe of more than 30,000 PPP loans in the Tri-State.

But those numbers don’t tell the whole story of what a PPP loan meant to places like St. Xavier High School, which got a $3.8 million loan in April with an application that reported 295 jobs would be preserved.

“We’re spending a lot of money on our program here,” said St. Xavier President Tim Reilly. “And there’s no way we wanted to compromise our program if we didn’t have to, so this loan was really a great safety net.”

But St. X did more than keep teachers employed; it also made sure that more than 100 students who live in poverty had food on the table and reliable Internet service so they could keep learning when the school building was closed.

“To me, that’s a perfect example of why faith-based organizations are an important part of the picture, because we’re doing a lot more than just paychecks,” Reilly said.

For those still worried about church and state issues, Tome offers this:

“All that money comes from taxpayers. Our staff are all taxpayers. Everybody who gives any money to Crossroads, they’re all taxpayers. And all those taxpayers would like to see things they’re a part of be healthy.”

The fine print

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Until this year, the SBA interpreted that to mean loans were not allowed for “businesses principally engaged in teaching, instructing, counseling or indoctrinating religion or religious beliefs.”

But the SBA redefined that interpretation in April, when it published new guidelines for Paycheck Protection loans:

“Because those regulations bar the participation of a class of potential recipients based solely on their religious status, SBA will decline to enforce these subsections and will propose amendments to conform those regulations to the Constitution.”

The same document made churches exempt from the so-called affiliation rule, which required most borrowers to count employees from affiliated companies when calculating whether they meet the 500-employee-limit loan eligibility. That’s why the Catholic church, which has more than 1 million employees, was able to qualify for thousands of loans with more than $1.4 billion.

“SBA will not assess, and will not permit participating lenders to assess, the reasonableness of the faith-based organization’s good-faith determination that this exception applies,” said the SBA guidelines.

Congress had a chance to address these issues last month, when it passed a new round of Paycheck Protection loans. And it sided with the SBA's interpretation with this statement in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021:

"It is the sense of Congress that the interim final rule of the Administration entitled 'Business Loan Program Temporary Changes; Paycheck Protection Program' - 85 Fed. 11 Reg. 20817 (April 15, 2020) - properly clarified the eligibility of churches and religious organizations for loans made under paragraph (36) of section 7(a) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(a)."

Jereme Alley never intended to open a small business in the middle of a pandemic, but with most of his family’s savings now gone, he is one of thousands of Americans stuck in limbo, waiting for a loan from the federal government.

“We’re just waiting. There’s no information,” the 33-year-old said while standing inside his tattoo parlor in Laconia, New Hampshire. “It makes everything more stressful, because you have no idea what’s happening.”

This retired Marine began renovating a small storefront in this lakeside town at the beginning of March in hopes of pursuing his dream of owning his own tattoo shop. Phoenix Tattoo, as he’s calling it, has customers waiting to come in, but with mandatory stay-at-home restrictions still in place, the shop is empty.

Having spent nearly $20,000 of his own savings, Alley applied for a small business loan as part of the federal stimulus package, but he says he hasn’t heard anything. Meanwhile, he still has to pay rent and utilities for his store with no money coming in.

“It’s a lot of pressure, and there’s nothing we can do,” he said. “And that’s what sucks; we’re just waiting for somebody in Washington or local government to decide what will happen with our fate.”

Like countless small businesses across the country waiting for promised assistance, Alley says even a few hundred dollars would help him stay afloat until customers are allowed back.

He worries about other locally-owned businesses in this small lakeside town that’s nestled near the base of the White Mountains.

“A lot of them are going to go out of business, and it’s really sad,” he said.

For now, the only thing Alley can do is wait.

“My hope is we get some kind of stimulus help or relief help, so we don’t fall more behind,” he added.

The House of Representatives voted on Thursday to approve replenishing the fourth round of stimulus funds amid the spread of COVID-19.

The bill was approved by the House by a 388-5 margin. It previously passed the Senate by a voice vote, and now awaits President Donald Trump's signature.

Last week, the Paycheck Protection Program, which is intended to assist small businesses with making payroll to offset the economic impact of COVID-19, ran out of funding. As it ran out of money, it was discovered that some larger business and organizations, such as Shake Shack , Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and Harvard University, were among those that received funds.

Shake Shake said earlier this week that it was unclear on the guidance on who was eligible for the funds. The burger chain announced that it would return its share of funding, and on Thursday, Ruth's Chris announced it would return $20 million.

Also, Trump said other large companies would need to pay back the money they received, and that the White House and Treasury Department would add additional guidance for a second round of funding.

The bill would add $321 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, with at least $60 billion of the PPP subsidy to guarantee loans made by smaller depository institutions, credit unions, and community financial institutions.

Another section of the bill provide would $75 billion in funding to reimburse health care providers for expenses or lost revenues that are attributable to the novel coronavirus. It also would provide $25 billion to develop, purchase, administer, process, and analyze tests for COVID-19.

The bill would provide $62 billion for salaries and expenses and for loan programs of the Small Business Administration. That amount includes $10 billion for economic injury disaster loans.

President Donald Trump will join members of the White House’s coronavirus task force for a daily news conference as the House of Representatives a debate a bill to replenish the Paycheck Protection Program.

The White House said Thursday’s news briefing will begin at 5:45 p.m. ET.

Last week, the Paycheck Protection Program, which is intended to assist small businesses with making payroll to offset the economic impact of COVID-19, ran out of funding. As it ran out of money, it was discovered that some larger business and organizations, such as Shake Shack , Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and Harvard University, were among those that received funds.

Shake Shake said earlier this week that it was unclear on the guidance on who was eligible for the funds. The burger chain announced that it would return its share of funding, and on Thursday, Ruth's Chris announced it would return $20 million.

Also, Trump said other large companies would need to pay back the money they received, and that the White House and Treasury Department would add additional guidance for a second round of funding.

The bill would add $321 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, with at least $60 billion of the PPP subsidy to guarantee loans made by smaller depository institutions, credit unions, and community financial institutions.

Another section of the bill provide would $75 billion in funding to reimburse health care providers for expenses or lost revenues that are attributable to the novel coronavirus. It also would provide $25 billion to develop, purchase, administer, process, and analyze tests for COVID-19.

The bill would provide $62 billion for salaries and expenses and for loan programs of the Small Business Administration. That amount includes $10 billion for economic injury disaster loans.