Covid Stimulus Watch: New Website Documents Accountability Track Records of CARES Act Recipients

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Apr 30, 2020, 09:50 ET

WASHINGTON, April 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Amid continuing controversy over some of the companies receiving financial assistance under the Paycheck Protection Program, a new website launched today makes it easier to see the accountability track records of companies getting help through the PPP and the other programs authorized by the massive CARES Act. The site, Covid Stimulus Watch, was produced by the non-profit organization Good Jobs First and is free for all to use at https://covidstimuluswatch.org/

"Our new website enables users to quickly see if recipient corporations have received previous financial assistance from federal or state agencies, and whether they have been penalized for abuses of their workers, government contracts, the environment, or consumers," said Good Jobs First research director Philip Mattera, who leads the work on Covid Stimulus Watch. "We also provide data on excessive CEO pay and tax avoidance by large companies."

Covid Stimulus Watch currently contains data on awards from the PPP and the Payroll Support Program (for airlines) that public companies have reported in SEC filings. The website is structured so that it can incorporate bulk recipient data that will hopefully be released in the near future by the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and the Small Business Administration.

Along with active awards, the site separately lists more than two dozen PPP loans that some companies have announced they are returning, in response to public outcries.

The accountability data linked to the recipients comes in six categories. Four derived from data in Good Jobs First's Violation Tracker: employment-related penalties; government-contracting related penalties; environmental, healthcare and safety penalties; and consumer protection, financial misconduct and unfair competition penalties.

The fifth category, relating to taxes and subsidies, shows which large companies have paid very low federal income tax rates and which have received large amounts of pre-pandemic financial assistance from federal, state and local programs. The final category shows which recipient companies have high levels of executive compensation, especially in comparison to what they pay a typical worker.

"We hope this information will be used widely by public officials, advocates, journalists and others to advance the debate over which companies deserve financial assistance amid the current crisis—and what safeguards should be put in place," said Good Jobs First executive director Greg LeRoy.

Contact: Philip Mattera at [email protected] or 202-725-7906
Or Greg LeRoy at [email protected] or 202-494-0888

SOURCE Good Jobs First