Lobbying Firms Say They’re Not Getting Fair Shake at U.S. Virus Loans
Lobbying Firms Say They’re Not Getting Fair Shake at U.S. Virus Loans
(Bloomberg) -- Political consulting and lobbying firms say the Trump administration isn’t making sense about why they’ve been deemed ineligible for coronavirus rescue money.
Lobbying and consulting firms are entitled to Paycheck Protection Program loans administered by the Small Business Administration because the money will be paid back and therefore isn’t a subsidy of political views that’s barred by the agency’s regulations, the American Association of Political Consultants said in a filing Monday in the lawsuit it filed last week.
The group accused the government of calling the loan a subsidy so it could “turn its back on certain businesses during one of this nation’s worst economic disasters.”
“If the PPP walks like a loan, talks like a loan, and is described by its creators and administrators as a loan, then the PPP can only be a loan,” the trade group said in the filing in Washington federal court.
The suit was filed before the $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program program was exhausted, though Republicans and Democrats were in talks over the weekend to replenish the fund as the economic crisis caused by the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on small businesses.
The U.S. characterized the lawsuit as a challenge to a 25-year-old regulation that bars loans from the the Small Business Administration to businesses that are primarily engaged in politics or lobbying. It called the loans “a form of government subsidy” to encourage banks to loan to small businesses.
“The rule reflects the view, long held among state and federal governments, that government should avoid entanglement with and even the appearance of favoritism in the realms of politics and lobbying,” the U.S. said in an April 17 filing.
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