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Watchdog Finds 10 Congressional Districts With Highest Percentage Of Black Residents Got 35% Less in PPP Loan Funds Than 10 CDs With Lowest Percentage

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Trump SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program was billed as a lifeline for small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. But recent data and reports on the program have shown its failure to sufficiently aid minority-owned businesses. An original analysis of PPP data by government watchdog Accountable.US, spotlighted by Reuters, shows Congressional Districts with the largest percentages of black residents received significantly less money than CDs with the smallest percentage of black residents – a disparity that amounts to tens of billions of dollars. Key findings from the analysis:

  • The ten congressional districts with the highest percentage of black residents got up to $12.9 billion less in PPP loan funds than the ten districts with the lowest percentage of black residents, a difference of over 35-percent.
  • The ten congressional districts with the highest percentage of black residents received 40-percent fewer total PPP loans than the ten districts with the lowest percentage of black residents, a difference of over 64,000 loans.
  • The ten congressional districts with the highest percentage of black residents received hundreds less in PPP loan dollars per capita than the ten districts with the lowest percentage—36-percent less for loans under $150,000 and 22-percent less for loans of $150,000 or more.
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The Trump administration failed to support small businesses in communities of color who are disproportionately impacted by this crisis, while wealthy publicly traded companies pocketed billions. The wholesale rejection of transparency and accountability exhibited by the Trump administration sent a clear message to banks that they were free to ignore Black communities without consequence – and that's exactly what they did. Congress needs to replace PPP with a new program that ensures resources make it to underserved communities across the country."

Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US

The news analysis follows the Center for Responsible Lending estimate that 90-percent “of businesses owned by people of color have been, or will likely be, shut out of the Paycheck Protection Program.’” And overall, only 12-percent of black and Latino business owners have received relief requested from SBA programs, including PPP, after applying.

If you compare these two sets of districts from the Accountable.US analysis against the nation as a whole:

  • The 10 Congressional Districts with the highest percentage of black or African-American individuals received just 4.5% of total loan dollars disbursed.
  • The 10 Congressional Districts with the lowest percentage of black or African-American individuals received 7% Of Total Loan Dollars Disbursed.

These districts aren’t just abstract lines on a map – they represent real communities across the country. The Trump Administration had the chance to design a program that would’ve worked for more actual struggling small businesses, but instead we ended up with a system that gave over a billion dollars to well-resourced publicly-traded companies and even a few million dollars to Nickelback and Kanye West. The lack of transparency and grossly misplaced priorities allowed more than 110,000 Mom-and-Pop shops to close their doors forever.

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