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Merry Christmas: A bunch of your elected representatives in Congress used COVID relief funds to bail out their own companies — then blocked aid to average workers and voted against Monday's stimulus bill. https://twitter.com/Sludge/status/1342163028800901121
. @Jeremy_Borden and I went through all 535 members of Congress' financial disclosures and compiled a database of their private companies and non-profits. We found Congress bailed out its own companies to the tune of $21m. https://readsludge.com/2020/12/24/members-of-congress-profited-from-covid-bailout-while-small-businesses-were-shut-out/
The vast majority of that money went to Republicans' own companies. The largest single loan went to @RepGuthrie's family business: $4.3m. https://readsludge.com/2020/12/24/members-of-congress-profited-from-covid-bailout-while-small-businesses-were-shut-out/
After securing the loan for himself, . @RepGuthrie then joined 32 fellow Republicans in trying to stop extended unemployment checks of $600 to ordinary workers at the height of the pandemic. https://readsludge.com/2020/12/24/members-of-congress-profited-from-covid-bailout-while-small-businesses-were-shut-out/
Then, he joined 58 other Republicans and two Democrats in voting against Monday night's package, which provides a second round of PPP funds. I guess once @RepGuthrie got his cut, he was good on making those funds available to average Americans. https://readsludge.com/2020/12/24/members-of-congress-profited-from-covid-bailout-while-small-businesses-were-shut-out/
. @RepGuthrie did not respond to any of our questions. He apparently doesn't believe he has to answer to securing PPP money for himself, then voting against giving it to everyone else.
Joining him in voting no on Monday's much-needed COVID relief package were eight Republicans who combined got $15m in PPP aid. They are @RepRalphNorman; @justinamash; @RepHartzler; @RepRickAllen; @RepGregPence; @repkevinhern; @RepDevinNunes; @RepMullin @RepRWilliams; @MikeKellyPA
. @RepRalphNorman also joined Guthrie in his fight to halt $600 weekly checks to unemployed Americans. Norman's companies received more than $300k in PPP bailout money. He is worth more than $40m. https://readsludge.com/2020/12/24/members-of-congress-profited-from-covid-bailout-while-small-businesses-were-shut-out/
In all, 18 Republicans and nine Democrats secured at least $27m in bailout money for their own companies while most of them (the Republicans) told unemployed Americans to fuck off. This is the party of the working class? https://readsludge.com/2020/12/24/members-of-congress-profited-from-covid-bailout-while-small-businesses-were-shut-out/
This project would not have been possible if not for the hard-working duo at @Sludge, @donnydonny and @ppolitics. Plus, we have the Fund for Investigative Journalism to thank for helping fund our investigation, which took the better part of this month. https://readsludge.com/2020/12/24/members-of-congress-profited-from-covid-bailout-while-small-businesses-were-shut-out/
In addition to this story, we're making a database of all members of Congress' positions at outside entities available to the public, as well as our full list of PPP loans. Available here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qiWk_aHlPb5dOZ0Jfl2k2OqnNUIfbWwR0j5D6tS8DKY/edit#gid=1694501527
The hope is that reporters at local publications can look up their local rep's companies and loans to root out conflicts of interest and corruption. So spread this far and wide! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qiWk_aHlPb5dOZ0Jfl2k2OqnNUIfbWwR0j5D6tS8DKY/edit#gid=1694501527
