NY Times, WaPo Sue Gov't For Info On Virus Relief Loans
By Hailey Konnath, Law360, May 12, 2020
Five major news outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and Bloomberg, slammed the U.S. Small Business Administration for purportedly illegally rebuffing public records requests regarding its Paycheck Protection Program, telling a D.C. federal court Tuesday the SBA has "no basis" to withhold the information sought.
Those publications, along with investigative nonprofit ProPublica and Wall Street Journal parent company Dow Jones, said in their complaint that they've all requested SBA records that would identify and provide basic information about businesses that have received public assistance from the agency during the COVID-19 pandemic. That public assistance includes both the agency's Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, per the suit.
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