The following is a statement from TCS president, Steve Ellis, on the Paycheck Protection Program. Click on the image, or scroll below to read it.

I’m Steve Ellis, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. Your friendly, nonpartisan budget watchdog.

Loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, brought to you by the CARES Act, have been in the news. I want to give you some information about it. Especially since our organization received a loan of $173,800.

If anything could underscore the exceptional times we’re in, this is it. The first time in our 25 years that we received any government assistance. But I am here to tell you that for us the PPP has been a critical lifeline.

I see stories about other small businesses and organizations like TCS that have also been able to keep employees on the payroll, instead of the unemployment roll.

Meeting our mission at Taxpayers for Common Sense requires all hands on deck to track and push for accountability and transparency on the trillions of dollars that have flown out of the nation’s treasury, and will continue to do so.

Here are some of the questions that we are seeking clarity and transparency on:

• Did banks favor big borrowers?
• Did those with ample access to capital take PPP loans anyway?
• Why are the names of 85 percent of the program’s loan recipients still not released?
• What about the companies that got loans but said no jobs were saved?
• Whose loans will be forgiven?

Thanks in part to the PPP, and supporters like you, TCS will keep working for transparency and accountability. Ensuring your tax dollars are well spent.

If don’t already, I hope you will join us in the fight for common sense.