A House investigations panel says financial technology firms “abdicated” their responsibility to screen out fraud in applications for a federal program designed to help small businesses stay open and keep workers employed during the pandemic.

The Texas actor who played the Red Power Ranger has been charged with fraud.

A Texas man was arrested this week for allegedly fraudulently obtaining a $3.3 million Paycheck Protection Program loan and using the majority of it for a private jet and luxury items.

The government's key COVID-19 relief program for small businesses has run out of money.

President Joe Biden has made a Cinco de Mayo taco and enchilada run to highlight his administration’s $28.6 billion program to help eateries that lost business because of the coronavirus pandemic.

WASHINGTON – The Senate passed a bill 92-7 on Thursday to extend the deadline for business owners to apply for forgivable loans through the Paycheck Protection Program, giving applicants two more months to apply for federal aid. The bill had already passed the House, so it now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law. Congress started the loan program last year to help businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic. Business groups lobbied lawmakers to keep the program going to help ensure businesses that still need help can get it. The Small Business Administration reports that it has approved nearly 7.9 million loans totaling about $704 billion.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)WASHINGTON – The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved President Joe Biden's pick to oversee the Small Business Administration, an agency that has seen its portfolio expand in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Guzman is a former Obama administration SBA official who currently heads California’s Office of the Small Business Advocate. In that role, she oversaw efforts to help that state’s small businesses survive the pandemic. The Small Business Administration oversees loan programs to help businesses recover from natural disasters, enhances access to capital through loan guarantees and provides training and technical assistance. Guzman said she would work to ensure money gets into the hands of the small businesses hurt the most by the pandemic and the economic crisis through no fault of their own.

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden visited a hardware store in the nation’s capital Tuesday to highlight changes he made to the Paycheck Protection Program to benefit small businesses he says were overlooked by the Trump administration earlier in the coronavirus pandemic. Biden administration officials announced last month that for two weeks starting on Feb. 24, the Small Business Administration would only accept applications for the forgivable loan program from firms with fewer than 20 employees. The exclusivity period for small businesses ends Tuesday, with White House officials reporting that the effort led to a 20% increase in minority businesses and a 14% increase in women businesses receiving loans. The Biden administration also changed eligibility rules for the program. AdTrump administration officials argued the program primarily benefitted smaller businesses because a vast majority of the loans in the first months of the program were for less than $150,000.

The Obama administration closed the nuclear deal without making the freeing of American citizens in Iran a prerequisite. The Trump administration then failed to push for the release of the Namazi father and son as hard as it did other Americans held by Iran, Babak Namazi said. Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, called Iran’s continued detention of American citizens a “humanitarian catastrophe” on a news show this Sunday. “My family expects that President Biden and his administration will not make concessions or deals with Iran” absent a requirement that Iran free the father and son, Babak Namazi told reporters. The 84-year-old found that Iran's Revolutionary Guard had unexpectedly placed a new block on his travel out of Iran, however, Babak Namazi said.

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden announced changes Monday to target more federal pandemic assistance to the nation’s smallest businesses and ventures owned by women and people of color. Biden says a lot of these mom and pop businesses “got muscled out of the way” by larger businesses seeking federal money in the early days of the pandemic. "America’s small businesses are hurting, hurting badly and they need help now,” Biden said. Under the pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program, the administration is establishing a two-week window, starting Wednesday, in which only businesses with fewer than 20 employees — the overwhelming majority of small businesses — can apply for the forgivable loans. The Biden effort is aimed at correcting disparities in how the program was administered by the Trump administration.

The SBA then released general guidelines for borrowers and lenders which authorized up to $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses. “The Paycheck Protection Program has successfully provided 5.2 million loans worth $525 billion to America’s small businesses, supporting more than 51 million jobs,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. “This updated guidance enhances the PPP’s targeted relief to small businesses most impacted by COVID-19. “The historically successful Paycheck Protection Program served as an economic lifeline to millions of small businesses and their employees when they needed it most,” said SBA administrator Jovita Carranza. If you qualify to apply for a PPP loan, contact your local community financial institution to see if they are a participating lender.

Vaccines, testing, health providers ($69 billion). Adds $22 billion for testing, tracing and mitigation, $9 billion for health care providers, and $4.5 billion for mental health. Reauthorizes, for three years, funding for community health centers and extends a variety of expiring health care policies, including reimbursement rates for various health care providers and procedures under Medicare and MedicaidTax extenders. Business meals would be 100% deductible through 2022 and out-of-pocket health care costs would be deductible after they reach 7.5% of income. Folds in pipeline safety legislation reauthorizing operating grants and safety standards for oil and gas pipelines.

Vaccines, testing, health providers ($69 billion). Adds $22 billion for testing, tracing and mitigation, $9 billion for health care providers, and $4.5 billion for mental health. Reauthorizes, for three years, funding for community health centers and extends a variety of expiring health care policies, including reimbursement rates for various health care providers and procedures under Medicare and MedicaidTax extenders. Business meals would be 100% deductible through 2022 and out-of-pocket health care costs would be deductible after they reach 7.5% of income. Folds in pipeline safety legislation reauthorizing operating grants and safety standards for oil and gas pipelines.

Vaccines, testing, health providers ($69 billion). Adds $22 billion for testing, tracing and mitigation, $9 billion for health care providers, and $4.5 billion for mental health. Reauthorizes, for three years, funding for community health centers and extends a variety of expiring health care policies, including reimbursement rates for various health care providers and procedures under Medicare and MedicaidTax extenders. Business meals would be 100% deductible through 2022 and out-of-pocket health care costs would be deductible after they reach 7.5% of income. Folds in pipeline safety legislation reauthorizing operating grants and safety standards for oil and gas pipelines.

The nexus of the bill's deadlock was in two policies: liability protections for corporations and state and local aid. Democrats said the bill did not do enough to help beleaguered Americans, while Republicans criticized the cost of the bill. Democrats pined for trillions more in spending and some said they are holding out hope that another round of economic stimulus might come in the new year when President-elect Joe Biden takes power. Many Capitol Hill observers are bearish on if another stimulus bill could pass in that circumstance. The stimulus bill is a follow up to the CARES act, which members scrambled to pass in late March.

DIRECT ECONOMIC RELIEF ($286 billion)Unemployment insurance ($120 billion). ___VACCINE, TESTING, HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS ($69 billion)Delivers more than $30 billion for procurement of vaccines and treatments, distribution funds for states, and a strategic stockpile. Adds $22 billion for testing, tracing and mitigation, $9 billion for health care providers, and $4.5 billion for mental health. ___SCHOOLS ($82 billion)Delivers $54 billion to public K-12 schools affected by the pandemic and $23 billion for colleges and universities; $4 billion would be awarded to a Governors Emergency Education Relief Fund; nearly $1 billion for Native American schools. ___POSTAL SERVICE ($10 billion)Forgives a $10 billion loan to the Postal Service provided in earlier relief legislation.

Adds $22 billion for testing, tracing and mitigation, $9 billion for health care providers, and $4.5 billion for mental health. Forgives a $10 billion loan to the Postal Service provided in earlier relief legislation. Reauthorizes, for three years, funding for community health centers and extends a variety of expiring health care policies, including reimbursement rates for various health care providers and procedures under Medicare and MedicaidTax extenders. Business meals would be 100% deductible through 2022 and out-of-pocket health care costs would be deductible after they reach 7.5% of income. Folds in pipeline safety legislation reauthorizing operating grants and safety standards for oil and gas pipelines.

Most recently, Joel Osteen’s Houston megachurch made headlines after it was reported that Lakewood Church received $4.4 million in federal PPP loans. Of the 46 churches KSAT found in data provided by the SBA, nine received somewhere between $2-5 million in PPP loans, including seven in the Houston area. In San Antonio, the Catholic Archdiocese and Catholic Charities each received PPP loans between $1-2 million along with Concordia Lutheran Church and Oak Hills Church. A CBS report from May also notes that more than 12,000 Catholic churches in the U.S. applied for PPP loans – and 9,000 got them. KSAT compiled a list of Texas churches that received loans between $1-5 million.

HOUSTON – Joel Osteen, the pastor at Lakewood Church in Houston, has come under fire in recent days after Houston Chronicle reported that the megachurch received $4.4 million in PPP loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA). The data shows that Lakewood Church applied for the loan on July 21 and that 368 jobs would be affected by the loan. In order to have the loan fully forgiven, the PPP loan must be used for payroll costs, interest on mortgages, rent and utilities. Osteen’s Lakewood Church and other megachurches have been criticized by some for taking part in the federal recovery program because of their tax-exempt status. Joel Osteen claimed his church took no PPP money, but his congregation was just one of many that received MILLIONS.

FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2020 file photo, a man walks past the boarded-up first floor windows of a Huntington Bank branch in Columbus, Ohio. Huntington, with $120 billion in assets, outsizes TCF, which has assets of around $50 billion. The TCF brand will be changed to Huntington, and Detroit's TCF Center will be renamed after Huntington in the coming years. “We wanted to remain Detroit's hometown bank,” said TCF Financial CEO Gary Torgow, in an interview. “We are going to be much better together,” said Huntington Bank CEO Steve Steinour, noting that Huntington, along with new markets, would also get access to TCF's equipment finance business and inventory finance businesses.

The Small Business Administration, which has been in charge of the loan program, disclosed this week that roughly 411,000 loans approved were for Texas businesses. In total, Texas businesses received more than $41 billion in loans, including $13.8 billion to roughly 6,200 recipients who received more than $1 million. The Texas companies supported by the $41 billion in loans reported retaining 4.3 million workers. In Texas, for instance, four companies that received loans worth $10 million reported not having any jobs retained or didn’t say. The SBA also sent more than 27,000 loans worth at least $3.7 billion to businesses in Dallas; sent more than 23,000 loans worth at least $2.7 billion to businesses in Austin; sent more than 20,000 loans worth at least $2.3 billion to businesses in San Antonio; and sent more than 11,000 loans worth at least $1.4 billion to businesses in Fort Worth.

(Caroline Brehman/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressed cautious optimism Tuesday that the U.S. economy is rebounding from the pandemic-induced recession with federal support but that more help from the government is likely needed. “We are in a very different situation than we were the last time,” when Congress enacted nearly $3 trillion in emergency financial aid, Mnuchin said. “At that time, the entire economy was shut down.”Mnuchin said that further federal aid should be focused on the most damaged sectors of the economy, such as restaurants and the travel industry. Pressed to say what types of aid the Trump administration would support in a new bill, Mnuchin said the administration would favor sending another round of $1,200 in individual payments. Mnuchin said the Treasury and the SBA had worked to make the forms simpler to fill out.

"It's a reminder to small businesses that our voices are dampened," Richardson told CNN Business. As a result of a heavily lobbied exemption, larger food-service operations landed $10 million loans from the PPP. Kura Sushi USA Inc., the largest revolving sushi chain in the US, disclosed a nearly $6 million loan. As of April 16, the SBA had approved more than 1.66 million loans for more than $342.2 billion, according to an agency report. "What does it matter if you work for a big restaurant chain or you work for a small restaurant chain?

NEW YORK – Desperate small business owners who hoped for a quick government lifeline to help them survive the coronavirus crisis are still without funds, instead battling red tape, wary banks and swamped computer systems. Thousands of owners who applied for loans under the government's Paycheck Protection Program are in their second week of waiting for their money. And thousands who sought relief through Small Business Administration economic injury disaster loans have waited even longer — some since mid-March. “It’s been absolute chaos, and we haven’t even gotten to the point where the program is fully open yet,” said Jack Heath, president of Washington Trust. Small business owners have also found the economic injury disaster loans problematic.