a controlling interest in the business is held by the president, the vice president, an executive department head, a member of congress, or their families. the act would also appropriate an additional $190 billion for ppp loans. consolidated appropriations act, 2021 on december 21, 2020, the house and the senate passed the consolidated appropriations act, 2021, which includes $284 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses via the paycheck protection program. the act restarted the period to apply for ppp loans, added $284.5 billion in funding for ppp loans, and it allowed certain entities to apply for a second draw of a ppp loan. the act also opened eligibility to certain 501(c)(6) nonprofit organizations. the act also added to the types of allowable expenses of ppp loan proceeds. allowable expenses now include operating expenses, defined as business software or cloud-computing service that helps business operations; product delivery; service delivery; payroll; human resources; sales; billing; or accounting or tracking of supplies, inventory, records, and expenses. allowable expenses also include out-of-pocket costs from property damage, vandalism, or looting resulting from public disturbances that occurred in 2020 that were not otherwise covered from other sources. allowable expenses also include expenses to protect workers, such as air-pressure ventilation systems, filtration systems, physical barriers to ensure social distancing, a drive-through window, an expansion of business space, health screening, the purchase of personal protective equipment, or any other expenditures to adapt the entities' activities in order to comply with government-issued covid-19 safety guidelines. allowable expenses also include the cost of essential supplies for its operating activities, made pursuant to a contract in effect prior to the beginning of the loan period. the act stated that entities that received a ppp loan of less than $150,000, rather than $50,000, would be eligible to use a simplified one-page loan forgiveness application. the act expanded the definition of allowable payroll costs to employer-sponsored group life insurance benefits, group disability insurance benefits, group vision insurance benefits, and group dental insurance benefits. ppp extension act of 2021 on march 11, 2021, the bill, h.r. 1799 ppp extension act of 2021, was introduced in house of representatives during the 117th congress. the bill extends the covered period of the paycheck protection program from march 31, 2021, to june 30, 2021, by amending the small business act and cares act. it passed the house on march 16, 2021, in a bipartisan vote (415–3). it passed the senate on march 25, 2021, in an also bipartisan vote (92–7). the following day on march 26, it was signed into law by president joe biden. criticism of recipients by june, 4.5 million businesses had received over $500 billion of taxpayer money, but the exact identities of the recipients were unknown, as steve mnuchin said that this was "proprietary" and "confidential." additionally, although the government accountability office had requested information about the loans for oversight purposes, the small business administration was withholding the information. on june 11, treasury secretary steve mnuchin told the senate committee on small business and entrepreneurship that ppp loan recipients' names and loan amounts were confidential and would not be publicly released. eight days later, the small business administration and the department of the treasury said that it would release the names, addresses, and other information about recipients of ppp loans exceeding $150,000 each. each recipient would be listed with a dollar range of the loan amount. ppp loans of $150,000 and less would be disclosed in the aggregate. on july 6, the department of treasury posted the data to its web site. a lawsuit was filed by several press organizations within the united states district court for the district of columbia in may 2020 seeking exact details of the ppp loan applicants beyond the information posted by the small business administration. in november 2020, judge james e. boasberg ordered a preliminary injunction in favor of the press, requiring the sba to publish the full names, addresses, and precise loan amounts of the ppp recipients by november 19, 2020. the data was released to the public on december 1, 2020. according to data from november 2020, 87 percent of ppp loans were for less than $150,000. racial disparities have been reported among recipients. in july 2020, a national geographic article, citing the center for responsible lending, reported that 95% of black-owned businesses and 91% of latino-owned businesses were unlikely to receive loans because they were very small businesses with few employees and because they did not have existing relationships with banks. the article also said that 41% of black-owned businesses had already closed permanently while only 17 percent of white-owned businesses met this fate. at least 100 ppp loans were made to businesses without business names. loans made to politicians and their families some ppp loans were received by businesses owned or run by members of congress or their spouses. on june 16, politico reported that this included reps. susie lee (d–nv), debbie mucarsel-powell (d–fl), roger williams (r–tx), and vicky hartzler (r–mo). three weeks prior, dean phillips (d–mn) had introduced legislation to require public release of the name of many of the recipients of ppp loans, but enough republicans voted against it that the bill did not pass. lee and muarsel-powell had voted in favor of public disclosures while williams and hartzler had voted against public disclosures. ordinarily, an application for a small business administration by a business owned or run by a member of congress or their immediate family must be reviewed by the standards of conduct commissions before the loan may be approved, but the small business administration had waived that requirement for all ppp loans on april 13. rep. ayanna pressley (d-ma) reported receiving ppp loans in her 2020 financial disclosure report. the parents of white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany received $1–2 million for their business, mcenany roofing, which has 141 employees. the press secretary told fox news in april 2020 that most loans had gone to "companies with 10 or fewer employees. that is what this program is designed to do, that is who it is helping.” businesses with addresses at properties owned by president trump and advisor jared kushner received at least 25 ppp loans totaling over $3.65 million. of these businesses, 15 reported having no more than one employee each, or they did not self-report how many employees they had. triomphe restaurant corp., at the trump international hotel and tower in new york city, received a ppp loan of $2,164,543, and it reported having zero employees. the business later closed. loans made to churches lifeway christian resources surveyed protestant pastors and found that 40% said their church had applied for government assistance through the cares act or through the small business administration, and, of those who applied, 59% said they had been approved. the diocesan fiscal management conference estimated that 9,000 catholic parishes had received ppp loans, roughly half of the catholic parishes in the country. jon costas wrote in christianity today that churches should consider the "socio-economic and social justice issues" of applying for ppp loans, and whether following the rules for the loan proceeds are consistent with religious texts. through june 30, 2020, over 88,000 loans totaling $7.3 billion were approved to churches. at least 60 churches in texas received over $1 million each. they included lakewood church, a houston megachurch led by televangelist joel osteen, which received $4.4 million; the archdiocese of galveston-houston, which received about $4 million; and the catholic charities of the archdiocese, which received about $4.5 million. a florida-based company called aslan international ministry received $8.4 million; it appeared that the company never did anything religious, and it was subsequently revealed as no longer maintaining a website nor a physical address. loans made to anti-vaccination organizations a total of $850,000 in loans was granted to some of the country's most prominent anti-vaccination groups. while vaccines are generally considered safe and effective, these groups have been spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories that increase vaccine hesitancy, especially in the context on covid-19. the center for countering digital hate identified ppp loans made to the national vaccine information center, to joseph mercola's online business group, to the informed consent action network, as well as to robert f. kennedy jr.'s children's health defense. the tenpenny integrative medical center, which is the osteopathy clinic of anti-vaccination activist sherri tenpenny, received a $72,000 loan. loans made to publicly traded companies between april 3 and april 14, ppp loans included at least 94 loans made to publicly traded companies or their subsidiaries, totaling $365 million. on april 23, the small business administration released guidance stating that it is unlikely that a publicly traded business with substantial market value and access to capital markets would be eligible for a ppp loan. such a business would not be able to certify in good faith that the ppp loan is necessary to support its ongoing operations because of the current economic uncertainty. while a lender does not need to require a business to demonstrate the basis in its certification, the small business administration may do so. the small business administration said it would not pursue action against any such business that applied for a ppp loan prior to april 23 and repays the loan proceeds by may 7, later extended to may 14 and then extended again to may 18. on april 28, the guidance was extended to businesses owned by private companies with similar situations. several businesses, including potbelly, ruth's hospitality group, shake shack, nathan's famous, and the los angeles lakers, decided to repay the loan proceeds. chembio diagnostics, a publicly traded company, received a $3 million ppp loan that is said it would use to increase its capacity to provide infectious-disease tests, including covid-19 tests, due to increased demand. on may 4, the new york times reported that publicly traded companies had returned at least $375 million in ppp loans, based on securities filings and public announcements. loans made to investment consulting firms several of the largest investment consulting firms in the united states received large ppp loans despite questions as to whether the funds were needed. in june 2020, reuters published an article detailing these practices, calling particular attention to the firm, rvk, inc. the firm claimed to advise on more than $1 trillion in assets, yet it accepted a ppp loan of more than $2 million. according to reuters, the firm’s president, james voytko, “said in an e-mail that rvk had followed program guidelines and maintained staffing levels, though he declined to answer written questions about the extent to which the coronavirus pandemic had impacted the company’s finances.” he further confirmed that “almost all of rvk’s revenue comes from fixed annual retainer fees.” in other words, declines in the market value of client assets would have little effect on rvk’s revenue. additionally, as recently as october 29, 2022, rvk described the firm as a “growing firm” in a job posting for its investment analyst position. it remains unclear whether the loan was necessary, but according to sba records as of april 5, 2023, rvk had not yet repaid the loan in full. it is notable that the firm was also previously found guilty by the world intellectual property organization for engaging in reverse domain name hijacking in an attempt to claim ownership of the domain <rvk.com> without paying the market price. loans made to other entities on april 28, treasury secretary steven mnuchin said that the small business administration would do a "full review" of each ppp loan exceeding $2 million. treasury secretary steven mnuchin warned that businesses would held be "criminally liable" if they receive a loan exceeding $2 million and do not follow the rules. on may 13, the small business administration said that any business that, together with its affiliates, received a total of less than $2 million of ppp loan proceeds will be assumed to have made the good-faith certification of need in good faith. if the small business administration determines that a business "lacked an adequate basis" for certifying the necessity of the ppp loan, the small business administration will request business repay the outstanding ppp loan balance, and the business will become ineligible for ppp loan forgiveness. if the business subsequently repays the loan, no further enforcement actions will be taken on the matter. on may 5, the