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Jovita Carranza

Official · SBA

PPP · EIDL
Type
Person
Role
Official · SBA
Programs
PPP, EIDL
Updated

The profile

SBA Administrator in the pandemic's first year, when SBA launched PPP and approved 5.1 million loans worth $526 billion in 2020.

  • Institution · office: SBA · Office of the Administrator · Type: political
  • Tenure (relief-relevant): SBA Administrator from January 2020 (she signed the first PPP interim final rule in April 2020) through the end of the Trump administration in January 2021.

In the archive

Jovita Carranza ran the Small Business Administration through the first year of the pandemic, when it launched the Paycheck Protection Program and approved 5.1 million forgivable loans worth $526 billion in 2020.1 Her first PPP rule let lenders rely on borrowers' own word that they were eligible, and money went first come, first served.2 In 2023 the Inspector General estimated that more than $200 billion of the roughly $1.2 trillion in PPP and disaster funds had gone to "potentially fraudulent" recipients.3

Record in office

Carranza signed the first PPP rule, published April 15, 2020, and the declarations that opened disaster loans to every state.24 That first rule required at least 75 percent of each loan to go to payroll, a choice made "in consultation with" the Treasury Secretary.2

The Inspector General later wrote that "executive and legislative actions at the onset of the pandemic" let SBA "rely on self-certification of eligibility to expedite aid." In 2023 her successor's SBA told the Inspector General that 86 percent of likely fraud occurred in the programs' first nine months.3

GAO found that 42 percent of the first round's loans went to businesses with 10 to 499 employees, which are 4 percent of small businesses. SBA then admitted about 600 new lenders, nonbanks among them.5

For disaster loans, SBA cut the maximum from $2 million to $500,000 in March 2020 and to $150,000 on May 3, 2020, a cap Senators Schumer, Cardin and Shaheen called an "unauthorized policy change."67

The job

The Administrator is a presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate, a Cabinet member paid at Executive Schedule Level III, the level 5 U.S.C. 5314 sets for the SBA Administrator ($183,300 in 2021, $168,400 payable under that year's pay freeze).8 The Senate confirmed her 88–5 on January 7, 2020, while she was Treasurer of the United States.9 She issued the EIDL disaster declarations and signed the PPP interim final rules, which SBA wrote with Treasury under Secretary Steven Mnuchin.10

Before SBA

Per her SBA bio, Carranza spent 30 years at United Parcel Service (UPS), starting as a part-time night-shift box handler and rising to President of Latin America and Caribbean operations. The Senate nomination-hearing record says UPS hired her in 1976 as a part-time hub operations and human resources supervisor.1112 She was SBA Deputy Administrator under President George W. Bush, confirmed unanimously per her bio, then founded a small-business consulting company. She became Treasurer of the United States in June 2017.11 Her bio lists an MBA from the University of Miami and executive training at INSEAD, Michigan State University and the University of Chicago, and no undergraduate institution.11

In court as the named defendant

Because PPP rules were hers to sign, she was the named defendant when businesses challenged them. Calais Regional Hospital, a Chapter 11 debtor in Maine, sued her on April 27, 2020 after its PPP application went unprocessed under SBA's rule barring bankruptcy debtors, asking for damages of not less than $1.835 million if no funds remained.13 In the consolidated Penobscot Valley Hospital and Calais cases, Chief Judge Jon D. Levy adopted most of the bankruptcy court's findings, including that a PPP loan is not a "grant" covered by the Bankruptcy Code's anti-discrimination section. On July 31, 2020 he sent the rule back for review under Chevron step two and the arbitrary-and-capricious standard.14 His order notes that bankruptcy courts in Vermont and Puerto Rico had reached the opposite conclusion on that section.14 These suits named her in her official capacity; none alleged personal wrongdoing.

Since 2021

Carranza left office at the end of the Trump administration in January 2021. Isabella Casillas Guzman was confirmed as her successor on March 16, 2021. Tami Perriello was Acting Administrator from January 20, 2021 and signed SBA's PPP rules of February and March 2021; James Rivera signed the American Rescue Plan PPP rule as Acting Administrator (filed March 18, 2021). Her SBA bio states no later government role.11

Documents written or signed

  • First PPP interim final rule: "Business Loan Program Temporary Changes; Paycheck Protection Program," 85 FR 20811 (FR Doc. 2020-07672), effective April 15, 2020; signature block "Jovita Carranza, Administrator."2
  • COVID-19 EIDL declarations: 85 FR 20015 (FR Doc. 2020-07501), published April 9, 2020; declarations for all 50 states and territories (March 16–21, 2020).4
  • Second-draw PPP interim final rule: 86 FR 3712, January 14, 2021.15
  • Senate testimony, June 10, 2020.10
  • SBA blog posts under her byline, listed on her SBA bio page.11

Documents on this site

Original source documents and archived copies

Sources (first-party)

Notes

  1. SBA's 2024 loan file gives 5,136,262 loans and $525.8 billion; its May 2021 report implies 5,141,665 loans and $522.1 billion. SBA PPP loan-level data (FOIA), September 30, 2024 release; SBA, "PPP Report: Approvals through 05/31/2021". ↩
  2. Federal Register, first PPP IFR, 85 FR 20811. ↩
  3. SBA OIG Report 23-09, "COVID-19 Pandemic EIDL and PPP Loan Fraud Landscape," June 27, 2023. ↩
  4. Federal Register, COVID-19 EIDL declarations, 85 FR 20015. ↩
  5. GAO-21-601, "Paycheck Protection Program: Program Changes Increased Lending to the Smallest Businesses and in Underserved Locations," September 2021. ↩
  6. CRS Report R47509, "SBA COVID-19 EIDL Financial Relief Policy Options". ↩
  7. Letter from Senators Schumer, Cardin and Shaheen to SBA Administrator Carranza on EIDL, May 9, 2020. ↩
  8. OPM, Executive Schedule salary table, 2021. Original: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2021/EX.pdf Salary Table No. 2021-EX — Rates of Basic Pay for the Executive Schedule (EX), Effective January 2021 (stored capture); 5 U.S.C. 5314, Positions at level III of the Executive Schedule (U.S. Code, 2020 edition) (original: govinfo.gov). ↩
  9. Senate Small Business Committee, "Cardin Statement on Confirmation of Jovita Carranza to Lead SBA," Jan. 7, 2020. ↩
  10. Statement of Jovita Carranza, SBA Administrator, before the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, June 10, 2020. ↩
  11. SBA official bio. ↩
  12. Senate Small Business Committee nomination hearing record (116th Cong.). ↩
  13. Complaint, Calais Regional Hospital v. Carranza, Adv. No. 20-01006 (Bankr. D. Me. Apr. 27, 2020). ↩
  14. Order, Penobscot Valley Hospital v. Carranza, No. 1:20-mc-00148-JDL (D. Me. July 31, 2020). ↩
  15. Federal Register, PPP Second Draw IFR, 86 FR 3712, Jan. 14, 2021, signed "Jovita Carranza, Administrator" (original: federalregister.gov). ↩
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