The male stripping troupe Chippendales USA collected $359,274 in forgivable loans as part of the Paycheck Protection Program in 2020.
Chippendales has since retained white-shoe law and lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig to lobby on their behalf for even more Covid-aid monies, Politico reported.
Small Business Administration gave PPP loans to small businesses to provide financial relief during the Covid-19 pandemic. An important feature of these loans was that they were forgivable so long as the recipient put most of the money toward payroll costs and maintained employee and compensation levels.
The loans effectively were grants to small businesses that didn’t fire their workers during the pandemic.
However, the SBA originally stipulated that businesses making a significant portion of their revenue from “products or live performances of a prurient sexual nature” were excluded from receiving PPP funds, a policy that was later challenged in court.
Regardless of a lawsuit, one might think that a male stripping troupe would qualify as “of prurient sexual nature.”
While there is plenty of room for debate about whether businesses of a prurient sexual nature should be receiving taxpayer relief, when the SBA makes rules about who is and isn’t eligible for their programs, they should follow those rules.
In spite of this, Chippendales is hoping for a rules change to keep the gravy train of federal funds flowing.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com. This article originally appeared on RealClearPolicy.
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