UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA WP COMPANY LLC d/b/a THE WASHINGTON POST, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Civil Action No. 20-1240 (JEB) U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, Defendant. CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY, Plaintiff, v. Civil Action No. 20-1614 (JEB) U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, Defendant. MEMORANDUM OPINION On November 5, 2020, in these two Freedom of Information Act cases, this Court ordered the Small Business Administration to “release the names, addresses, and precise loan amounts” for borrowers that had obtained loans approved pursuant to the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) program. See No. 20-1240, ECF No. 22 (Order) at 2. Unhappy with that disposition, the agency now moves to put it on hold, seeking a stay as it decides whether to appeal to the D.C. Circuit. Although cognizant that a denial of such Motion could moot an appeal, the Court nonetheless finds that the relevant factors weigh against a stay. It will, accordingly, deny the Motion and order SBA to release the requested 1 information by December 1, 2020. This will at least provide the agency a week to notice its appeal and seek an administrative stay in the D.C. Circuit if it so chooses. I. Background As the facts and procedural history of these FOIA suits are set out in this Court’s recent summary-judgment Opinion, see WP Co. LLC v. U.S. Small Bus. Admin., Nos. 20-1240, 20- 1614, 2020 WL 6504534 (D.D.C. Nov. 5, 2020), the briefest of summaries will suffice. Plaintiffs — a host of national-news organizations — submitted FOIA requests for records concerning the PPP and EIDL program. Id. at *3. Administered by SBA, those programs constituted the primary means by which the federal government assisted small businesses adversely affected by the COVID-19 crisis. As of early November, the agency had processed and approved $525 billion in more than 5.2 million individual PPP loans, along with an additional $192 billion in EIDL loans. Id. at *2–3. After their FOIA requests failed to bear fruit, Plaintiffs brought two largely identical suits in this Court seeking an order requiring SBA to make available various loan-level data. Id. at *3–4. Although the agency released some loan information in July, the data, much to Plaintiffs’ displeasure, contained glaring gaps: it did not provide both dollar figures and borrower names and addresses for a single PPP loan. Id. at *3. For some loans, SBA released the recipient’s name and address, but withheld the actual loan amount; for others, it disclosed precise dollar amounts, but reserved borrower names and addresses. Id. SBA eventually settled on a similar partial-disclosure approach for the EIDL data. Id. at *4. According to the agency, its withholdings were based on FOIA Exemptions 4 and 6, which protect, respectively, confidential commercial information and information the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Id. at *3–4 (citing 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(4), (6)). 2 Objecting to those withholdings, Plaintiffs in both cases cross-moved for summary judgment. Id. at *4. This ...
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