Construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall accelerated the pandemic, but no fewer than five corporations recently concerned about its design secured federal loans to support companies retain their workforce as the spread of COVID-1nine slowed the economy.
Together, the companies raised up to $9.35 million in the payroll policy budget and reported saving 260 jobs, according to federal data.
The industry banner was affected by the pandemic and experts say that having a federal contract does not necessarily protect the overall operations of an apple, especially if they have large apple projects independent of the sector itself.
But corporations that won multimillion-dollar contracts on the border wall did not answer questions about their PPP loans, so the pandemic’s influence on their operations is unclear.
The federal government is paying a company listed as CJW Joint Venture about $70 million for border wall work around San Diego. It also just loaned CJW Construction, which shares the same California address, up to $1 million through the PPP program.
Randy Kinder Excavating, founded in Missouri, touched a task limit of $5 million last summer, and in March he was given an additional $17 million.6 billion to build segments of the Texas border wall, totaling about five kilometers.
The combined apple also just won a PPP loan of $350,000.
CJW Construction responded to requests for comments and a representative of Randy Kinder Excavating sent the Republic an email stating only: “NO COMMENT.”
Gideon Contracting, Burgos Group and LGC Global Corp., all of which have obtained PPP loans ranging from $1 billion to $5 million, also have active contracts for paintings on the border wall. USAspending.gov, which publishes knowledge of federal contracts, has not yet published the dollar amount of its awards.
The administrative assistant of the Burgos Group, founded in New Mexico, responds to requests for comments.
An lgC Global Corp. employee, founded in Michigan, said the apple was given his contract for about a month and said it for about $50 million. He was unable to speak to the PPP loan and his colleagues to whom he sent additional comments to a reporter did not respond to the calls.
An employee at Texas-Gideon Contracting hung up on a reporter who called to ask about the status of the firm’s border wall contract.
“I’m going to arrest him here because we’re not allowed to talk about it,” he said. “If you have big questions about the block, go to the Army Engineer Station.”
The Republic sought to invite the five corporations if they would seek the cancellation of their PPP loans and if the coins they had earned through the program were at applicable expenses with the proposed border wall.
Scott Amey, general counsel for the Government Oversight Project, said contractors made millions to make uninterrupted paintings on the border walls raises the question of whether they were suffering from the pandemic enough to require PPP loans. But he also said they might prefer quantity assistance in their operations that don’t operate on the border wall.
Randy Kinder Excavating, for example, highlights the 21 design projects on his website.
“I wish they had answered questions, as it may aggravate Apple’s complaint that they could get by accepting a loan while running on a federal contract that would pay millions of dollars,” Amey said.
Three other contractors willing to support the construction of the border wall, who have not yet been directly called to act, also won federal loans. The government has paid them a small amount to be in a position when they want to start work.
Together, they earned $5 million in PPP funds.
Congress announced the paycheck policy program this spring, an economy unflowed through COVID’s Nine pandemic. The program, presented as assistance for small businesses, allowed lenders of their own to disperse loans with interest of 1%, with the option to cancel them if corporations used the budget appropriately.
For loans to be canceled, corporations will have to turn out to have used the coins for payroll expenses within 8 weeks of getting their loans, or for mortgage, rent, or application bonds. More than the loan recipient component surveyed through the National Federation of Independent Enterprises expect all their loans to be canceled.
Experts say lending has prevented large apple companies from breaking their doors, as the pandemic has slowed economic activity across the country.
But the border wall hasn’t stopped.
Just as COVID-1nine began seizing in March, Trump’s leadership gave up legislation to accelerate the design of the border wall.
Four Democratic lawmakers, adding Arizona representatives Ann Kirkpatrick and Rael Grijalva, implored the Departments of Justice, Defense and Homeland Security in April to place logical paintings on the wall and use the resources to combat COVID-19.
At a time when we all take additional breeding stations to limit the diversity of deaths and economic devastation caused by this unprecedented pandemic, he is deeply concerned that government officials, contractors and design staff in border communities will challenge public fitness orders and continue on the edge, wall design has continued. , perhaplaystation even accesses scoring design in our border communities,” the letter from lawmakers says.
A spokesman for the Army’s Corplaystation of Engineers told The Republic that the corplaystation “maximized” teleconferences, social estrangement, erased public and non-public spaces, and supported flexible painting schedules to provide direct protection to all involved.
In addition, any contractor will need to submit plans to the play station to ensure the safety and fitness of their employees, adding social distance protocols, shared surface disinfection, and quarantine of sick employees.
Brian Turmail, a spokesman for the Associate General Contractors of America, said that one key to qualifying for a PPP loan was to demonstrate the uncertainty of the market position.
The organization serves approximately 27,000 member companies. Turmail said Mabig Apple had seen the task canceled or the pandemic delayed. Not only have industry customers disrupted tasks, but it has also been difficult for some to have government inspectors visit sites so that a task can move forward.
More than 30,000 construction-like companies have made loan from repayment policies, federal data.
“There is no businessman in this country in April 2020 who does not revel in gigantic uncertainty,” Turmail said.
The design eliminated lost jobs in early April, however, loans have helped recover more than 600,000, he said.
And while he claimed that a federal contract provides stability to a project, it doesn’t include apple staff running for other jobs.
“Unlike the team’s design, the wall is on the wall on Monday, Tuesday in a hospital and the Wednesday opposite the wall,” he said.
Contact Caitlin McGlade at [email protected] or 602-444-0582. Follow her on Twitter @caitmcglade.