Fed loans went to USPS, religious organizations
As the U.S. Postal Service maintains its place in the political spotlight, some supporters on social mediaclaim it was treated unfairly in the disbursement of emergency COVID-19 loans.
“Are you OK with churches receiving 7.7 billion dollars of recovery money and zero for the USPS?” a viral Aug. 15Facebook post reads.
A few days later, liberal Facebook page “The Other 98%” shared the same post, amplifying it to its audience of more than 6 million Facebook fans and followers. The page’s post was shared 28,000 times.
Commenters on both posts decried the claim as a slap in the face to a long-held U.S. legal principle, the separation of church and state.
In response to USA TODAY’s request for comment, “The Other 98%” spokesperson Mark Provost said he thought “the US public should have a clear and easy understanding of the total COVID relief provided to any and all religious groups.”
The original poster did not respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment and clarification.
The U.S. Postal Service became eligible for a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Treasury via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, which was passed in March. A number of stipulations put in place by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin caused that money to be withheld from the service until the end of July, when it and the Treasury reached an agreement in principle to make that aid accessible.
Religious organizations received aid from the government through the Paycheck Protection Program.
“The PPP and EIDL loan programs are neutral, generally applicable loan programs that provide support for nonprofit organizations without regard to whether they are religious or secular,” says a news release from the U.S. Small Business Administration. (EIDL refers to the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loans.)
As of June 30, the SBA had released 88,411 loans to religious organizations, amounting to $7.3 billion, according to that date’s PPP report. That number is the only publicly available data at this time, SBA spokesperson Jim Billimoria told USA TODAY.
Billimoria said “religious entities” – not just “churches,” per the claim – were eligible to apply for
PPP loans. Applicants received those loans based on the PPP formula of 2.5 times monthly payroll.
Religion-adjacent organizations, such as private religious schools, were not included in that figure, according to Nick Fish, president of American Atheists, which advocates for the separation of church and state. Religious organizations are classified separately from private elementary and secondary schools, USA TODAY confirmed.
American Atheists’ analysis estimated that $3.6 billion to $8.7 billion was given to private elementary and secondary schools in loans of more than $150,000, and in smaller loans, $419 million. The SBA released that data.
Separation of church and state
The law most commonly cited in reference to the separation of church and state is the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which says Congress “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” On the other hand, the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment says Congress can make no law “prohibiting the free exercise” of religion.
“The general rule is they can’t favor religious entities; that’d be a violation of the Establishment Clause,” said Frank Ravitch, the Walter H. Stowers chair of law and religion at Michigan State University. “But you can’t exclude religious entities in a way that would be viewed as discriminatory; that would violate the Free Exercise Clause.”
Ravitch said that in this situation, the government is not favoring religious entities because they’re included with other nonprofit businesses.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that states offering scholarships to students in private schools cannot exclude religious schools from such programs. States are not required to fund religious education, but they can‘t differentiate between religious and nonreligious private schools.
Our rating: Partly false
The Postal Service became eligible for a $10 billion loan under coronavirus relief legislation and received access to it this summer. Religious entities – not churches – received $7.3 billion in loans as of June 30, according to the Small Business Administration.