NV: Dem Congresswoman Pushed For Fed COVID Loans For Casinos…Husband’s Casino Company Got Millions * 100PercentFedUp.com * by Patty McMurray

When freshman Democrat Rep. Susie Lee (NV) announced her support for impeaching President Trump, he blasted her, saying, “Rep. Susie Lee said she would fight for better healthcare and increase economic opportunities for Nevadans, yet she has locked arms with Nancy Pelosi and unhinged Democrats in their baseless support for impeachment. While Lee is beholden to Pelosi and the DC swamp, President Trump will not stop fighting for what matters most to all Nevadans — securing our southern border, better trade deals, and growing our economy.”

Lee responded to Trump’s criticism, accusing him of abusing the power of his office.”

Unfortunately, for the newly elected congresswoman, who represents a district Trump won in 2016, her ethics are now being questioned after her husband’s casino company benefited from millions of dollars in federal COVID loans she pushed for.

Yahoo News reports – This past April, a freshman Nevada congresswoman lobbied the federal government to expand coronavirus aid to her state’s gaming industry. Two weeks after the change went into effect, her husband’s casino company received millions of dollars in government-backed loans.

In a letter to the heads of the Treasury Department and Small Business Administration, Democrat Rep. Susie Lee urged the agencies tasked with administering the Paycheck Protection Program to reconsider regulatory language that excluded gaming companies from the program’s small business aid, which extended forgivable loans to help cover payroll and overhead costs amid the pandemic.

“Every day that passes without relief results in further harm to those businesses’ employees and their families,” Lee wrote. “For the SBA to take the position that these small businesses are not eligible for needed aid because of their involvement in the gaming industry belies the economic realities of their location and will doom countless small businesses in Nevada to bankruptcy.”

Within a couple of weeks, federal regulators made the precise change she was seeking. In late April, Treasury and SBA updated their PPP eligibility guidelines to include businesses with fewer than 500 employees that derive more than half of their income from gaming.

“On further consideration,” SBA said, “the Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary, believes this approach is more consistent with the policy aim of making PPP loans available to a broad segment of US businesses.”

It was a major win for the casino industry and for the Nevada economy generally, which relies heavily not just on casinos but on other businesses that happen to house games such as slot machines. One Nevada-based gaming company that took advantage of the change to the PPP program was Full House Resorts, a casino developer led by chief executive Daniel Lee, Rep. Lee’s husband.

About two weeks after the SBA made PPP loans available to gaming businesses, Full House secured two such loans totaling about $5.6 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said that the funds would “be used principally to rehire several hundred employees” and to prepare for the reopening of two of its casinos, neither of which were in Nevada: the Rising Star Casino Resort in Indiana and Bronco Billy’s Casino in Colorado.