WASHINGTON -- The Congressional Oversight Commission, which includes U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., is continuing to examine a $700 million government loan that was made to YRC Worldwide, an Overland Park, Kan.-based trucking company that was deemed "critical to maintaining national security."
While key covid-19 relief programs that the commission monitors recently were terminated, the panel is still scrutinizing aid that was previously approved.
A commission report released Thursday provided an update on its work.
It included a letter, dated Monday, from the commission asking the commander of U.S. Transportation Command, Gen. Stephen R. Lyons, for correspondence between USTRANSCOM and Crowley Logistics, a prime contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense.
YRC Worldwide, which lost more than $100 million in 2019, is a subcontractor of Crowley Logistics and is responsible for handling many of the military's "less-than-truckload" shipments.
"The Commission has been doing extensive oversight of the YRC loan as it believes the loan may be hurtful to taxpayers," the letter stated.
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The Defense Department was responsible for YRC Worldwide receiving the national security designation.
The commission is also asking for the "metrics" reported by Crowley Logistics for all its subcontractors handling less-than-truckload shipments.
Among the information requested: On-time pickup and delivery data, losses and damages, and month-by-month freight prices.
The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act provided the U.S. Treasury Department with $500 billion for loans and other investments "to provide liquidity to eligible businesses, States, and municipalities related to losses incurred as a result of coronavirus."
It also created the oversight commission on which Hill serves to monitor the use of taxpayer funds.
Up to $17 billion of the overall amount was targeted "for businesses critical to maintaining national security."
Ultimately, only about $736 million of the $17 billion was lent. Of that, $700 million (roughly 95%) went to YRC Worldwide.
A company spokesman did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. YRC Worldwide has previously declined to comment on the commission's work.
Hill has said he wouldn't have approved the loan if it had crossed his desk when he was chairman and chief executive officer of Delta Trust and Banking Corp. in Little Rock.
The Treasury Department announced July 1 that it had approved the loan. YRC Worldwide's stock jumped from $1.85 per share on June 30 to $3.23 on July 1.
It closed at $5.31 Thursday.
A U.S. Government Accountability Office report, at https://www.gao.gov/assets/720/711174.pdf, found that the Treasury Department, in approving the YRC Worldwide loan, "did not follow the standard process established for evaluating applications."
The Treasury Department executed the loan "almost 3 months before it executed any other loans," the report stated.
During a commission hearing last month, then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he was aware that YRC Worldwide would likely have declared bankruptcy if it had not received the federal help.
The Treasury Department did not independently determine whether YRC Worldwide was a business "critical to maintaining national security," Mnuchin said, indicating that it relied on the Pentagon to make that classification.
The Congressional Oversight Commission was originally envisioned as a five-member body, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were unable to find a chairman who was acceptable to both of them and willing to serve.
As a result, it has operated, since its inception, with four members.
One, Democrat Bharat Ramamurti, recently left the board to become deputy director of the National Economic Council.
A second, U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala, D-Fla., lost her congressional race in November, but remains a commissioner.
A third, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., has announced that he won't be running for reelection in 2022.
In addition to the YRC Worldwide loan, the oversight commission said Thursday that it plans to do a "deeper analysis" of airline industry loans as well as the Main Street Lending Program, which provided help to small and midsized businesses and nonprofit organizations.