Ted Cruz secured $ 35 million for billions of fracking donors in latest COVID-19 aid: report

As president Donald trump complains about the “pig” in the current COVID-19 relief program, the Wall Street Journal reports that last time the senator. Ted cruz (R-Texas) helped manipulate the aid program for get $ 35 million for Texas billionaire fracking brothers who are the main contributors to Cruz.

Dan and Farris Wilks reaped the windfall even though their companies were busy buying stakes in six other fracking companies, according to company records, the Journal reported.

The Wilks brothers pressured Cruz when it emerged that oil and gas operations would be cut from the government guaranteed loans of the Street loan program in the latest COVID-19 economic stimulus package last spring, according to the newspaper.

Cruz in turn helped convince the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve to change the rules for pandemic lending to include operations, the Journal reported. The government quickly changed the rules and the Wilks brothers secured the hefty $ 35 million loan for ProFac Holdings LLC, a supplier of pumping equipment and services, according to records.

The association BailoutWatch, who tracks business aid in the event of the coronavirus pandemic, criticized Cruz’s efforts as a massive reward for a major contributor to the campaign.

“The loan from ProFrac is a blatant embezzlement of taxpayer money,” Chris Kuveke, analyst for the organization, told The Journal. The senator’s biggest contributors cashed one of the program’s largest loans to the fossil fuel industry, Kuveke noted. “It’s hard not to connect the dots,” he added.

The Wilks brothers donated $ 15 million to the super PAC Keeping the Promise, which supported Cruz’s presidential campaign in 2016. This makes them the biggest backers of his political career, according to the Journal.

The Wilks did not return Journal requests for comment. Cruz’s office claimed his work for Wilks and other fossil fuel industries protected 300,000 jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but apparently did not provide any documentation for the claim.

The president complained about the “pig” in the COVID-19 stimulus package he signed on Sunday night, which provides for a modest one-time relief payment of $ 600 to Americans who qualify for income.

All The Wall Street Journal article is available here.