Biden agency chief has 'slow-rolled' SBA's cooperation in electioneering probe says House committee https://ift.tt/9IcDKEC
EXCLUSIVE: The chairman of a House committee tasked with overseeing small business and commercial issues sent the Small Business Administration (SBA) a scathing letter Friday outlining how it has purportedly failed to hand over sufficient subpoenaed documents.
Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, previously noted the SBA used a 2021 Biden executive order on "promoting access to voting" to forge a "Memorandum of Understanding" (MOU) with the Michigan Department of State.
The way the MOU has been acted upon is controversial and potentially unconstitutional, Williams has said, as he and others in Congress previously accused the SBA of using it to funnel resources to a swing state in a partisan way. He previously said the SBA is "diverting its resources away from assisting Main Street so it can register Democratic voters" in Michigan.
On Friday, Williams wrote SBA administrator Isabel Casillas-Guzman to criticize "lackluster production of documents pursuant to the committee’s July 30, 2024 subpoena."
Williams had asked for, and later subpoenaed, travel calendars for agency staff, as well as other key documents in his probe into whether SBA’s work under the MOU is indeed partisan or worse.
"Since the first request was made by this Committee on March 20, 2024, the SBA has produced approximately 500 pages of documents, a substantial portion of which is just one email chain; further, nearly 20 percent of the documents produced by the SBA were entirely unresponsive to the Committee’s requests," the letter went on.
"It remains unclear why the SBA has slow-rolled productions and wasted time producing documents that were either nonresponsive to Committee’s requests or duplicative."
In May, the SBA was also sued on a coinciding front by the conservative Oversight Project, a government transparency watchdog, after it too made Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for similar documentation.
In that filing, plaintiff Mike Howell called the documents sought a "matter of widespread and exceptional media interest in which there exists possible questions about the government's integrity which affect public confidence."
In Friday’s letter, Williams said the SBA has provided "zero calendars" despite the subpoena, as well as a document describing the "implementation plan" of its voter outreach work, as required under President Biden’s separate order.
Williams also said he is aware of the aforementioned separate FOIA litigation and that the agency attested therein that such a document does exist.
A source familiar with the committee’s work said government officials also accused the panel of making baseless allegations surrounding the investigation and said the agency is trying to cover up any electioneering.
Williams told Fox News Digital on Friday he remains disappointed at what he characterized as a woefully insufficient response by the SBA.
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"Instead of cooperating with basic congressional oversight, the SBA has once again given us documents that are not responsive to our requests – despite their claims otherwise. With the presidential election less than three months away, our investigation is more important than ever," Williams said.
"Let me be clear, this Committee will not stop until we put an end to the SBA’s abuse of taxpayer resources, and ensure they refocus their efforts to the mission of supporting Main Street."
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who was not party to the letter but has been a key voice in the upper chamber on the matter, said that if the agency has done nothing wrong, then it should welcome "the opportunity to share its work."
"There is a very simple solution here – for the SBA to stop playing games and be fully transparent."
Fox News Digital reached out to the SBA for comment but did not receive a response prior to publication.
Fox News Digital's Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
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