WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Roger Williams (R-TX), Chairman of the House Committee on Small Business, along with Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne (R-TX), Chairman of the Small Business Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Regulations, penned a letter to the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), regarding the GEC’s failure to produce requested documentation to the Committee.

On June 7, 2023, the House Committee on Small Business wrote to the State Department’s GEC requesting information on the Biden Administration’s funding of entities that pressure advertising and social media companies to remove small businesses from their platforms because of their apparent political positions or the political opinions of the business owners. The Committee requested documents to be due back no later than June 21, 2023 and to date, has not received a response.

Read the full July 24, 2023, letter here.

Read the full June 7, 2023, letter here.

Read key experts from today’s letter:

“To date, other than confirmation of receipt of the letter, we have not heard back; despite repeated attempts to reach your staff for an update. The requested documents were due back to us no later than June 21, 2023. The documents requested were intentionally narrowly tailored to enable a quick response. There is no excuse for failing to timely fulfill the Committee’s request or failing to provide staff an update on the status of the response.

“Since our initial letter establishing this investigation, a preliminary injunction on the Biden Administration’s proxy suppression of speech has been placed through State of Missouri et al. v. Joseph R. Biden, et al., and the Administration’s Motion to Stay has been denied. Members of your staff were explicitly named in the judgement concerning what the judge called arguably ‘the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.’ The Committee’s request is now more timely than ever.

“As previously mentioned, this Committee wishes to understand the use of any Global Engagement Center funding of entities whose actions have resulted in small businesses’ loss of economic opportunities from the freedom of engaging in uncensored speech on online platforms. The federal government cannot circumvent constitutional protections by using private actors to accomplish what the State itself is prohibited from doing.”

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