WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, Congressman Roger Williams (TX-25), Chairman of the House Committee on Small Business, subpoenaed the Small Business Administration (SBA) regarding the Committee’s investigation into the agency’s decision to end collection on Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loans (COVID EIDL) valued at $100,000 or less and the decision not to sell all or part of the COVID EIDL portfolio. These actions were necessary because of the agency’s refusal to comply with the Committee’s ongoing investigation, instead providing minimal information and ignoring numerous requests for information. Chairman Williams issued the following statement.

“This issue is very simple: the Small Business Administration should be using every tool available to try to make the taxpayers whole and get the pandemic loans repaid,” said Chairman Williams. “Instead, the SBA has stonewalled this Committee at every turn when asking for answers about their decision to simply stop performing their duties to collect these loans. The American taxpayers deserve answers to why this costly decision was made so we can look at ways to prevent this type of mismanagement in the future.  It is unfortunate that the SBA failed to substantially produce responsive documents over the course of this investigation and forced the committee to escalate the issue in the issuance of this subpoena."

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Read the story here.

Read the Subpoena to the SBA here.

Background:

Beginning in September 2021, the SBA made two key disastrous decisions in determining how to handle the portfolio of debt they took on between PPP and COVID EIDL. The first was to end active collection on loans worth $100,000 or less and the second was the failure to follow the advice of the 3rd party consultant they hired to help make these decisions and sell all or portions of the COVID EIDL portfolio.

The Committee has been investigating this for 14 months and now, due to the SBA slow rolling productions and stonewalling every oversight attempt, has issued a subpoena for the requested documents. The initial requests were made on March 15, 2023.

Though the Committee was provided a narrative response a few weeks later, the SBA did not act in good faith to begin producing any of the requested documents. After multiple accommodations by the Committee and minimal SBA production on the requests, the SBA abruptly reversed its policy on December 28, 2023, and stated their intent to begin referring the loans to the Treasury Department. The Committee requested the new information that led the SBA to make this change, but to no surprise, the SBA remained uncooperative and continued to obstruct the Committee’s oversight efforts.

This subpoena is the culmination of 14 months of extreme accommodations by the Committee to the SBA, yet the SBA continued to withhold pertinent information necessary to the Committee’s constitutional duty to conduct oversight and draft legislation related to this investigation.

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