WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, Congressman Roger Williams (TX-25), Chairman of the House Committee on Small Business, wrote to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in response to the agency’s lack of transparency regarding the strategic plan the SBA submitted to the White House under E.O. 14019.

In its first letter to the SBA regarding its Memorandum of Understanding with the Michigan Department of State, the Committee requested “Interim and final reports drafted and submitted to the White House regarding implementation of the Executive Order 14019 from March 1, 2021, through October 31, 2021.” After the SBA failed to provide this document for over 3 months, the Committee included this request it in its subpoena.

Following the issuance of the subpoena, SBA staff claimed to Committee staff at least three times that no such document existed, later claiming that no “final” plan was submitted to the White House under this executive order. Failing to produce this document and inaccurately claiming that no such documents exist is seriously concerning, not only regarding this document, but for the veracity of the SBA’s productions as a whole.

“For the entirety of this Congress, the SBA has stonewalled our Congressional oversight responsibilities,” said Chairman Williams. “The continued lack of transparency has led to our Committee’s issuance of its first subpoenas over a decade, and yet still we’ve received insufficient and contradicting answers in return. After months of claiming a crucial document relating to SBA’s implementation of the Biden-Harris electioneering executive order doesn’t exist, court filings show that they were not being honest. This revelation calls into questions the credibility of the Agency and gives our Committee all the more motivation to keep demanding answers.”

“The Biden-Harris SBA has refused every opportunity to be transparent about their election year actions,” said Ranking Member Ernst. “The agency is deliberately hiding information about partisan political activity by federal employees less than two months from Election Day. The American people have a right to know what their government is doing with their tax dollars, and I am going to make sure the SBA is held accountable.”

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Read the story here.

Read the full letter here.

Read excerpts from the letter below:

“A House committee plans to surprise a top Biden administration official at a Wednesday hearing with a scathing document-request letter after lawmakers said the agency repeatedly failed to comply with a subpoena regarding its swing-state electioneering activities.

“House Small Business Committee Chairman Roger Williams, R-Texas, said the Small Business Administration (SBA) drafted a "strategic plan" for its voter registration work in Michigan, in compliance with a President Biden executive order, but has claimed it does not exist in its requested form. However, committee sources tell Fox News Digital an SBA response to a separate Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from an outside organization indicated the existence of such a document.

“The committee’s Republican majority has pursued the agency for months seeking answers about its work in Michigan amid allegations it has been involved in partisan voter registration outreach in the key swing state. While the agency has contended any work has been done aboveboard and pursuant to Biden Executive Order 14019 – "Promoting Access to Voting," – the committee noted the edict requires a "strategic plan" to be drafted identifying ways the agency can "promote voter registration and voter participation."

“That document, Williams said, is key to the committee's work investigating whether a deal forged between the SBA and the Michigan Department of State is potentially unconstitutional as well as a misuse of taxpayer dollars. "The Committee is deeply concerned that the SBA has misled the Committee regarding the existence of a document the Committee specifically demanded in the subpoena: the strategic plan the SBA submitted to the White House’s Domestic Policy Counsel in September 2021 under Executive Order (E.O.) 14019," the letter reads, signed by Williams and Small Business Oversight Subcommittee Chairwoman Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas. "On numerous occasions, the SBA and its staff claimed that this document did not exist before eventually claiming it could not be produced to the Committee…" it read.

“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. 

“In August, an SBA spokesperson argued that the agency has provided "extensive testimony, briefings, transcribed interviews, documents and other information in response to congressional inquires, including the Committee’s most recent subpoena." "We are continuing the work to fulfill the subpoena beyond our initial document production. Any suggestion that the agency is conducting improper work or that its response has been anything other than cooperative is simply not true," the spokesperson added.”

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