The House Small Business Committee is escalating its investigation into the Small Business Administration (SBA) for its potential misuse of taxpayer funds in a voter registration partnership with the Michigan Department of State. The committee, led by Chairman Roger Williams (R-Texas), alleges that the SBA has been involved in partisan voter registration outreach in Michigan, a key swing state, and has misled Congress about the existence of a strategic plan outlining its voter registration work.
The committee plans to confront SBA administrator Isabel Guzman with a scathing document-request letter at a Wednesday hearing. Lawmakers claim the SBA has repeatedly failed to comply with a subpoena regarding its swing-state electioneering activities. The committee argues that the 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 that 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 been pursuing the agency for months seeking answers about its work in Michigan amid allegations that the SBA has been involved in partisan voter registration outreach. While the agency has maintained that any work has been done aboveboard and pursuant to Biden Executive Order 14019 – “Promoting Access to Voting,” – the committee notes the edict requires a “strategic plan” to be drafted identifying ways the agency can “promote voter registration and voter participation.”
This strategic plan, Williams says, is crucial to the committee’s investigation into whether the agreement between the SBA and the Michigan Department of State is potentially unconstitutional and a misuse of taxpayer dollars. The committee believes the SBA may have been using the partnership to funnel taxpayer resources to a swing state in a partisan manner during an election year.
“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. “In response to the subpoena, SBA officials stated to Committee staff that no responsive document existed. The Committee was skeptical of SBA’s claim, as failing to submit this report would violate the terms of the Executive Order… On two separate occasions, Committee staff further inquired about this document with SBA staff and added context to help the SBA identify the document… the SBA again indicated that no such document exists.”
A source familiar with the case said a FOIA case reportedly initiated by a conservative legal foundation found evidence of at least a draft document. The SBA had been subject to a filing by the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project watchdog organization in May. “It’s curious that the Small Business Administration has entered an agreement with the Michigan secretary of state in this context, with the election this year,” Oversight Project attorney Kyle Brosnan said of that case in a prior interview.
“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 question the credibility of the agency and gives our committee all the more motivation to keep demanding answers,” Williams said. “The way the MOU has been acted upon is controversial and potentially unconstitutional,” Williams has said, adding that the SBA is “diverting its resources away from assisting Main Street so it can register Democratic voters” in Michigan.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the top Republican on the Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee, echoed Williams’ concerns, stating that 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.”
The SBA, in compliance with the White House order, submitted their strategic plan within the 200-day window, the committee contends. In March, the agency launched what it called a “first of its kind” agreement to assist with registering voters in Michigan. The SBA initially claimed in response to the committee’s original demand that the document was not “final,” and therefore not responsive to the request. The committee, however, did request both “interim” and “final” documents.
According to a source familiar, the document was withheld from the FOIA suit under an exemption, but the committee has different privileges than private FOIA litigation. “The SBA cannot claim a document doesn’t exist merely because it is potentially privileged,” they said.
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.
