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EXCLUSIVE: The House Small Business Committee is releasing its year-end interim report on what it found to be the “weaponizing [of] federal resources” for political purposes within the Small Business Administration.
Earlier this year, Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, committee chair, issued a rare subpoena to Small Business Administration officials over their work in connection with an official Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) forged with the Michigan Department of State.
The MOU was in accordance with President Biden’s 2021 executive order “14019: Promoting Access to Voting.” However, the committee alleged the SBA had been involved in partisan voter registration outreach in a key swing state – rather than simply aiding voters across the board.
The committee report, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, found Biden’s executive order to be an “improper use of executive authority” and that SBA actions in accordance with it thereby “pose unnecessary risks to the integrity of U.S. elections.”
LAWMAKERS SLAM SBA ‘STONEWALLING’ OVER MICHIGAN VOTER MEMO AS ELECTIONEERING CLAIMS SURFACE
“The SBA’s MOU with the State of Michigan and travel patterns of senior SBA officials indicate the conflation of official duty and partisan political activities,” the committee found.
“Either intentionally or negligently, the SBA has failed to refute concerns of this MOU’s partisan nature.”
The committee’s report also found the SBA “strayed from its core mission” in working with Michigan under the voter registration MOU, and that it “engaged in a protracted campaign to obscure the makeup of its implementation of E.O. 14019 and obfuscate the truth of alleged political activities at the SBA to the committee.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., praised the work of the committee and its interim report, saying it rightly exposed “not only the improper use of executive authority but also significant concerns about actions taken by an agency that may jeopardize the integrity of U.S. elections.”
“The stark contrast between the SBA’s core mission and its involvement in voter registration activities highlights the urgent need for greater transparency and accountability,” Johnson said.
Johnson added he and the GOP caucus are looking forward to working with President-elect Trump to end such “abuses.”
The 47-page report further alleged the SBA exceeded the requirements of state and federal laws, including the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, the Anti-Deficiency Act, and the Hatch Act, which prohibits government officials from politicking in their official capacity.
In May, Williams and his committee, along with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, demanded travel schedules, official calendars and other documents from the SBA. In addition, at least one Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit was separately launched by the right-leaning Oversight Project for some of the same documents as Congress was being purportedly “stonewalled.”
Williams initially accused the SBA and Administrator Isabel Casillas-Guzman of shirking her responsibility to help “Main Street” and instead focusing on registering voters in heavily Democratic parts of Michigan like Detroit and Saginaw – while ignoring committee oversight demands.
Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., chair of the House Administration Committee – whose panel has oversight over legislative matters relating to elections – said that while elections are partisan affairs, election administration should not be.
“The Biden-Harris administration partnering with the Michigan Department of State to use your taxpayer dollars for a partisan purpose should never be allowed,” he said.
KEY BIDEN AGENCY SLAPPED WITH HISTORIC SUBPOENAS OVER ‘IMPROPER’ SWING-STATE VOTER REGISTRATION PUSH
People line up outside a polling station. (Reuters)
Digging into the executive order that the SBA’s actions aimed to align with, Williams’ report found it changed the way the executive branch enforces the National Voter Registration Act, and uniquely requires agency officials to work with the White House to find ways to support federal employees who wish to volunteer as election workers or watchers.
The report added that the choice of Michigan as the petri dish for the SBA’s work under the executive order caught the committee’s attention early, due to its routine status as a swing state and the fact its top officials were “sympath[etic]” to the Biden-Harris campaign.
“This interim report illustrates how the MOU blurs the line between personal political beliefs and the official duties of SBA and Michigan state employees,” the document reads.
The report also included copies of email chains between the White House, SBA and/or outside advocacy organizations.
“The committee discovered that many senior SBA employees have relationships with these left-leaning organizations,” it read.
“Notably, the Biden-Harris Administration ‘warmly welcomed’ these relationships between nonpartisan agencies and left-leaning organizations.”
In summing up and reacting to the report, Williams said the SBA was created to “aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns.”
In previous remarks to Fox News Digital, the top Democrat on Williams’ committee expressed dismay at the subpoenas and investigatory practices by Williams in probing the MOU.
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Williams is targeting a partnership started by the Michigan Department of State and Small Business Administration chief Isabel Guzman. (Getty Images)
In a statement, Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., said the committee had long prided itself on “bipartisan cooperation to help American entrepreneurs.”
“Unfortunately, with [these] subpoenas, Republicans have rejected these principles to pursue a partisan inquiry,” Velazquez said.
Representatives for the SBA have repeatedly denied the allegations made by Congress’ investigation.
In October, a spokesperson for Guzman said the explicit allegations of “stonewalling” the committee’s work were “demonstrably false.”
A spokesperson for the SBA told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that any allegations of “stonewalling” are “demonstrably false.”
“For nearly two years, the SBA has cooperated with the committee’s inquiry, testifying at multiple hearings, providing the committee staff with briefings, making agency officials available for transcribed interviews, and producing thousands of pages of documents responsive to their inquiry,” the spokesperson said, calling the allegations “baseless.”
