The Republican-led House Small Business Committee has subpoenaed President Biden’s Small Business Administration (SBA), alleging the agency failed to provide information regarding efforts to channel resources to register voters in key swing states.
“The House Committee on Small Business (Committee) is investigating the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) implementation of Executive Order (EO) 14019 and its related Memorandum of Understanding and Memorandum of Agreement (collectively, the MOU) with the Michigan Department of State (MDOS), which designated the SBA as a Voter Registration Agency in the State of Michigan under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA),” the Small Business Committee wrote to the SBA on Tuesday.
“The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate legislative solutions to the SBA’s use of federal funds to conduct voter registration activities. Unfortunately, the SBA has produced only a small portion of the documents and communications that the Committee has requested and has done so slowly and after multiple attempts by the Committee to obtain any relevant information,” the letter continued.
The committee has been probing Biden’s SBA for months following a March MOU with the Michigan Department of State aimed at “promoting civic engagement and voter registration in Michigan.” The agreement, described as a “first-of-its-kind collaboration,” raised immediate questions from the committee.
“Indeed, in response to the Committee request for all documents and communications related to the MOU, the SBA has only provided 359 pages of largely duplicative documents in the four months since this investigation began,” the letter added. “The SBA’s continual obstruction has hindered the Committee’s ability to consider legislative reforms needed to ensure the integrity of the 2024 elections and equal access to the ballot box for all Americans.”
The MOU, available in the Congressional Repository, outlines how Michigan will “provide the Agency access to training resources related to the online Michigan Voter Information Center (MVIC)” and how the SBA will “provide voter registration training to all personnel conducting activities under this MOA.”
“This training shall include information on who is eligible to register to vote, the interactions during which Agency staff must make voter registration services available, instructions to Agency staff on how to refer individuals to register to vote online using MVIC, and an overview of additional information that is available to voters in MVIC,” the MOU continued.
The MOU also specifies that the Michigan Department of State would “create a unique URL for the SBA to use to drive online visitors to register to vote,” and that the SBA’s Michigan field office would allow state officials to facilitate in-person voter registration at federal business outreach events.
The committee published the documentation earlier this year for “transparency.” However, their initial concerns that the program is “unconstitutional” and an improper use of taxpayer funds remain.
Earlier this year, the committee raised concerns that the SBA agreement served as a “campaign arm” for Biden’s re-election efforts, now led by Vice President Kamala Harris following Biden’s withdrawal from the race.
The committee reported that from January to April, 22 out of 25 SBA outreach events occurred in counties with high Democratic National Committee (DNC) target demographics. Additionally, 11 of the 15 Michigan counties with the largest voter registration increases over the past year had significant populations of young and Black voters, two key Democratic constituencies.
“It is unfortunate that the Committee has been forced to issue yet another subpoena to the SBA,” Committee Chairman Roger Williams told Fox News Digital. “Sadly, the SBA has repeatedly stonewalled the investigation into their electioneering efforts in Michigan. As I have said before, we want to work with, not against, the SBA to help Main Street, but their unwillingness to cooperate has made it difficult to do so. With less than 100 days till the election, this investigation has never been more important. This Committee will use every tool available to put an end to this abuse of taxpayer resources.”
In May, the committee issued its first subpoena under Williams’ leadership to SBA Chief of Staff Arthur Plews and special adviser Tyler Robinson, after they failed to attend scheduled transcribed interviews and provide requested documents.
During its investigation, the committee requested “every email and official correspondence between the SBA and businesses related to this MOU; and every email and official correspondence between the SBA and other government agencies related to this MOU,” along with “calendars and travel itineraries for 11 identified SBA employees and any trip summaries, transcripts, or related documents memorializing reimbursements for the travel and trips.”
“On June 14, 2024, the SBA provided 49 different media advisories announcing events from March 2023 through May 2024 but no substantive communications,” the committee said. “Notably, the SBA did not provide calendars or itineraries for any of its employees, nor did it provide any summaries or transcripts of events. Worse yet, as the Committee informed the SBA at the time, the production was not responsive to any of the Committee’s requests.”
“After giving the SBA time to comply with these requests and making numerous accommodations as to the prioritization and scope of the requests, the Committee and Ranking Member Ernst sent a follow-up letter to the SBA on July 15, 2024, reiterating their outstanding requests and memorializing the prioritization of documents,” the subpoena’s cover letter explains.
The committee says that on July 29, 2024, the SBA ultimately “produced two messages from the same email chain as prior productions, both of which can be found no less than eight times in the July 2, 2024, production, but provided no other responsive documents.” The committee told Fox News Digital the information provided was “lackluster,” leading to the subpoena.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, an SBA spokesperson said, “The SBA is one of many federal agencies fulfilling its role under the National Voter Registration Act and the President’s Executive Order to ensure that more Americans, including small business owners, can fully participate in our democracy.”
“Over the last few months, the SBA has provided extensive testimony, information, and documents in response to congressional inquiries. Any suggestion that the agency is conducting improper work or that its response has been anything other than cooperative is completely without basis.”
Prior to the subpoenas, the SBA sent a letter to the committee obtained by Fox News Digital, arguing it had been compliant with the inquiries and highlighting the “SBA’s extensive record of accommodation by providing documents, communications, and testimony to the Committee has consistently demonstrated SBA’s transparency and that the Agency has only been engaged in nonpartisan activities regarding the MOU and work with the State of Michigan.”
“Just last week, on July 24, 2024, Associate Administrator Jennifer Kim also testified at a House Small Business Subcommittee hearing that SBA has not yet begun any of the activities agreed to under the MOU,” the SBA wrote.
Jason Snead, Honest Elections Project executive director, praised the committee’s efforts earlier this year, telling Fox News Digital, “This is the latest example of the Biden Administration’s ongoing efforts to manipulate the levers of the federal government for political advantage.”
“With Executive Order 14019, President Biden has ordered every federal agency to collaborate with liberal organizations to mobilize voters. The Administration is even using taxpayers’ dollars to pay college students to turn out voters. This program raises serious concerns about the misuse and abuse of federal agencies for political gain, and the public deserves answers.”
