Exclusive: A House committee plans to surprise a top Biden administration official with a scathing document-request letter at a Wednesday hearing after lawmakers said the agency has repeatedly failed to comply with subpoenas issued over its swing-state election-related activities.
House Small Business Committee Chairman Roger Williams, R-Texas, said Small Business Administration (SBA) drafted a “strategic plan” for its voter registration work in Michigan in compliance with President Biden’s executive order, but has claimed it does not exist in the requested form.
However, committee sources told Fox News Digital that the SBA’s 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 tried for months to demand answers from the agency about its work in Michigan, amid allegations that the agency engaged in partisan voter registration drives in the key swing state.
While the agency has argued that any work done is superficial and in accordance with Biden Executive Order 14019 — “Promoting Access to Voting” — the committee said the order requires it to draft a “strategic plan” identifying ways the agency can “promote voter registration and voter participation.”
House Small Business Committee Chairman Roger Williams is taking aim at a partnership launched by the Michigan Department of State and Small Business Administration Administrator Isabel Guzman. (Getty Images)
Williams said the document is important to the committee, which is investigating whether the agreement between the SBA and the Michigan Department of State is potentially unconstitutional as well as a misuse of taxpayer money.
“The committee is deeply concerned that the SBA misled the committee about the existence of a document the committee specifically sought in the subpoena: the strategic plan that the SBA submitted to the White House Domestic Policy Counsel in September 2021 under Executive Order (EO) 14019,” said the letter, signed by Williams and Small Business Oversight Subcommittee Chairwoman Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas.
It read, “On multiple occasions, the SBA and its staff claimed this document did not exist, but ultimately claimed it could not be presented to the Committee…”
“In response to the subpoena, SBA officials informed Committee staff that no responsive document existed. The Committee was skeptical of SBA’s claim, as failure to produce this report would violate the terms of the Executive Order…On two separate occasions, Committee staff further questioned SBA staff about this document and added context to help SBA identify the document…SBA again indicated that no such document existed.”
Williams and other members of Congress SBA accused of abusing agreement Diverting taxpayer resources to an unstable state in a partisan manner during an election year.
Evidence of at least one draft document has been found in a FOIA case reportedly initiated by a conservative law firm, a source familiar with the matter said. subject to filing in May by the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project watchdog organization.
“It’s amazing that the Small Business Administration has struck a deal with the Michigan secretary of state with respect to this year’s election,” Oversight Project attorney Kyle Brosnan said of that case in an earlier interview.
Then-President Donald Trump (left) speaks to Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, while attending the NCAA Collegiate National Champions Day in the State Dining Room of the White House on Friday, Nov. 22, 2019, in Washington, DC. (Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post, Getty Images)
“Months after the SBA claimed a key document related to the implementation of the Biden-Harris election executive order did not exist, court documents show they were not honest. This revelation calls into question the agency’s credibility and gives our committee even more motivation to demand answers,” Williams said.
The manner in which the MOU has been processed is controversial and possibly unconstitutional. Williams has saidBecause he and others in Congress have previously accused the SBA of using it in a partisan manner to funnel resources into a shaky state.
He previously said the SBA was shifting its resources from aiding Main Street to “registering Democratic voters” in Michigan.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, said the American people “have a right to know what their government is doing with their tax money, and I will make sure the SBA is held accountable.”
The committee says that in compliance with the White House order, the SBA submitted its strategic plan within the 200-day period.
In March, the agency launched a “first of its kind” agreement to help register voters in Michigan.
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The SBA claimed in its response to the Committee’s original request that the document was not “final,” and therefore not responsive to the request. However, the Committee requested both “interim” and “final” documents.
The document was withheld from the FOIA lawsuit under an exemption, but the committee enjoys different privileges than a private FOIA lawsuit, according to a source familiar.
“The SBA cannot claim that a document does not exist just because it is potentially privileged,” he said.
in August, SBA Spokesperson argued that the agency “has provided extensive testimony, briefings, written interviews, documents, and other information in response to congressional inquiries, including the Committee’s most recent subpoena.”
“We are continuing to work to satisfy the subpoena beyond our initial document production. Any suggestion that the agency is acting improperly or that its response has been anything other than cooperative is flat-out false,” the spokesperson said.
