A group of 24 House Democrats have denounced the Small Business Administration (SBA) and are seeking agency responses for more responses than they plan to relocate six regional offices from the “sanctuary city,” and fighting for the move will hamper millions of small businesses.
House Democrats plan to move SBA administrator Kelly Loeffler's field officers from six cities (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York City and Seattle) to “blatant weaponization of the SBA for political interests.”
“To be clear, I firmly believe that our cities should be safe, that all violent acts should be taken seriously and that violent crimes should not be tolerated. However, targeting these cities is clearly punitive, unjust and counterproductive.”
Furthermore, your decision will unfairly hurt millions of small businesses across the country who are struggling through the Trump administration's chaotic, chaotic, unpredictable economic policies,” the lawmaker wrote.
Loeffler announced the agency's intention to move offices earlier this month, saying six cities are not complying with immigration laws and are harmful to small businesses.
The SBA administrator didn't share in the March 6 announcement where the new office is located, but said it would “move to more appropriately serve small business communities and to move to more expensive and more accessible locations that comply with federal immigration laws.”
In a five-page letter led by Rep. Nydia Velázquez (DN.Y.), a ranking member of the House Small Business Committee, 24 Democrats said the SBA “doesn't explicitly plan to prevent disruption to small business owners who rely on small business owners.”
“In fact, it appears that most of the key practices identified by the government's Accountability Office (GAO) in the realm of effective institutional reorganization (an independent, nonpartisan institutions examining how tax costs are being used) followed your rush to punish these cities,” the lawmaker wrote.
The 24 lawmakers said they had not spoken about the decision to move regional officers.
House Democrats asked Louffler to answer 13 questions by March 31, including an overview of the criteria used to make decisions to move offices, how the decision is “suitable for small businesses” and a list of SBA district offices that could be affected by this reorganization.
A group of lawmakers also asked the SBA director if the new local officers were identified and what would be a timeline for the relocation. They also asked whether SBA workers are affected by location and how the agency's moves to support, advise, support, support and protect the benefits of SMEs' concerns are aligned.
Apart from Velázquez, Friday's letter was signed by Democrats. Hilary Scholten (Mish), Ramonica McQuiver (New Jersey), Gil Cisneros (California), Kelly Morrison (Minnesota), George Latimer (NY), Derek Tran (California), Lattefa Simon (California), Johnny Orszewski (MD. (NY), Nikema Williams (GA.), Jerry Nadler (NY), Delia Ramirez (Ill.), Diana Degette (Colorado), Yvette Clarke (NY), Chuy Garcia (Illinois), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), Jan Schakowsky (Ill.), Ayanna Pressry (Mass) Ocasio-Cortez (NY).
Oka reached out to an SBA spokesman for comment.
