Exclusive: Republicans plan to grill Small Business Administration Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman at a House hearing scheduled for Wednesday about the agency's actions regarding allegations of taxpayer-funded election activity in the battleground state of Michigan.
Rep. Roger Williams, a Texas Republican who chairs the House Small Business Committee, said he plans to question Guzman directly on Monday about the agency's alleged efforts to get people to register to vote in heavily Democratic districts in the Wolverine state.
“The Small Business Administration has failed to be transparent and has consistently obstructed the committee's oversight,” Williams said.
“Administration officials must directly explain to lawmakers what they are hearing from their local constituents and, specifically, why small business concerns are being ignored under the Biden-Harris Administration…”
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Sen. Williams and his colleague, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), began requesting documents and other information in May about the “first-of-its-kind” voter registration agreement the SBA struck with Michigan officials.
The SBA signed a memorandum of understanding with the Michigan Department of State in March in accordance with President Biden's policy. Executive Order 14019Promote access to voting.
Since then, Williams and other Republicans on the committee have requested documents, travel schedules and other information from senior agency officials, naming Guzman in their letter as the “most traveled” Cabinet member.
So far, the committee has said the SBA's compliance has been severely deficient, with lawmakers alleging the agency has “not responded to the committee's requests or wasted time on duplicative documentation and delayed its response.”
The department is “diverting resources from outreach to Main Street to help register Democrats,” Williams said.
In August, an SBA spokesperson asserted that the agency had provided “extensive testimony, briefings, recorded interviews, documents, and other information in response to congressional investigations, including the Committee's most recent subpoenas.”
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“We continue to respond to the subpoenas following our initial document submissions and any suggestion that our offices are acting improperly or are uncooperative is simply untrue,” the spokesman added.
Meanwhile, Democrats on the committee rejected the majority's request, arguing that their actions would tarnish the committee's record.
The House Small Business Committee “pride[s]itself on bipartisan collaboration to support American entrepreneurs,” Ranking Committee Member Nydia Velazquez of New York told Fox News Digital in June.
“unfortunately, [these] Despite subpoenas, Republicans have rejected these principles in order to pursue a partisan investigation,” Velazquez said.
But some counter that Democrats are politicizing the committee, after a source familiar with the committee's work noted that derogatory comments were made about the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 at least five times during the committee's previous meetings.
Velazquez and Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., cited the work of conservative advocacy groups to push back against Republican amendments aimed at reducing regulatory burdens on small businesses.
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As part of their criticism, Democrats have sought to link Republican officials and former President Donald Trump to Project 2025. Several of Trump's former cabinet members and senior White House aides are architects of the project, but Trump has denied any ties to it.
Williams said the SBA should focus on its original mission, rather than Michigan voter registration and other related concerns.
“American taxpayers have a right to know the truth about who the SBA really works for, because the past few years have been a disaster for Main Street, America,” he said Monday.
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Small Business Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman (Bill O'Leary/Pool/Getty Images/File)
Fox News Digital has also learned the committee plans to question Guzman about the agency's decision to end aggressive collections on COVID-era small business loans of less than $100,000 as the agency sees billions of dollars in loans mistakenly funneled to fraudulent businesses.
The committee will also discuss witnesses' thoughts on Vice President Harris' small business tax credit proposal and how it fits with plans to potentially allow the current 20 percent small business tax credit to lapse.
