First appeared on FOX: The Republican-led House Small Business Committee President Biden’s The committee noted the agency failed to provide information about efforts to focus resources on helping register voters in key battleground states.
“The House Small Business Committee is investigating the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) implementation of Executive Order (EO) 14019 and the related Memorandum of Understanding and Memorandum of Agreement (collectively, MOUs) with the Michigan Department of State Services (MDOS), which designated SBA as Michigan’s voter registrar pursuant to 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 only provided a small portion of the documents and communications requested by the Committee and has been slow to do so after multiple attempts by the Committee to obtain relevant information,” the letter continued.
The committee has been investigating Biden’s SBA for months. A memorandum was announced The committee signed a cooperative agreement with the Michigan Department of State in March to “promote civic engagement and voter registration in Michigan,” a “first-of-its-kind collaboration” that immediately raised questions from the committee.
House committee demands Biden administration officials disclose travel history amid election activity allegations
President Biden (left) with Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), Chairman of the Committee on Small Business. (Getty Images)
“Indeed, while the Committee has requested 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 continued obstruction impedes 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 memorandum, uploaded to the Congressional Repository, outlines coordination between Michigan and the Biden administration, with the state “providing the agency with access to training resources related to the online Michigan Voter Information Center (MVIC)” and “the agency will provide voter registration training to all employees performing activities under this memorandum.”
“This training shall include information regarding who is eligible to register to vote, the interactions Agency employees must have providing voter registration services, instructions to Agency employees on how to navigate individuals to register to vote online using MVIC, and an overview of additional information available to voters on MVIC,” the memo continued.
The memorandum also outlines how the Michigan Department of State will “create a unique URL that the SBA will use to encourage online visitors to register to vote” and how the SBA’s Michigan field office will allow state employees to promote in-person voter registration at the federal agency’s business outreach events.
House Republican chairman accuses key government agencies of acting as ‘campaign tools’ for Biden
Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas) is seen outside the House Republican Conference campaign rally in Longworthville on October 24, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The committee released the document earlier this year in an effort to be “transparent,” but after reviewing the memorandum, the committee’s previous concerns that the program was “unconstitutional” and an improper use of taxpayer funds remained.
The committee expressed concern earlier this year that the agreement with the Biden administration would mean the SBA would serve as a “campaign hub” for Biden’s reelection, but with Biden out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the presumptive nominee, the SBA has effectively been handed over to her.
Earlier this year, the committee announced that its investigation found that 22 of the SBA’s 25 outreach events held between January and April were in counties with the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) largest populations.
Meanwhile, 11 of Michigan’s 15 counties Voters Registration The commission said the largest increases over the past year have been among young voters and black voters, the two voting groups most coveted by the left.
“It is unfortunate that the Committee is once again forced to issue a subpoena to the SBA,” Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), the committee’s chairman, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
“Unfortunately, the SBA has repeatedly obstructed our investigation into election activity in Michigan. As I have said before, we want to work with the SBA to support Main Street, not confront them, but the SBA’s unwillingness to cooperate makes that difficult. With less than 100 days until the election, this investigation is more important than ever, and this Committee will do everything in its power to put an end to the misuse of taxpayer funds.”
In May, the committee The first summons was issued Under Williams’ direction, SBA Chief of Staff Arthur Prews and Special Counsel Tyler Robinson allegedly failed to show up for scheduled recorded interviews with the committee and failed to turn over documents related to the program.
During the course of its investigation, the Committee has requested “all emails and official documents between SBA and the companies related to this MOU, and all emails and official documents between SBA and other government agencies related to this MOU” and has “requested the production of relevant documents documenting the calendars and travel itineraries, travel summaries, records, or reimbursements for travel or travel for the 11 identified SBA employees.”
Republican committee demands explanation for Biden taxpayer voter registration drive in battleground states: “Unthinkable.”
“On June 14, 2024, SBA provided 49 different media advisories announcing events from March 2023 through May 2024, but without any substantive communications,” the committee said. “Notably, SBA did not provide employee calendars or itineraries, nor did it provide summaries or records of the events. Worse yet, as the committee notified SBA at the time, the productions did not respond to the committee’s requests at all.”
“After giving SBA time to respond to these requests and after much coordination regarding the priority and scope of the requests, the Committee and Senator Ernst sent a follow-up letter to SBA on July 15, 2024, reiterating the outstanding requests and documenting the priority of the documents,” the subpoena cover letter explained.
The Commission noted that on July 29, 2024, the SBA finally provided “two messages from the same email chain as the earlier filing, both of which can be found at least eight times in the July 2, 2024 filing, but did not provide any other corresponding documents.”
The committee told Fox News Digital that the information provided was “insufficient” and that’s why the subpoenas were filed.
“The SBA is one of many federal agencies that play a role under the National Voter Registration Act and the President’s executive orders to ensure more Americans, including small business owners, can fully participate in our democracy,” an SBA spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“Over the past several months, the SBA has provided extensive testimony, information and documents in response to Congressional inquiries. Any suggestion that the agency has acted improperly or has been uncooperative is completely unfounded.”
Click here to get the FOX News app
Before the subpoenas were issued, the SBA sent a letter to the committee, and in the letter obtained by Fox News Digital, it asserted that it had been compliant with the committee’s investigation, touting that “SBA’s extensive track record of responding by providing documents, communications and testimony to the Committee has consistently demonstrated SBA’s transparency, and the agency has engaged exclusively in bipartisan work with respect to the MOU and its collaboration with the State of Michigan.”
“Last week, on July 24, 2024, Deputy Secretary Jennifer Kim also testified at a House Small Business Subcommittee hearing that SBA has not yet begun any of the activities agreed to in the MOU,” the SBA wrote.
Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, told Fox News Digital earlier this year that he applauds the committee’s efforts to investigate the unprecedented agreement.
“This is the latest example of the Biden administration’s ongoing efforts to use federal power for political advantage,” Snead said.
“Through Executive Order 14019, President Biden ordered all federal agencies to work with liberal organizations to mobilize voters. The administration has even used taxpayer money to pay college students to canvass voters. This program raises serious concerns about the misuse and abuse of federal authority for political gain, and the public deserves an explanation.”
