EXCLUSIVE: A House committee plans to surprise a top Biden administration official at a Wednesday hearing with a scathing document-request letter after lawmakers said the agency repeatedly failed to comply with a subpoena regarding its swing-state electioneering activities.
House Small Business Committee chairman Roger Williams, R-Texas, said the Small Business Administration drafted a “strategic plan” for its voter registration work in Michigan, in compliance with a Biden executive order, but has claimed it does not exist in its requested form.
But committee sources tell Fox News Digital an SBA response to a separate Freedom of Information Act Request from an outside organization indicated the existence of such a document.
The committee’s Republican majority has pursued the agency for months seeking answers on its work in Michigan amid allegations it has been involved in partisan voter registration outreach in the key swing state.
While the agency has contended any work has been done aboveboard and pursuant to Biden Executive Order 14019 – “Promoting Access to Voting,” – the committee noted the edict requires a “strategic plan” be drafted identifying ways the agency can “promote voter registration and voter participation.”
Williams is targeting a partnership started by the Michigan Department of State and Small Business Administration chief Isabel Guzman. (Getty Images)
That document, Williams said, is key to the committee’s work investigating whether a deal forged between the SBA and the Michigan Department of State is potentially unconstitutional as well as a misuse of taxpayer dollars.
“The Committee is deeply concerned that the SBA has misled the Committee regarding the existence of a document the Committee specifically demanded in the subpoena: the strategic plan the SBA submitted to the White House’s Domestic Policy Counsel in September 2021 under Executive Order (E.O.) 14019,” the letter reads, signed by Williams and Small Business Oversight Subcommittee chairwoman Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas.
“On numerous occasions, the SBA and its staff claimed that this document did not exist before eventually claiming it could not be produced to the Committee…” it read.
“In response to the subpoena, SBA officials stated to Committee staff that no responsive document existed. The Committee was skeptical of SBA’s claim, as failing to submit this report would violate the terms of the Executive Order… On two separate occasions, Committee staff further inquired about this document with SBA staff and added context to help the SBA identify the document… the SBA again indicated that no such document exists.”
Williams and others in Congress have accused the SBA of using the pact to funnel taxpayer resources to a swing state in a partisan manner during an election year.
A source familiar said a Freedom of Information Act case reportedly initiated by a conservative legal foundation found evidence of at least a draft document. The SBA had been subject to a filing by the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project watchdog organization in May.
“It’s curious that the Small Business Administration has entered an agreement with the Michigan secretary of state in this context, with the election this year,” Oversight Project attorney Kyle Brosnan said of that case in a prior interview.
Donald J. Trump speaks with Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, as he participates in the NCAA Collegiate National Champions Day in the State Dining Room at the White House on Friday, Nov 22, 2019 in Washington, DC. ((Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images))
“After months of claiming a crucial document relating to SBA’s implementation of the Biden-Harris electioneering executive order doesn’t exist, court filings show that they were not being honest. This revelation calls into question the credibility of the agency and gives our committee all the more motivation to keep demanding answers,” Williams said.
The way the MOU has been acted upon is controversial and potentially unconstitutional, Williams has said, as he and others in Congress previously accused the SBA of using it to funnel resources to a swing state in a partisan way.
He previously said the SBA is “diverting its resources away from assisting Main Street so it can register Democratic voters” in Michigan.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee, added that the American people “have a right to know what their government is doing with their tax dollars, and I am going to make sure the SBA is held accountable.”
In compliance with the White House order, the SBA submitted their strategic plan within the 200-day window, the committee contends.
In March, the agency launched what it called a “first of its kind” agreement to assist with registering voters in Michigan.
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Signs directing voters are seen outside a polling place on March 5, 2024 in Mountain Brook, Ala. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)
The SBA had claimed in response to the committee’s original demand that the document was not “final,” and therefore not responsive to the request. The committee, however, did request both “interim” and “final” documents.
According to a source familiar, the document was withheld from the FOIA suit under an exemption, but the committee has different privileges than private FOIA litigation.
“The SBA cannot claim a document doesn’t exist merely because it is potentially privileged,” they said.
In August, an SBA spokesperson argued that the agency has provided “extensive testimony, briefings, transcribed interviews, documents and other information in response to congressional inquires, including the Committee’s most recent subpoena.”
“We are continuing the work to fulfill the subpoena beyond our initial document production. Any suggestion that the agency is conducting improper work or that its response has been anything other than cooperative is simply not true,” the spokesperson added.
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