Key Biden agency slapped with another subpoena related to voter registration push in crucial swing state

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FIRST ON FOX: The Republican-led House Small Business Committee has issued a subpoena for President Biden’s Small Business Administration (SBA) after the committee says the agency failed to turn over information related to efforts to funnel resources to help register key swing state voters. 

"The House Committee on Small Business (Committee) is investigating the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) implementation of Executive Order (EO) 14019 and its related Memorandum of Understanding and Memorandum of Agreement (collectively, the MOU) with the Michigan Department of State (MDOS), which designated the SBA as a Voter Registration Agency in the State of Michigan under 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 produced only a small portion of the documents and communications that the Committee has requested and has done so slowly and after multiple attempts by the Committee to obtain any relevant information," the letter continued.

The committee has been investigating Biden’s SBA for months after it announced an MOU in March with the Michigan Department of State to "promote civic engagement and voter registration in Michigan" that it called the "first-of-its-kind collaboration" that immediately raised questions from the committee.

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President Biden, left, and Small Business Committee Chairman Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas. (Getty Images)

"Indeed, in response to the Committee request for 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 continual obstruction has hindered 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 MOU, which has been uploaded to the Congressional Repository, outlines the coordination between Michigan and the Biden administration where the state will "provide the Agency access to training resources related to the online Michigan Voter Information Center (MVIC)" and the "Agency shall provide voter registration training to all personnel conducting activities under this MOA."

"This training shall include information on who is eligible to register to vote, the interactions during which Agency staff must make voter registration services available, instructions to Agency staff on how to refer individuals to register to vote online using MVIC, and an overview of additional information that is available to voters in MVIC," the MOU continued.

The MOU also discusses how the Michigan Department of State would "create a unique URL for the SBA to use to drive online visitors to register to vote," and that the SBA’s Michigan field office would allow state government officials to facilitate in-person voter registration at the federal agency’s business outreach events.

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Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, is seen outside a House Republican Conference election meeting in the Longworth Building in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 24, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The committee released the documentation earlier this year in the interest of "transparency" and after seeing the MOU, the committee’s previous concerns that the program is "unconstitutional" and an improper use of taxpayer funds were not assuaged.  

Earlier this year, the committee expressed concerns that the agreement between the Biden administration meant that the SBA was serving as a "campaign arm" for Biden's re-election efforts, which now have been effectively passed to Vice President Kamala Harris since Biden dropped out of the race, and she became the presumptive nominee. 

The committee announced earlier this year that its investigation found that 22 out of 25 SBA outreach events from January to April had taken place in counties with the highest population of Democratic National Committee (DNC) target demographics.

Meanwhile, 11 of 15 Michigan counties that showed the largest voter registration increases over the last year have ranked highest in population of young voters and Black voters, according to the committee — two of the left’s most-sought voting blocs.

"It is unfortunate that the Committee has been forced to issue yet another subpoena to the SBA," Committee Chairman Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

"Sadly, the SBA has repeatedly stonewalled the investigation into their electioneering efforts in Michigan. As I have said before, we want to work with, not against, the SBA to help Main Street, but their unwillingness to cooperate has made it difficult to do so. With less than 100 days till the election, this investigation has never been more important. This Committee will use every tool available to put an end to this abuse of taxpayer resources."

In May, the committee issued its first-ever subpoena under the leadership of Williams to SBA Chief of Staff Arthur Plews and his special adviser, Tyler Robinson, after they were said to have been no-shows at scheduled transcribed interviews with the committee and failed to turn over documents related to the program.

During the course of its investigation, the committee has asked for "every email and official correspondence between the SBA and businesses related to this MOU; and every email and official correspondence between the SBA and other government agencies related to this MOU" along with "seeking the calendars and travel itineraries for 11 identified SBA employees and any trip summaries, transcripts, or any related documents memorializing reimbursements for the travel and trips."

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"On June 14, 2024, the SBA provided 49 different media advisories announcing events from March 2023 through May 2024 but no substantive communications," the committee said. "Notably, the SBA did not provide calendars or itineraries for any of its employees, nor did it provide any summaries or transcripts of events. Worse yet, as the Committee informed the SBA at the time, the production was not responsive to any of the Committee’s requests."

"After giving the SBA time to comply with these requests and making numerous accommodations as to the prioritization and scope of the requests, the Committee and Ranking Member Ernst sent a follow-up letter to the SBA on July 15, 2024, reiterating their outstanding requests and memorializing the prioritization of documents," the subpoena’s cover letter explains.

The committee says that on July 29, 2024, the SBA ultimately "produced two messages from the same email chain as prior productions, both of which can be found no less than eight times in the July 2, 2024, production, but provided no other responsive documents."

The committee told Fox News Digital the information provided was "lackluster," which led to the subpoena being filed.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, an SBA spokesperson said, "The SBA is one of many federal agencies fulfilling its role under the National Voter Registration Act and the President’s Executive Order to ensure that more Americans, including small business owners, can fully participate in our democracy.

"Over the last few months, the SBA has provided extensive testimony, information, and documents in response to congressional inquires. Any suggestion that the agency is conducting improper work or that its response has been anything other than cooperative is completely without basis."

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Prior to the subpoenas being issued, the SBA sent a letter to the committee that was obtained by Fox News Digital making the case it has been compliant with the committee's inquiries and touting the "SBA’s extensive record of accommodation by providing documents, communications, and testimony to the Committee has consistently demonstrated SBA’s transparency and that the Agency has only been engaged in nonpartisan activities regarding the MOU and work with the State of Michigan."

"Just last week, on July 24, 2024, Associate Administrator Jennifer Kim also testified at a House Small Business Subcommittee hearing that SBA has not yet begun any of the activities agreed to under the MOU," the SBA wrote. 

Jason Snead, Honest Elections Project executive director, told Fox News Digital earlier this year that he applauds the committee's efforts investigating this unprecedented agreement.

"This is the latest example of the Biden Administration’s ongoing efforts to manipulate the levers of the federal government for political advantage," Snead said.

"With Executive Order 14019, President Biden has ordered every federal agency to collaborate with liberal organizations to mobilize voters. The Administration is even using taxpayers’ dollars to pay college students to turn out voters. This program raises serious concerns about the misuse and abuse of federal agencies for political gain, and the public deserves answers."