On Wednesday, Vice Chairman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) led a full Committee on Small Business hearing titled “Conducting Oversight: Testimony from the Small Business Administrator.” Vice Chairman Luetkemeyer issued the following statement after today’s hearing.

“Today’s hearing was critically important in conducting oversight of the SBA,” said Vice Chairman Luetkemeyer. “The SBA’s sole purpose is to help small businesses, but unfortunately, they have strayed from that mission. I, along with my colleagues on this panel, will continue to hold the SBA accountable to the American taxpayers and ensure it is functioning as intended. We look forward to working with Administrator Guzman going forward to improve the agency.”

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Watch the full hearing here.

Vice Chairman Luetkemeyer: “I can tell you I was very strenuous in my concerns about lending, allowing the fintech companies in who do not have the controls in place. And that's where about 95%, according to the IG, and they testified in that chair right over there that that's where most of the fraud occurred in the PPP program. And I was very strenuous also in my remarks with regard to EIDL, knowing that there's basically none, zero, anything in place by the SBA to keep the money in place without having to be fraudulently accessed, especially at the amounts the program was allowed to grow to. That aside, you jumped into this program knowing where it was at. So now your responsibility is to clean it up. And that's the concern we have this morning. That's where we're coming from, with our questions. Why have you not gone out and sold part of the portfolio? And as Ms. Van Duyne talked about, in a way that alleviates the need for more money for your agency as well as recover some of the money.” Administrator Guzman: “We have evaluated this and at this point are still collecting successfully within SBA own collection efforts…” Vice Chairman Luetkemeyer: “I don't know how you can say you're adequately doing it. According to the IG, you told the IG that in October 23, $47.7 billion of the EIDL loans were written off. Is that not correct?” Administrator Guzman: “The EIDL portfolio, though, is performing better than what Congress expects.” Vice Chairman Luetkemeyer: “That’s not my question. My question my question is, I didn't say that we could even validate the information, but you told him that you've got $47.7 billion, that you have charged off of EIDL loans. Is that correct.” Administrator Guzman: “I would have to double check those numbers.”

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