Team assigned to influence votes refuses to answer questions, now faces subpoenas

 May 7, 2024

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A team working for Joe Biden's Small Business Administration, tasked by the president with the unusual task of influencing the 2024 election by recruiting voters, has refused to answer congressional questions about its activities.

And members now are facing subpoenas.

A Fox News report said it is the House Committee on Small Business that issued the demands to several officials at the SBA over their lack of transparency on "alleged efforts by the Biden administration to funnel resources to a key swing state to register voters in a move they say could be unconstitutional."

SBA Chief of Staff Arthur Plews and adviser Tyler Robinson are now expected to testify after they reportedly were no-shows at interviews scheduled with the committee.

They also allegedly failed to turn over the required documents.

The Biden SBA had announced earlier a deal with the Michigan Department of State to "promote civic engagement and voter registration in Michigan," the report said.

SBA chief Isabel Casillas Guzman said the deal was to help more small business owners vote.

The deal was the result of a 2021 executive order from Biden who directed all federal agencies, in orders that have remained concealed from the public, to promote voting.

"The fact that we are having to issue subpoenas to speak with SBA officials is extremely disappointing," committee chief Roger Willams told Fox News Digital.

"The committee has given these two individuals the opportunity to speak with us voluntarily without taking these actions, but this appears to be the only way to get them to comply with our oversight responsibilities. The American people deserve answers and transparency on the electioneering activities of the SBA and how they plan on inserting themselves in the upcoming federal elections," he said.

He noted the SBA appears to be straying from its mission to help Main Street thrive.

Earlier, officials said the Michigan Department of State said they would work with the SBA to drive people to register to vote.

"The SBA’s MOU with the Michigan Department of State is improper, inappropriate, and perhaps, unconstitutional," Williams explained.

The report noted the House Small Business Committee already has found that 22 out of 25 similar outreach events "have taken place in counties with the highest population of Democratic National Committee (DNC) target demographics."

It said Michigan counties with the largest voter registration increases in the last year have ranked highest in population of young voters and black voters.

"It is unconscionable that during such a precarious time for our nation’s small businesses, the sole federal agency created to serve as their advocate is instead utilizing their limited taxpayer resources and time to advance partisan political campaigns," Congressman Dan Meuser, Chairman of the Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access, told Fox News Digital.

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