Congressional Republicans are on the war path against Joe Biden and his ilk. They just dropped the hammer.
And the Biden admin is in chaos after being exposed for this $200 billion bombshell.
The White House is in an uproar over Joe Biden and his family’s alleged crimes.
The last thing they need was another scandal to deflect and deny.
But Congressional Republicans just threw them a massive curveball.
The Republican chairman of the House Small Business Committee is accusing the Small Business Administration (SBA) of failing to protect coronavirus loan programs from fraud after a government report found that the agency disbursed more than $200 billion in potentially fraudulent COVID-19 loans, nearly double what was previously expected.
In its study on COVID-19 pandemic loan fraud released on Tuesday, the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General stated that the agency disbursed more than $200 billion in potentially fraudulent PPP loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loans during the pandemic.
The SBA’s Office of the Inspector General reported 4.5 million potentially fraudulent loans and grants from pandemic financing programs in total.
The SBA “did not have an established strong internal control environment for approving and disbursing program funds,” according to the Office of the Inspector General.
And “there was an insufficient barrier against fraudsters accessing funds that should have been available for eligible business owners adversely affected by the pandemic.”
Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital that the Office of the Inspector General investigation reveals far more illegal behavior than was previously recognized.
“These findings show the SBA failed to implement basic guardrails to protect the integrity of these programs, resulting in roughly 1 in 5 loans dispersed being labeled as potentially fraudulent.”
“These findings show the SBA failed to implement basic guardrails to protect the integrity of these programs, resulting in roughly 1 in 5 loans dispersed being labeled as potentially fraudulent. When COVID-19 hit the United States, the SBA was tasked with taking on an oversized role to help save small businesses and our nation’s job creators,” Williams said.
“Unfortunately, these after-action reports show the agency was not up to the task. I look forward to hearing directly from Inspector General Ware in July on what went wrong, how to fix these issues, and what recourse we must take to recoup these stolen taxpayer dollars,” Williams continued.
According to the report from the Office of the Inspector General, SBA management stated that the report contained “serious flaws that significantly overestimate fraud.”
In response, the Office of the Inspector General stated, “we remain confident in our estimates of potential fraud for the COVID-19 EIDL program and PPP.”
Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman stated in a press release issued by the Small Business Administration that “pandemic relief programs, including those supported by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, have driven a historic economic recovery, including saving millions of businesses and creating over 13 million jobs since 2021.”
The Small Business Administration has refused to comment when contacted.
Stay tuned to The Federalist Wire.
