To require the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to provide a link to resources for submitting reports on suspected fraud relating to certain COVID-19 loans.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5426) to require the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to provide a link to resources for submitting reports on suspected fraud relating to certain COVID-19 loans.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5426, a bill to require the SBA's administrator to place a visible link on their website to report COVID fraud.

Last summer, the SBA's Inspector General testified to our committee that throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the SBA distributed more than $200 billion in potentially fraudulent loans.

The committee was also told that in order to work through all these cases, it will take more than 100 years of work. That is simply not a realistic feat, and they need all the help they can get from the American people.

Reporting fraud in the SBA should be easy for everyday Americans to do. Our committee now has a direct fraud reporting link on our website, and the SBA should do the same.

When our committee was researching the need for this bill, we found that the only link to report COVID fraud redirected users to a different website that was in Spanish.

Even after we figured out how to correct the language, it was unclear how to actually report the fraud. This bill will ensure that reporting fraud is simply one click away.

It should be a top priority of this body to recoup as many of these taxpayer dollars as possible and in the most timely and efficient manner possible.

H.R. 5426 is a commonsense bill that will help individuals easily report suspected fraudulent activity and help the SBA and the OIG prioritize which potentially fraudulent loans to investigate.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Van Duyne).

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense legislation from Congresswoman Van Duyne and Congressman Landsman, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Today we are considering H.R. 5426, which will require the SBA to put a link to the IG's fraud hotline on its website for whistleblowers to report suspected fraud.

The good news is that the Biden administration SBA already has a link to the OIG's hotline on its main landing page, but with this bill, it will be here to stay.

In July, Inspector General Ware testified that his office has received 250,000 hotline complaints since the beginning of the pandemic, and more than 90,000 have been identified as actionable. This amounts to more than 100 years of investigative casework.

To that end, the single most important action we can take to support the OIG is to make sure we give them the resources they need to investigate bad actors.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the efforts of Ms. Van Duyne and Mr. Landsman to curb fraud, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Over the past 3 years, this committee has played an important role in examining the pandemic relief programs, which helped millions of small businesses stay afloat in unprecedented times.

While there may be disagreement on the actual estimates of fraud, it is clear we need to work together to protect the integrity of the SBA programs from bad actors.

The SBA, under the leadership of Administrator Guzman, has taken strong steps to root out fraud in the pandemic relief programs and put strong controls in place to prevent future fraud.

In 2022, SBA established a Fraud Risk Management Board, aligning its practices with GAO's oversight policies.

A new role was also created, the SBA Special Counsel for Enterprise Risk, to advise the administrator of fraud and risk management activities.

The agency continues to work collaboratively with the SBA Inspector General, the Interagency COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force, and the Department of Justice to recover stolen funds.

I thank Ms. Van Duyne and Mr. Landsman for looking for ways to enhance the work that the SBA is undertaking to combat fraud, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for his support of this legislation.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Small Business Administration oversaw what has been described as ``the biggest fraud in a generation,'' doling out more than $200 billion to scammers, foreign crime rings, and others who took advantage of a pandemic to enrich themselves.

According to the Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, the SBA invited this fraud by failing to implement basic safeguards to ensure taxpayer funds were going to the right people. Some of the pandemic aid even went to people involved in transnational crime organizations.

When government mandates forced small businesses to close their doors, some resulting in permanent closures, fraudsters were out taking expensive vacations, buying Lamborghinis, mansions, private jets, horses, luxury jewelry, and more, all on the taxpayers' dime. While we work to recover the stolen funds, those criminals must be identified and prosecuted.

The Small Business Administration not only failed to implement safeguards to prevent fraud of this scope, but they also failed to comply with the law originally authorizing the aid, which required the agency to include an easily accessible link for the public to report suspected fraud. Instead, the SBA has ignored legal requirements and made it incredibly difficult to report fraud.

As my colleagues and I highlighted during a hearing last year, if you were even able to locate the SBA's link to report fraudulent COVID-19 loans--which were buried in their website--where did it take you? As our chairman noted, it took you to a different website that was written entirely in Spanish.

The Republican-led Small Business Committee has created a direct link for Americans to easily report pandemic fraud, and the Small Business Administration must do the same.

I urge my colleagues to support our bipartisan legislation to make it easier to report pandemic fraud.