To prohibit individuals convicted of defrauding the Government from receiving any assistance from the Small Business Administration, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5427) to prohibit individuals convicted of defrauding the Government from receiving any assistance from the Small Business Administration, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 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 today in support of my bill, H.R. 5427. This legislation prohibits any individuals convicted of defrauding the government's COVID-19 lending programs from ever receiving future financial assistance from the SBA.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit America, the SBA took on an outsized role in helping small businesses. They partnered with banks and credit unions to set up the Paycheck Protection Program that ultimately got over $800 billion to Main Street to keep businesses from laying off employees. Additionally, the SBA ran the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, better known as the COVID EIDL program, that gave out close to $480 billion in low interest loans.

While both of these programs were successful in keeping businesses afloat during the pandemic, we have seen some very troubling data come out in recent months.

SBA's Office of Inspector General has estimated over $200 billion of these relief funds were given to fraudulent actors. This means that roughly 20 percent of all the money that was supposed to help businesses went to the wrong people, and, unfortunately, we have seen some estimates show that this 20 percent figure might be on the low end.

The committee is working to find creative ways to get this money back to the taxpayers, but in the meantime, we also cannot let those who committed these crimes off easy. That is where my legislation comes in. This bill prevents anyone who was convicted of defrauding the SBA's lending programs from receiving any future financial assistance from the agency. If someone saw the pandemic as an opportunity to enrich themselves, then they should never be given the opportunity to utilize any of these financial programs again.

These criminals took money away from businesses across the country that were in desperate need of assistance. This bill provides an additional layer of security for government programs so people who have taken advantage of past programs cannot commit a similar crime in the future.

A lot will need to be done to correct all of the issues within the SBA that allowed these unacceptable levels of fraud to occur, but as those internal issues are corrected, this bill will help rebuild confidence in the agency.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from the great State of Missouri (Mr. Alford).

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I am prepared to close.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5427 is simple. It needs to be passed.

I also want to thank my colleague from Maryland (Mr. Mfume) for all his support working on this bill. I thank him for his support.

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

Mr. Speaker, my thanks to Chairman Williams and to the ranking member, Ms. Velazquez of New York for their leadership. She and I were having a conversation reminding ourselves that 84 percent of all of the loosening of the guardrails that created the problems occurred while the previous administration was in office. It is important for the facts to be noted in that regard. It is not in an effort to cast aspersions, but it is in an effort to make sure we tell the truth.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today like the gentleman from Texas and the gentlewoman from New York in support of H.R. 5427 which prohibits, as you have heard, individuals convicted of defrauding small business pandemic relief programs from receiving future non-disaster financial aid assistance from the administration.

It sounds like it is common sense to me. If you put your hand in the cookie jar and you steal the cookies, why should you be rewarded later for that?

To this day, our Nation has to reckon with the fact that the consequences of that decision in 2020 to fast-track the allocation of the pandemic relief funds by weakening and removing the internal controls really caused the problems. It was a recipe for disaster.

Are we even astonished that something like this would happen?

This is why so many of us argued against this in 2020.

While many of these antifraud controls are being reinstituted by the Small Business Administration, fraud in these programs has run rampant. We let the horse out of the barn and are wasting time looking at it instead of trying to find a way to get it back in. So that is what this measure does in many respects.

As the ranking member of the Small Business Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Regulations, I have been, like many of my colleagues on the committee, incredibly concerned by the misuse and the abuse of pandemic relief funds.

Why?

It is a very simple answer: These funds could have been used to protect jobs. They could have been used to lift small businesses out of financial distress as they should have, and they could have created a circular flow of income in so many communities, urban and rural, throughout this country.

Instead, they lined the pockets of thieves and fraudsters. So that is why I am pleased to be the Democratic co-lead on this along with Mr. Williams.

This bill amends section 16 of the SBA Act to prohibit, as we said before, anyone convicted of crimes related to financial misconduct or making false statements with respect to small business pandemic relief moneys from not being able to receive nondisaster financial assistance in the future. It is kind of common sense. It really is.

So this bill ensures that those who knowingly and willfully stole Federal funds are not given a similar opportunity in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I, again, thank the ranking member, Ms. Velazquez of New York; the chair, Mr. Williams of Texas; Mr. Bean of Florida; and others on both sides of the aisle for working to make sure that this bill has the support it needs.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues later today to be able to stand up and to vote for it.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in support of H.R. 5427, which puts into statute current rules

which prohibit anyone convicted of defrauding the government from receiving an SBA loan.

Over the course of the pandemic, the SBA disbursed approximately $1.2 trillion in economic aid. The vast majority of this aid was a lifeline to keep small businesses afloat during troubling and uncertain economic times. Unfortunately, bad actors took advantage of the program early in the pandemic when SBA removed or weakened internal controls. To that end, the Biden administration reinstituted longstanding antifraud controls and put new safeguards into place to curb the flow of pandemic dollars to fraudsters, and they remain in place today.

Before issuing a loan, SBA screens applicants on the government's Do Not Pay list and then checks its internal database for any fraudulent flags or holds. While borrowers have an opportunity to clear their names, the SBA will not move forward until the holds are cleared.

The bill we are considering today is closely aligned with the actions taken by the Biden administration, and it will send a strong message that SBA will not do business with anyone who defrauded the government. With that said, the single most important action Congress can take to recover fraudulent pandemic funds is to fully fund the SBA Inspector General and give the office the resources it needs to go after bad actors. In the last Congress, Representative Luetkemeyer and I sponsored two laws to extend the statute of limitations for fraud in the PPP and EIDL program to 10 years. Without additional resources, the OIG will not be able to capitalize on these new laws.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the bipartisan work of Chairman Williams and Representatives Mfume and Bean, I urge my colleagues to support the legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Mfume), who is the ranking member of the Oversight, Investigations, and Regulations Subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill prohibits anyone convicted of defrauding the government with respect to the SBA's pandemic programs from receiving loan disaster financial assistance from the SBA.

While there may be disagreement on the actual estimates of fraud in the pandemic programs, it is clear we need to work together to protect their integrity.

Administrator Guzman has taken steps to put strong controls into place that would prohibit anyone convicted of fraud from receiving financial assistance, and this bill will ensure those controls remain in place with future administrations.

I thank Chairman Williams, Mr. Mfume, and Mr. Bean for their efforts, and I urge my colleagues to support the legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 5427, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman and the ranking member for their leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today because the Small Business Administration and the Biden administration have continuously failed to take action to prevent this type of fraud that happened during COVID-19, ripping off you, ripping off me, ripping off everyone in this room, and ripping off the American taxpayer.

The SBA's Office of the Inspector General has estimated that at least $200 billion in COVID relief money given by the SBA ended up in the wrong hands of fraudulent actors. We believe it could be well up over $600 billion. Roughly 20 percent of that money intended to help small businesses went to the wrong people, and SBA Administrator Guzman refuses to testify before our very committee about these losses.

These losses must never happen again, Mr. Speaker, and Chairman Williams' bill addresses this by doing what the SBA is not willing to do right now, and that is to hold these fraudsters accountable and make sure they are unable to steal from us again.

I proudly support Chairman Williams' bill, H.R. 5427, which prevents anyone who is convicted of defrauding the SBA's lending programs from getting any future financial assistance from that agency.

We cannot live in an America that allows criminals to defraud taxpayers and hardworking small business owners especially during a time of need.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5427.