A woman enters a polling place to vote on Election Day. (iStock)
"Main Street – and the American People – have a right to know what exactly is going on and how the SBA is spending their hard-earned tax dollars. I hope the SBA will be forthcoming with us and provide us with the requested documents as we continue our investigation into this matter."
Ernst echoed Williams, saying in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital that the Biden administration agency has "no business pushing a partisan agenda on taxpayers' dime."
Ernst said the federal government should help struggling small businesses in the Biden economy, and that "open[ing] the books" is overdue for transparency's sake.
The letter cited a reported April 17 video that alleged SBA administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman was the "most traveled member of the president's cabinet and participated in trips to indirectly campaign for the president."
Williams and Ernst said after they viewed the video, they began investigating the accuracy of the statements, and preliminarily corroborated the claim.
KEY BIDEN AGENCY SLAPPED WITH HISTORIC SUBPOENAS OVER ‘IMPROPER’ SWING-STATE VOTER REGISTRATION PUSH
Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, is seen outside a House Republican Conference election meeting in the Longworth Building on Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The Oversight Project's lawsuit alleged the SBA did not provide documents sought under an April 23 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request relating to the memo, which included internal communications with the search terms "register," "vote," "voter" and "ballot."
In March, the SBA announced its "first-ever" voter registration agreement with the Michigan agency. On May 7, Williams' committee issued a rare subpoena for SBA aides after what the panel claimed was in part a failure to forward documents relating to a program "diverting [agency] resources away from assisting Main Street" toward partisan ends.
When reached for comment on the lawsuit, the top Democrat on Williams' panel, Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., expressed dismay at the subpoenas her committee recently issued, telling Fox News Digital in a statement that her committee has otherwise "prided itself in bipartisan cooperation to help American entrepreneurs."
"Unfortunately, with [these] subpoenas, Republicans have rejected these principles to pursue a partisan inquiry," Velazquez said.
A message left for Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's office on Wednesday in response to the earlier report was not returned by press time. Reached by phone, the SBA said in regard to the related suit it does not comment on ongoing legal matters.
Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.
Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.
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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-committee-demand-biden-agency-reveal-staff-travel-histories-amid-electioneering