{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-releases/hirono-markey-press-sba-administrator-on-audit-targeting-underserved-businesses", "Hirono, Markey Press SBA Administrator on Audit Targeting Underserved Businesses", "2025-12-23", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "HI", "Mazie K. Hirono", "H001042", "www.hirono.senate.gov", "hirono", "https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "Lawmakers: \u201cRather than using this audit as a pretense to unfairly attack a program with which you have an ideological disagreement, it is our hope that you will refocus on the goals of the 8(a) Program to make sure it continues to support socially and economically disadvantaged businesses\u2014as intended.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senators Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) and Ed Markey (D-MA), Ranking Member for the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, sent a letter to U.S. Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler, expressing their deep concerns regarding the U.S. Small Business Administration\u2019s (SBA) December 5th announcement of a sweeping, program-wide audit of the 8(a) Business Development Program. SBA\u2019s announcement has left many businesses scrambling to meet the agency\u2019s extensive document request under a short deadline with unclear guidance, while raising concerns about how businesses\u2019 information will be used and secured.\n\nThe 8(a) Business Development Program was created by Congress to provide training, assistance, and federal contracting opportunities for socially and economically disadvantaged businesses in the U.S. and plays an important role in helping to ensure these businesses have the opportunity to work with federal agencies. Recently, however, the 8(a) program has come under attack as Republicans have unfairly targeted many of these small, socially and economically disadvantaged businesses, which often rely on government contracts to stay in business and keep their staff employed.\n\n\u201cWhile we wholeheartedly support meaningful oversight of all programs that fall under the jurisdiction of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, we disagree with your characterization of the program,\u201d the senators wrote. \u201cWe also emphasize that formal audits should be conducted by the appropriate authorities, such as Inspectors General, who are a part of a comprehensive system that has decades of proven success in preventing and detecting fraud, waste, and abuse.\u201d\n\nThe ambiguous language in the SBA\u2019s audit has led to mass confusion among 8(a) businesses, who have been seeking clarity and guidance regarding the documentation they must provide to remain eligible to participate in the 8(a) program.\n\n\u201cFurthermore, we are concerned about the nature in which you requested the information from businesses in the program\u2014an indiscriminate data call asking 4,300 businesses to complete additional paperwork, with limited guidance to clarify the manner in which they should comply\u2014which raises questions,\u201d the senators continued. \u201cSo too does the short turnaround, initially giving businesses only 31 days to comply with a deadline of January 5, 2026\u2014shortly after the holiday season\u2014before extending the deadline to January 19, 2026.\u201d\n\nTo that end, the lawmakers demand answers to a number of specific questions about the audit by January 2, 2025, including:\n\nHow should a business doing classified and/or sensitive work for the federal government provide the agency with the requested information in a timely and appropriate manner before the requested deadline?\n\nWill extensions be granted for businesses that make a good faith effort to comply with the deadline, especially if there is no feasible way to provide the information before the deadline?\n\nWhat assurances do businesses have that proprietary information shared with the agency will be protected?\n\nWho within the agency will conduct the audit of the program?\n\nWill the agency follow government-approved standards to conduct investigations or audits, such as the Government Accountability Office\u2019s \u201cGenerally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS)?\u201d\n\n\u201cSBA\u2019s fundamental mission is to support small businesses and entrepreneurs in the United States,\u201d the lawmakers concluded. \u201cRather than using this audit as a pretense to unfairly attack a program with which you have an ideological disagreement, it is our hope that you will refocus on the goals of the 8(a) Program to make sure it continues to support socially and economically disadvantaged businesses\u2014as intended.\u201d\n\nIn addition to Senators Hirono and Markey, the letter was also signed by Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA).\n\nThe full text of the letter is available here and below.\n\nDear Administrator Loeffler:\n\nWe write today to express our strong concerns about your recent decision to request detailed information from every participant in the 8(a) Business Development Program by January 19, 2026. Specifically, we are concerned about whether and how small businesses will be able to fully comply with the request given the limited guidance and short timeline that was provided. We are also concerned about your agency\u2019s ability to meaningfully review these materials in a timely manner given the deep staff reductions you have directed at the SBA.\n\nCongress created the 8(a) Business Development Program to provide training, technical assistance, and federal contracting opportunities for socially and economically disadvantaged businesses in the United States. Today, the program plays an important role in making sure these companies have the opportunity to do business with federal agencies, which not only supports those businesses and the communities in which they are located\u2014creating jobs, for example\u2014 but also pays dividends for the agencies. Within the Department of Defense, for example, there is evidence to show that these businesses play a role in strengthening the industrial base by diversifying the supply chain. The same can be said for other agencies.\n\nOn December 5, 2025, you announced that every participant in the 8(a) Business Development Program would be receiving a letter asking for detailed information about their companies, citing \u201cwidespread misconduct\u201d in the program and referring to the program as a \u201cvehicle for institutionalized abuse at taxpayer expense.\u201d While we wholeheartedly support meaningful oversight of all programs that fall under the jurisdiction of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, we disagree with your characterization of the program. We also emphasize that formal audits should be conducted by the appropriate authorities, such as Inspectors General, who are a part of a comprehensive system that has decades of proven success in preventing and detecting fraud, waste, and abuse. Furthermore, we are concerned about the nature in which you requested the information from businesses in the program\u2014an indiscriminate data call asking 4,300 businesses to complete additional paperwork, with limited guidance to clarify the manner in which they should comply\u2014which raises questions. So too does the short turnaround, initially giving businesses only 31 days to comply with a deadline of January 5, 2026\u2014shortly after the holiday season\u2014before extending the deadline to January 19, 2026.\n\nThere are several outstanding questions that are left unanswered by your notices to companies. We respectfully request answers to the following questions by January 2, 2026.\n\nHow should a business doing classified and/or sensitive work for the federal government provide the agency with the requested information in a timely and appropriate manner before the requested deadline?\n\nWill extensions be granted for businesses that make a good faith effort to comply with the deadline, especially if there is no feasible way to provide the information before the deadline?\n\nWhat assurances do businesses have that proprietary information shared with the agency will be protected?\n\nWho within the agency will conduct the audit of the program?\n\nWill the agency follow government-approved standards to conduct investigations or audits, such as the Government Accountability Office\u2019s \u201cGenerally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS)?\u201d\n\nSBA\u2019s fundamental mission is to support small businesses and entrepreneurs in the United States. Rather than using this audit as a pretense to unfairly attack a program with which you have an ideological disagreement, it is our hope that you will refocus on the goals of the 8(a) Program to make sure it continues to support socially and economically disadvantaged businesses\u2014as intended.\n\nWe look forward to your timely response.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-releases/hirono-markey-press-sba-administrator-on-audit-targeting-underserved-businesses"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.3459740914404392, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}