Report on Fraud Relating to Certain Covid-19 Loans

Floor Speech

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Mr. MFUME. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member, the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Velazquez) and the chairman of the committee, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Williams), as well as the cosponsor of this bill, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bean) for their work on this measure.

I rise today in full support, obviously, of this bill, which requires the Inspector General of the Small Business Administration to submit a quarterly report on the fraud that has occurred and is being uncovered in the small business pandemic relief programs. We do want our money back, and this is about the first step in doing that.

On June 27 of this year, the SBA's Office of the Inspector General issued a white paper that the Small Business Administration disbursed more than $200 billion in potentially fraudulent pandemic relief aid in the form of loans and in the form of grants. It was all done through the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and the Paycheck Protection Program.

The Small Business Administration also issued another report. It was titled: ``Protecting the Integrity of the Pandemic Relief Programs.''

In that report, they estimated that $36 billion of the $1.2 trillion in small business pandemic relief money was obtained fraudulently. The criminals and the fraudsters had a payday on the American public.

That level of fraud, highly significant in these programs, is absolutely astonishing. It also absolutely reflects the years-long repercussion of the 2020 decision that the ranking member spoke about earlier to loosen the antifraud protections in an effort to fast-track pandemic relief. Well, I hope we are learning from our mistakes.

It is clear that we have to do all that we can to return all of the money stolen from the Federal Government and bring the fraudsters and the criminals to justice.

This bill, which I am proud to co-lead with my colleague from Florida (Mr. Bean), ensures consistent reporting, regular reporting on progress toward the goal by requiring the Inspector General of the SBA, who has come before our committee on a number of occasions, to issue a report to Congress every 3 months, every 90 days, which includes the total dollar amount of small business pandemic relief funds that were made and the number and the type of fraud in both the new fraud cases and the suspected fraud cases, as well as the number of fraud cases that have been resolved to date at the conclusion of that 90-day period. We wanted to make sure we were regular in finding the money and reporting the money.

Again, I thank Ranking Member Velazquez, Chair Williams, and my colleague, Mr. Bean, for their work on this measure. We do want our money back, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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