U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., announced that the Small Business Administration (SBA) will implement her “RECLAIM Taxpayer Funds Act.”
Salazar got her bill through the U.S. House without opposition in recent weeks.
“This bill will recover billions for the taxpayer by reclaiming fraudulent government loans and help us restore fiscal responsibility and government accountability,” Salazar’s office noted. “Specifically, the Returning Erroneous COVID Loans Addressing Illegal and Misappropriated (RECLAIM) Taxpayer Funds Act requires the Small Business Administration (SBA) to account for fraudulent and unused Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans distributed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A report from SBA Inspector General Hannibal Ware in June 2023 shows that of the $1.2 trillion in COVID Economic Injury and Disaster Loans (EIDL) given by the federal government since the beginning of the pandemic, $200 billion were found to be potentially fraudulent. SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman responded with a competing report the same day claiming only $36 billion of these loans were fraudulent,” the congresswoman’s office added. “On the day Administrator Guzman and Inspector General Ware were called in by the House Small Business Committee to explain this discrepancy, only Ware decided to show up. Since then, there has been no adequate explanation from the Small Business Administration on the extent of abuse in COVID EIDL loans, or how it will recoup stolen funds.”
Salazar weighed in after the SBA announced it would enact her proposal.
“I applaud the Small Business Administration for implementing my common sense policy. Miami small business owners relied on these loans to keep the doors open during the pandemic – but bad actors took advantage of the system. We owe it to the American taxpayers to ensure frauds and cheats pay back what they stole from our communities,” she said.
