Is the SBA the Next Federal Scandal?

Is the SBA the Next Federal Scandal?
September 13th, 2005

RJ Eskow of Night Light posed this question on his blog earlier today - Is the SBA the Next Scandal?.

According to the Associated Press, Bush’s Small Business Administration not only mismanaged the disbursement of funds meant for small businesses harmed by September 11, but publicized one audit while concealing another in order to make their record appear better than it actually was.

Republican Senator Olympia Snowe calls the situation “nothing short of an outrage.” And what did SBA head Hector Barreto do before he got this job? Why, he raised a lot of money for Republican campaigns. Obviously the SBA doesn’t play the same life-saving role FEMA does, but there are echoes of the FEMA scandal in the mismanagement of funds meant to relieve those who suffered from a disaster.

I think RJ could be on to something, because over the past two years or so since I have been blogging about John Kerry, I have paid very close attention to his work as the Ranking Member of the Senate Small Business Committee. Needless to say, I was not at all shocked or surprised when I heard that Congress was going to investigate the SBA’s Sept. 11 Loan Program.

Why? Because over the past couple of years, John Kerry has repeatedly exposed corruption and fraud within the SBA, he’s fought to keep important SBA programs afloat and chastised Hector Barreto on numerous occasions for simply put, his mismanagement of the SBA.


MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=547

Kerry drilled SBA head Barreto on this and on how the SBA has turned from making actual small loans to real small businesses to making SBA funds available for big business and for Admin pet causes.

Please check out this link: http://sbc.senate.gov/democrat/lettersout/050408-SocSecBudgetInquiry.pdf It doesn't get any friggin lower than this. And Kerry is a hero for going after these bastards and I'm proud of him for doing so.

You could have thought that by now, a govt who has lifted caps for oil refineries and waived salary laws for federal contracts when it came to NO would recognize that people in NO need something as simple as an extension for filing papers.

Two weeks after the first letter, the SBA has still not answered.

http://sbc.senate.gov/democrat/record.cfm?id=245660

Kerry, Landrieu Fight for SBA Disaster Loan Extension
Tuesday, September 13, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Senator Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.) today repeated their call for the Small Business Administration to extend the deadline for small-business owners affected by Hurricane Katrina to file applications for disaster loans.

On September 1, 2005, Kerry and Landrieu wrote to SBA Administrator Barreto asking him to extend the deadline for the SBA’s Physical Disaster Loans by six months. Today in a follow-up letter, they expressed their disappointment that the SBA has yet to grant, or even respond, to that initial request.

“It is imperative that the SBA act expeditiously with respect to this disaster so that the victims of Hurricane Katrina have the time to apply for the relief that they so desperately need,� Kerry and Landrieu wrote. “Three months is simply not enough time for affected businesses to apply for assistance given the scope of the disaster, displacement of victims, and lack of access to resources and documentation.�

The Senators pointed out that other agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, have already acted to extend their program deadlines for citizens impacted by Hurricane Katrina.

A copy of the letter is available on the Committee’s website at http://sbc.senate.gov/democrat/correspondence.cfm.

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The SBA Needs Some House Cleaning, Too
September 14th, 2005

It appears that RJ Eskow of NightLight and I (see my post last night) are not the only ones who think that the SBA is poised to be the next FEMA and that it¡¯s time for the of the SBA, Hector Barreto to be shown the door.

THE political hack who headed FEMA finally got sent to the sidelines Friday.

We have another nomination for a swift kick out the door: the head of the Small Business Administration.

{snip}

Many of the loan recipients were unaware their loans came from the Sept. 11 aid program. SBA officials said they weren¡¯t aware of the ¡°mistakes¡± until the AP showed them its computer analysis of loan records.

When nobody¡¯s minding the store like this, some heads should roll. ¡ª Tacoma News Tribune

The Noise Machine is already laboring to cover-up this faux pas from the SBA.

But, I learned today that ¡°Senator Kerry pressed SBA Administrator Hector Barreto on this very issue at a hearing of the Senate Small Business Committee in February 2002¡å and this transcript from the hearing that I obtained today, clearly shows that Barreto was well aware of what he was doing - see the highlighted text in the PDF document.

For the record, as RJ Eskow reported on his blog yesterday, Hector Barreto was one the top Hispanic fundraisers for the Bush 2000 campaign. I guess that was all he needed on his resume.

MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=560