Ed Markey: “I would like to speak on this motion to confirm Casey Mulligan to be chief counsel of the Office of Advocacy. In the…”

“I would like to speak on this motion to confirm Casey Mulligan to be chief counsel of the Office of Advocacy. In the last 3\1/2\ months, we have seen an unprecedented assault by the Trump administration on America's small businesses. Elon Musk and DOGE have taken a chain saw to SBA. They have done away with 43 percent of its staff and an estimated 2,700 people, and I say ``estimated'' because SBA won't share who has been fired and who has been retained with the public or with the U.S. Senate. We don't know. We requested a meeting with DOGE in February and have yet to hear back. The little we do know about what DOGE is doing at SBA is gleaned through media reports rather than through their responses to our congressional requests. Because of this administration's utter contempt for accountability and its shameless lack of transparency, we don't know if SBA has sufficient staff on hand to carry out its day-to-day operations. We don't know which congressionally authorized and funded programs have been illegally shut down. We don't know which SBA field offices will remain open to serve small business owners where they live and work. And yet, the Senate Republicans want us to rubberstamp their slash-and-burn tactics and confirm this SBA nominee by unanimous consent with a total disregard from the Trump administration to tell the U.S. Senate what is going on inside of the SBA.…”