Political Quotes

“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.…”