The Biden administration is squandering federal agencies’ limited resources to bolster voter registration among Democrat-targeted groups in key swing states, highlighted a congressional hearing Tuesday morning.
The House Committee on Small Business heard from four witnesses on the voter registration efforts of the Small Business Administration. Those efforts stem from President Biden’s Executive Order 14019 commandeering federal agencies to target “underserved populations” for voter drives, according to Steward Whitson, senior director of federal affairs at the Foundation for Government Accountability.
The White House asserts that its use of federal agencies to promote voter registration efforts that target majority-Democrat demographics is “bipartisan.” In the hearing, Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Colo., pushed back on that claim.
“Roughly 91% of Michigan voters are registered to vote, with small business owners more likely to vote than the general population,” Stauber said. “If the purpose of the executive order is to register voters on a nonpartisan basis, why didn’t the SBA enter into an MOU with states that have lower voter registration than Michigan?”
Stauber also declared, “Through our investigation, this committee has uncovered that the majority of SBA events have occurred in the southern portion of Michigan, mainly in Democratic strongholds. That is crystal clear to the American people.”
Colloquially known as “Bidenbucks,” the order delegates voter registration duties to various federal agencies. Besides SBA, these include the Department of Agriculture, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Department of Labor, according to Whitson.
Biden’s “unethical and illegal” order potentially violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution, which leaves the time, manner, and place of election activities up to the states, Whitson said in his testimony.
Lisa Danetz, an advisor with Lisa Danetz Consulting and witness for committee Democrats, vehemently denied Whitson’s constitutional concern. She claimed Biden’s order executes the duties spelled out in the National Voting Rights Act. She said any efforts from the Biden administration to register voters is inherently nonpartisan, brushing aside Republican points that these efforts are targeting Democrat-voting localities and demographics.
A federal case filed in Pennsylvania deals with Dantez’s point exactly, explaining that Biden’s executive order violates a state’s constitutional right to carry out an election without any federal interference.
“If they truly wanted to help small businesses like they say, they would have gone into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where per capita there are more small businesses,” Stauber said. “But that’s red country, that’s Republican up there. This is clearly for political purposes.”
The hearing also detailed the gross overreach from the administration’ funding of these get-out-the-vote activities. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., asked Whitson about the constitutionality of this spending. Whitson replied the administration is unlawfully spending money without congressional approval.
Elaine Parker, president of the Job Creators Network Foundation, was disgusted with the SBA’s reach into voter activities, and said that sharply deviated from its mission: “Our small business owners have not registered that in any way, shape, or form,” Parker said. “What they talk about to us is the credit crunch, inflation, and issues like that. The onslaught of regulations that are killing them.”
Stauber echoed the sentiment.
“Not once has a small business owner come up to me and said the way to improve their business struggles is through increasing voter registration,” said Stauber. “They usually reference topics like inflation, workforce issues, and overburdensome regulations. All issues that have become worse under this current administration.”
Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales testified he would never work with the SBA on any election-related issues, only situations that pertain to small businesses and helping the small business owners in his state. The Indiana state department is responsible for business registrations and oversight, in addition to voter registration.
Morales runs robust voter registration efforts in Indiana without any need for federal involvement, he said. He travels to all 92 counties in Indiana with his team, working booths at local fairs and events.
“It’s frankly un-American that the SBA would turn themselves into an arm of the Biden campaign under the guise of ‘small business outreach’ targeting swing state voters” Rep. Tracey Maan, R-Kan.
Kamden Mulder is a summer intern at The Federalist. She is a senior at Hillsdale College pursuing a degree in American Studies and Journalism.
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