Senate Small Business Committee questions Trump nominees on SBA fraud, disaster loans and advocacy independence

The Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship convened a March 12 hearing to consider President Trump’s nominations of William “Bill” Briggs to be deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration and Dr. Casey Mulligan to be chief counsel for the SBA Office of Advocacy.

The hearing focused on three recurring themes: fraud and program integrity in COVID-era SBA lending programs, recent shortfalls and customer-service problems in the disaster loan program, and the statutory independence of the Office of Advocacy from other executive-branch offices. Chair Joni Ernst opened the hearing and administered the oath to both nominees; the committee left the record open for two days for questions for the record and two weeks for additional statements and letters.

Briggs, the nominee for deputy administrator and currently director of regulatory and federal advocacy for the Independent Bankers Association of Texas, described prior SBA service overseeing the Office of Capital Access during the first Trump administration and said he would prioritize the…