SBA Does Not Plan to Sell the COVID EIDL Portfolio
May 23, 2024
Delaney Sexton
Contributing Editor
SBA Does Not Plan to Sell the COVID EIDL Portfolio
At the end of December, SBA announced their intentions to begin referring COVID EIDLs to the Treasury Department. Now, SBA made the determination not to sell the loan portfolio, in opposition of the third-party consultant’s recommendation. SBA informed the House Committee on Small Business that they decided not to sell after conducting their own analysis because it is not in the best interest of the government.
In response, Chairman Roger Williams stated “I am extremely disappointed in the SBA for failing to sell off the EIDL portfolio as advised. Today, the SBA wrote us a letter stating that they re-analyzed the portfolio and again determined it was not in the best interest of the taxpayer to sell. Yet once again, despite repeated requests, the SBA failed to provide the Committee with their internal analysis and justification for how they reached that conclusion. This is an unacceptable refusal to cooperate with Congressional oversight that has become routine under Administrator Guzman’s leadership.
“Had the SBA taken the independent consultant’s recommendation at the time, the SBA would have avoided what they are now arguing is the high cost to sell the loans. On top of the disastrous decision not to sell, the SBA fundamentally mismanaged the sub-$100,000 loan portfolio. The SBA has failed to clearly delineate a collection plan and continually push any deadlines on when they will begin these activities. Simply put, the SBA is not serious about collecting on any of these taxpayer dollars, and selling a portion of this portfolio is the best way to remove the SBA’s incompetence from this equation.”