President Joe Biden’s Small Business Administration (SBA) chief had numerous meetings related to “equity” scheduled over the course of 10 months from 2021 to 2022, according to her calendar obtained by Protect the Public’s Trust through a public records request and exclusively shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman’s calendar includes at least 17 meetings centered on “equity” between March 2021 and January 2022, according to a DCNF review of the over 2,000 pages. Conservatives have criticized the Biden administration’s prioritization of equity as unconstitutional discrimination that violates federal civil rights law by focusing on equal outcomes rather than equal opportunities, raising concerns about merit.
“These revelations bring to mind a paraphrase of Orwell, are all small businesses being treated equally or are some small businesses being treated more equally than others? COVID lockdowns caused widespread devastation to small businesses,” Protect the Public’s Trust Director Michael Chamberlain told the DCNF. “At a time when thousands of them were struggling to pick up the pieces to recover and many others weren’t even able to do that, one would hope that the federal government wasn’t playing favorites.”
Guzman’s meetings align with Biden’s January 2021 “Executive Order On Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,” which mandates all federal agencies to scrutinize their initiatives to ensure they meet equitable standards.
The meetings Guzman had scheduled include four “equity roundtable[s]” between August and September 2021, according to her calendar. Two in April were on an “equity taskforce” while two in July were on “finance and equity.”
A vast majority of the meetings in the calendar do not contain summaries of what they entailed.
“Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the face of entrepreneurship is changing as Americans from traditionally underserved and underrepresented communities start businesses at record rates,” Guzman said in February regarding the agency’s most recent “Equity Action Plan” to push forward the Biden administration’s investment agenda.
“As America continues to enjoy an unprecedented Small Business Boom, the SBA remains determined in its efforts to boost entrepreneurship among people of color, women, veterans, and those from rural communities,” Guzman added.
The SBA’s latest “equity action plan” includes putting new rules in place to enhance access to loans for “justice-involved entrepreneurs,” which consist of individuals who have been incarcerated. The plan also encompasses boosting access to investment capital with a focus on promoting “diversity among participating fund managers” within the agency’s Small Business Investment Company Program, which doles out loans guaranteed by the government.
One of Guzman’s meetings in March 2021 was a “briefing” on a “racial equity agenda,” according to the calendar. Another meeting in August 2021 was on the “management racial equity gap.”
An engagement in April 2021 does not use the term “equity” but was regarding Latino small business and the “racial and ethnic wealth gap,” consisting of advocacy to back businesses owned by Latinos to close the alleged wealth gap between different demographics.
The SBA distributed relief payments during the COVID-19 pandemic starting in April 2020, like the Paycheck Protection Program, to small businesses to keep them afloat amid lockdowns and other public health measures. The SBA also had a program called COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (COVID-19 EIDL), which Guzman had many meetings about during the pandemic, according to her calendar.
The agency ultimately doled about $1.2 trillion over the course of the pandemic and both programs were allegedly rife with fraud, according to government reports.
The numerous “equity” meetings raise concerns about who the SBA chose to give relief payments to, Chamberlain told the DCNF.
Moreover, Guzman participated in a “meet and greet and equity agenda” in May 2021 with then-Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice, according to the calendar. The SBA chief also did an interview on “how women and LGBTQ+ people can access the support they need to become entrepreneurs” in September 2021.
The agency’s updated equity plan includes an initiative to enhance government procurement access, utilizing SBA resources to help “Small Disadvantaged Businesses” and expand contracting opportunities for them.
Three meetings at the end of 2021 and early 2022 were related to “equity” in “procurement,” according to the calendar.
The Biden administration has made “equity” a key part of its agenda, implementing it into the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Aviation Administration and in artificial intelligence throughout the government.
Many corporations are withdrawing from their equity initiatives as conservatives have pushed back against them with legal efforts. They also have become concerned about legal scrutiny after the Supreme Court struck down race-based admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina in June.
The SBA did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
Jason Cohen on March 14, 2024
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