Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. BEAN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in full support of my amendment No. 39 to H.R. 4664.

Mr. Chairman, I thank Chairman Williams and my colleagues on the Committee on Small Business for their support. This May, the Small Business Administration implemented a rule which disregards Congress' authority and makes its Community Advantage Pilot Program permanent.

This program was created in 2011 and had been continuously reauthorized on a short-term basis by Congress. In fact, it is already authorized to continue operating through September 2024. Not so fast.

The SBA got tired of relying on Congress and taking our directions and decided to make the program permanent by creating an entire new class of lending entities. These new entities are called Community Advantage SBLCs. Now the SBA no longer has to come to Congress to make sure the program continues to operate.

We all know this is not how agencies are supposed to work. If the Community Advantage program was successful, then it is the duty of Congress to evaluate it to make sure it should be permanent. Unfortunately, the SBA does not want to operate in this fashion and removed the elected Members of this body from the equation.

This amendment reasserts congressional authority over the process by prohibiting any funds from implementing and administrating any licenses for the new Community Advantage SBLC's licenses.

Not only does this amendment ensure that Congress' authority is not ignored, but it sends a strong message to all Federal agencies that they cannot act outside of their jurisdiction without consulting Congress.

This is an important step to holding the Federal Government accountable to the American people, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

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Mr. BEAN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, it is really irrelevant whether or not the program is doing good or not. They do not have the authority to make up their own rules and own programs without Congress.

It is as if they have left the band and the SBA is starting a solo career on their own. We are a team. We work together. The way it works is Congress is the one that enacts new programs to work with them.

Whether or not it is a good program is irrelevant. They do not have the authority.

Why have a Congress if all Federal agencies are just going to go out and do what they want?

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Williams), who just happens to be the chairman of the Small Business Committee.

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Mr. BEAN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Maryland for his interest. The issue is one thing. The issue is: Does this agency or any agency have the ability to go out on their own on a solo career and not have congressional oversight? I say no. I say no.

We can talk about the program in the cloakroom or in the fireplace room and talk about how great it is. Hopefully, we will see eye-to-eye that Federal agencies that don't have the authority to go in a particular direction shouldn't go in that particular direction.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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