Martin "Sparky" Conrey — profile dossier

Pandemic-program role: SBA's standing Office of General Counsel point-of-contact for the agency's regulatory agenda and the OGC reviewer copied on the pandemic-era OIG audits — a process-and-coordination role, not a PPP/EIDL rule author.
Institution · office: SBA · Office of the General Counsel (Legislation and Appropriations) · Type: career
Tenure (relief-relevant): documented in this OGC role from at least 2009 through October 2020.

The job (role mechanics)

Level / appointment: Career attorney: Assistant General Counsel for Legislation and Appropriations (also styled "Attorney Advisor, Legislation and Appropriations").
Reports to: The SBA General Counsel / Deputy General Counsel, within the Office of General Counsel.
Core responsibility: OGC's standing point of contact for SBA's regulatory agenda: the recurring "FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT" on the agency's Semiannual Regulatory Agenda (Unified Agenda), handling budget/appropriations/legislation, Paperwork Reduction Act collections, OMB legislative/regulatory referrals, and OGC review/coordination on OIG audits.
Expectations / mandate: Serve as the Unified Agenda contact, route congressional/OMB inquiries, manage PRA information collections, and loop OGC into OIG findings and management responses.
Tenure norm: Continuing (career civil servant; does not turn over with administrations).

Who they are

Martin Conrey, known in agency records as Martin "Sparky" Conrey, is a long-tenured career attorney in SBA's Office of General Counsel, in the Legislation and Appropriations group. That group handles SBA's budget, appropriations, legislation, congressional procedures, regulations, and Paperwork Reduction Act information collections, and coordinates OGC's responses to OMB legislative/regulatory referrals and congressional inquiries.¹ He appears in the public record as the OGC contact on SBA regulatory agendas and as a recipient of OIG audit reports.²³

Education

Not stated in first-party sources (Federal Register, OIG reports, sba.gov).

Career before the pandemic

First-party documents place him in this same role across at least 2009 through 2020. His two title forms reflect the same person over time: "Assistant General Counsel for Legislation and Appropriations" (Federal Register Unified Agenda contact blocks, 2009–2013) and "Attorney Advisor, Legislation and Appropriations" (OIG audit-report distribution lists, 2018–2020). No pre-SBA government or private experience is documented in first-party sources.⁴²

Role in the pandemic relief programs

Conrey is the recurring "FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT" for SBA's entire Semiannual Regulatory Agenda (the Unified Agenda): the general OGC point of contact for all SBA rulemakings, including the window when the PPP/EIDL rules issued; individual rules in those agendas list their own program contacts, with Conrey as the catch-all.⁴² Separately, he appears in SBA OIG audit reports as the OGC distribution/review contact (the OGC attorney cc'd on final reports so the office is looped in on findings and management responses), including OIG Report 21-02 (Oct. 2020), SBA's inspection of its initial EIDL/disaster response to COVID-19.⁵

Documents written or signed

Named general contact, SBA Semiannual Regulatory Agenda, 74 FR 64510 (Dec. 7, 2009), FR Doc. E9-28586 — "Martin 'Sparky' Conrey, Assistant General Counsel for Legislation and Appropriations."⁴
Named general contact, SBA Semiannual Regulatory Agenda, 78 FR 1636 (Jan. 8, 2013), FR Doc. 2012-31507.²
Named on the distribution/cc lists of SBA OIG reports 18-22 (8(a) continuing eligibility, Sept. 7, 2018) and 19-18 (suspension and debarment, Sept. 18, 2019, alongside John Klein), and 21-02 (EIDL/COVID, Oct. 2020).³⁶⁵

Career after / where they are now

First-party documents confirm him at SBA through October 2020 (OIG 21-02); no retirement notice, departure announcement, or later position is documented.

Sources held in this archive

Original source documents and archived captures

Sources (first-party)

SBA, Office of General Counsel page (describes the Legislation & Appropriations function). SBA, Office of General Counsel page describes the Legislation & Appropriations function (original: sba.gov · stored capture) ↩
Federal Register, SBA Semiannual Regulatory Agenda, 78 FR 1636 (Jan. 8, 2013), FR Doc. 2012-31507 (same role/contact). Semiannual Regulatory Agenda, January 8, 2013 — U.S. Small Business Administration (original: govinfo.gov · stored capture) ↩
SBA OIG Report 18-22, "Improvements Needed in SBA's Oversight of 8(a) Continuing Eligibility Processes" (Sept. 7, 2018), cc-list "Martin Conrey, Attorney Advisor, Legislation and Appropriations." Report - Sba Oig Report 18 22 Pdf Ba1C117D5Cff7F04 (original: oversight.gov · stored capture) ↩
Federal Register, SBA Semiannual Regulatory Agenda, 74 FR 64510 (Dec. 7, 2009), FR Doc. E9-28586 (named contact: Martin "Sparky" Conrey, Assistant General Counsel for Legislation and Appropriations). E9 28586 Pdf 71b2ace42afd692d (original: govinfo.gov · stored capture) ↩
SBA OIG Report 21-02, "Inspection of SBA's Initial Disaster Assistance Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic" (Oct. 28, 2020) — EIDL/COVID report; Conrey named in distribution. Report - Sba Oig Report 21 02 508 1 Pdf Ca396D7A5B34246B (original: sba.gov · stored capture) (link now dead; copy taken from the Internet Archive, 11 December 2025) ↩
SBA OIG Report 19-18, "Audit of SBA's Suspension and Debarment Process" (Sept. 18, 2019), cc-list "Martin Conrey, Attorney Advisor, Legislation and Appropriations" (alongside John Klein). Report - Sba Oig Report 19 18 Pdf 5664Bb6Bb41050A3 (original: sba.gov · stored capture) (link now dead; copy taken from the Internet Archive, 20 November 2024) ↩