Profiles · Oversight
- Type
- Person
- Role
- Oversight and enforcement
- Programs
- PPP, EIDL, Other programs
- Updated
The profile
Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship (R-IA); has pressed the SBA on unrecovered COVID-relief fraud.
Identity and role
Joni Ernst (R-IA) chairs the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship.12 Her Senate biography states that she retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Iowa Army National Guard after 23 years of service, commanded a company in Kuwait and Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, and served as Montgomery County Auditor and then as a state senator. It adds that "in November 2014, Joni was elected as the first woman to serve in federal elected office from the State of Iowa and also became the first female combat veteran elected to serve in the United States Senate."1
Pandemic-relief / PPP-EIDL role
In November 2023, as Ranking Member of the Senate Small Business Committee, Ernst released the staff report Small Business COVID-19 Fraud: Three Years Later State of Play, which put "more than $200 billion in COVID-19 relief funds fraudulently paid to scammers" and described what the release calls the SBA's effort to discount the full extent of fraud.3 These are staff documents issued over her name, not audited findings.
As committee chair she introduced the SBA Fraud Enforcement Extension Act with House Small Business Chairman Roger Williams. The committee's April 2, 2025 release states that the bill extends the statute of limitations to 10 years for fraud involving the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant and Restaurant Revitalization Fund programs, following the 2022 extension to 10 years for PPP and COVID-EIDL fraud. It cites a GAO report finding that SBA "failed to pursue nearly two million individuals suspected of stealing pandemic aid."2
Where they are now (2025–2026)
Sitting Senator; Chair, Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship.1
Additional public-record notes
Lobbying & industry ties
No lobbying registrations (Senator).
Sources held in this archive
Original source documents and archived captures
- Ernst, "Ernst Releases New Report Showing How SBA Was Scammed for Billions of COVID Dollars" (Nov. 14, 2023)
- Senate Small Business Committee, "Ernst, Williams Extend Pursuit of COVID Fraudsters" (Apr. 2, 2025)
- Joni Ernst, official Senate biography page (captured Sept. 18, 2026)
- Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee press-release index
Sources
- U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, "About" biography page, captured Sept. 18, 2026. Archive: ernst-senate-biography_2026-09-18 · About U.S. Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa (original: ernst.senate.gov) ↩
- Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, "Ernst, Williams Extend Pursuit of COVID Fraudsters After Biden Dropped the Ball," Apr. 2, 2025. Archive: sbc-ernst-williams-sba-fraud-enforcement-extension-act_2025-04-02 · Ernst, Williams Extend Pursuit of COVID Fraudsters (original: sbc.senate.gov) ↩
- Ernst, "Ernst Releases New Report Showing How SBA Was Scammed for Billions of COVID Dollars, Demands Biden Recollect the Cash," Nov. 14, 2023. Archive: ernst-report-sba-scammed-for-billions_2023-11-14 · https://www.ernst.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ernst-releases-new-report-showing-how-sba-was-scammed-for-billions-of-covid-dollars-demands-biden-recollect-the-cash ↩