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Patrick Kelley

Official · SBA

PPP · EIDL · Other programs
Type
Person
Role
Official · SBA
Programs
PPP, EIDL, Other programs
Updated

The profile

Associate Administrator for the SBA Office of Capital Access (OCA), the official who ran PPP forgiveness operations and led the launch of the $28.6B Restaurant Revitalization Fund.

  • Institution · office: SBA · Office of Capital Access · Type: political appointee
  • Tenure (relief-relevant): Associate Administrator, OCA, from March 2021; resigned from SBA on May 12, 2023.

In the archive

Patrick Kelley ran SBA's Office of Capital Access from March 2021 to May 2023. That office processed about 10 million PPP forgiveness decisions worth $743 billion and gave out all $28.6 billion of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund in under four months.1 He resigned two days after defending SBA's 7(a) rule changes before the House committee, and both small-business committees then asked SBA for his communications about those rules.23

The job

Kelley was a political appointee, not Senate-confirmed, named in SBA's August 2021 "Key Staff" announcement as Associate Administrator for Capital Access; he reported to Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman.4 By his own description the office administered the 7(a) business loans, the Community Advantage pilot, the 504 program, surety bonds and microloans, and by May 2023 SBA disaster lending as well.56 For the pandemic portfolio that meant PPP forgiveness, the COVID-EIDL servicing transition and the stand-up of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. He was SBA's regular witness before the Senate and House small-business committees. His salary is not in a first-party document.

Before SBA's pandemic work

He holds a B.A. from Colgate University and a J.D. from Boston College Law School.7 In an earlier SBA tenure he served as Deputy Chief of Staff, Deputy Associate Administrator and Senior Advisor; his official bio says he oversaw the agency's roughly $100 billion loan portfolio and its small-business contracting set-aside programs. He then worked at Live Oak Bank as Executive Vice President for Channel Partnerships, where, per the same bio, his unit originated over $500 million in small-business and asset-based loans to federal contractors.74

PPP forgiveness and the loan-review plan

Kelley arrived after the first PPP rounds. His first Senate statement, on March 24, 2021, reported 5.2 million PPP loans for $522 billion approved in 2020 and 3.1 million loans for $195.7 billion approved in the 2021 rounds by March 21. It said about 190,000 loans still carried hold codes from SBA's automated screening, and that lenders had submitted 2.1 million forgiveness decisions worth $181 billion.8 Within OCA, the Office of Financial Assistance, which issued the PPP procedural notices governing lender processing, was run by Dianna L. Seaborn.

By August 2, 2022 his testimony put the program at more than $788 billion delivered through over 5,000 lenders. SBA had processed 10 million forgiveness decisions, about 91% of all PPP loans, worth $743 billion, including 1.9 million through its Direct Forgiveness portal. He told the committee SBA had reviewed the whole portfolio with an automated screen in late 2020 and had ended instant approval for the 2021 rounds.1 SBA's Inspector General estimated the following June that $64 billion of PPP money, 8% of the total, was potentially fraudulent.9

The Restaurant Revitalization Fund

On March 24, 2021 Kelley told the Senate committee SBA was targeting a phased April launch for the $28.6 billion fund. "We get it," he said. "The timeframe we're trying to go for is in the next 30 days."10 Registration opened April 30 and applications May 3, 2021. By his August 2022 account the fund drew more than 278,000 applications asking for $72.2 billion. All $28.6 billion was awarded by June 30, 2021, and about $18 billion went to businesses owned by women, veterans and socially and economically disadvantaged people.1

That priority period went to court. In Greer's Ranch Cafe v. Guzman, Judge Reed O'Connor granted a temporary restraining order on May 18, 2021 barring SBA from using the race- and sex-based priority against the plaintiffs' application.11 On May 27 the Sixth Circuit held in Vitolo v. Guzman that the government "cannot" allocate the funds by race and sex, and enjoined those criteria for the plaintiffs' application; the case was dismissed by stipulation that August.1213

The 7(a) rules and his exit

In 2023 Kelley's office rewrote the 7(a) rules. His April 26, 2023 Senate testimony described a final rule that lifted the 1982 cap of 14 Small Business Lending Company licenses and moved Community Advantage lenders into that license. It also described another rule letting lenders use their own practices on loans under $500,000. SBA had approved $25.7 billion in 7(a) loans to 47,678 businesses in 2022.14 House Small Business Republicans had already written to him about the changes on April 21.15 He gave the same numbers to the House committee on May 10, 2023.6

He resigned on May 12, 2023.3 House chair Roger Williams, Senate chair Ben Cardin and ranking members Joni Ernst and Nydia Velázquez wrote to Guzman calling the timing "extremely concerning" and urging SBA to pause the rule changes.216 In July 2023 Williams asked Guzman for all of Kelley's communications on the rulemaking. The letter recounts that at the April 26 hearing Kelley testified under oath that he had made no "promises or commitments" to stakeholders to win support for the rules. It also says he agreed to give Ernst his schedule, phone logs and emails for October 2022 to April 2023.317 These are congressional requests; no finding against him is recorded in them.

Since 2023

His post-SBA position is not stated in a first-party document. The SBA FY2021 Agency Financial Report spells his name "Patrick Kelly" in its audit-response distribution list.18

Documents on this site

Original source documents and archived copies

Sources (first-party)

  1. Same document as [^sentest]: Testimony of Patrick Kelley, Senate Small Business Committee, Aug. 2, 2022 — PPP $788B, 10 million forgiveness decisions / $743B, RRF 278,000 applications / $72.2B requested / $28.6B awarded by June 30, 2021 / $18B to priority groups. ↩
  2. House Committee on Small Business, "Chairmen Williams and Cardin with Ranking Members Ernst and Velázquez, Pen Letter to SBA Administrator Guzman on the Departure of Former Associate Administrator Kelley". Original: House Committee on Small Business, "Chairmen Williams and Cardin with Ranking Members Ernst and Velázquez, Pen Letter... (original: smallbusiness.house.gov · stored capture) ↩
  3. House Small Business Committee majority letter to Administrator Guzman on Patrick Kelley's communications, July 19, 2023 (resignation May 12, 2023; April 26 testimony under oath; Ernst request and May 17 follow-up). ↩
  4. SBA press release, "U.S. Small Business Administration Announces Key Staff," August 18, 2021 (names Patrick Kelley, Associate Administrator for the Office of Capital Access). Original: https://www.sba.gov/article/2021/aug/18/us-small-business-administration-announces-key-staff SBA press release, "U.S. Small Business Administration Announces Key Staff," August 18, 2021 names Patrick Kelley, As... (stored capture) ↩
  5. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, "Testimony of Patrick Kelley, Associate Administrator, Office of Capital Access" (hearing "Oversight of SBA's COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program," Aug. 2, 2022). Original: https://www.sbc.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/a/b/ab3b24c9-86dc-4a15-a0b8-46cc63fdef73/6DF32725E45B76CDD56FE8EFD91A5414.kelley-testimony.pdf Kelley Testimony on Oversight of SBA’s COVID EIDL Program (stored capture) ↩
  6. Testimony Prepared for SBA Associate Administrator Patrick Kelley, House Small Business Committee, May 10, 2023. Original: https://democrats-smallbusiness.house.gov/uploadedfiles/05-10-23_mr._kelley_testimony.pdf Congressional testimony — Patrick Kelley, SBA Office of Capital Access (May 10, 2023) (stored capture) ↩
  7. House Small Business Committee, Patrick Kelley witness biography (hearing May 18, 2022) — Colgate University; Boston College Law School; prior SBA Deputy Chief of Staff / Deputy Associate Administrator / Senior Advisor; Live Oak Bank EVP. Original: https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/114774/witnesses/HHRG-117-SM00-Bio-KelleyP-20220518.pdf Patrick Kelley, SBA Associate Administrator, Capital Access (stored capture) ↩
  8. Statement of Patrick Kelley, Senate Small Business Committee hearing on oversight of SBA's COVID-19 relief programs, March 24, 2021. ↩
  9. SBA OIG Report 23-09, "COVID-19 Pandemic EIDL and PPP Loan Fraud Landscape," June 27, 2023 ($64 billion potentially fraudulent PPP, 8 percent). ↩
  10. QSR Magazine, "SBA Official: $28.6 Billion in Restaurant Aid to Come in Next 30 Days" (report of Kelley's March 2021 Senate testimony on the RRF). ↩
  11. Order granting TRO, Greer's Ranch Cafe v. Guzman, No. 4:21-cv-00651-O (N.D. Tex. May 18, 2021). ↩
  12. Vitolo v. Guzman, Nos. 21-5517/5528 (6th Cir. May 27, 2021). ↩
  13. Stipulated Dismissal, Vitolo v. Guzman, No. 3:21-cv-176 (E.D. Tenn. Aug. 25, 2021). ↩
  14. Testimony of SBA Associate Administrator Patrick Kelley, Senate Small Business Committee, April 26, 2023. ↩
  15. House Small Business Committee letter to Patrick Kelley re: 7(a) programs, April 20–21, 2023. Original: https://smallbusiness.house.gov/uploadedfiles/04.21.2023_-_hsbc_letter_to_sba_re._7a_programs.pdf Letter to SBA Associate Administrator Kelley (April 2023) (stored capture) ↩
  16. ABA Banking Journal, "Committee heads ask SBA to pause small business lending changes," May 2023 (reports Kelley's ~May 11, 2023 departure) — secondary, used for departure date corroboration. Original: http://bankingjournal.aba.com/2023/05/committee-heads-ask-sba-to-pause-small-business-lending-changes/ ABA Banking Journal, "Committee heads ask SBA to pause small business lending changes," May 2023 reports Kelley's ~Ma... (stored capture) ↩
  17. House Small Business Committee, "Chairman Williams Pens SBA Demanding Communications of Former Associate Administrator Kelley on 7(a) Rulemaking," July 20, 2023. ↩
  18. SBA FY2021 Agency Financial Report — audit-response distribution list names "Patrick Kelly, Associate Administrator, Capital Access" (misspelling of Kelley). Original: https://www.sba.gov/sites/sbagov/files/2021-12/SBA_FY2021_AFR-508.pdf Agency Financial Report, Fiscal Year 2021 — U.S. Small Business Administration (stored capture) (link now dead; copy taken from the Internet Archive, 10 April 2023) ↩
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