Sheldon Shoemaker

• Pandemic-program role: Oversight continuity only. Career SBA OIG official and Deputy Inspector General who stepped up to acting Inspector General after Hannibal "Mike" Ware was dismissed in late January 2025. The principal SBA OIG pandemic-fraud reports predate his acting tenure.
• Institution · office: SBA · Office of Inspector General · Deputy Inspector General (acting IG when the post is vacant) · Type: career
• Tenure (relief-relevant): Deputy Inspector General (SBA bio capture); acting Inspector General after Hannibal "Mike" Ware's January 2025 removal (see the Ware profile; acting dates not stated in a source we have).

The job (role mechanics)

• Level / appointment: Career SES — Deputy Inspector General, SBA OIG (appointed to the SES in 2018 as Assistant Inspector General for Management and Operations, then Deputy IG; SBA bio). As first assistant, he serves as Acting Inspector General when the IG seat is vacant — an acting designation, not a PAS appointment.
• Reports to: The Inspector General; when acting, he assumes the IG's independent reporting line to the SBA Administrator and Congress (OIG is independent of agency management).
• Core responsibility: Senior career leader of the OIG — runs the office's audit, investigation, and management operations; as acting IG, oversight continuity for the OIG's ongoing pandemic-fraud-recovery work (the principal PPP/EIDL reports predate his acting tenure).
• Pay: Not documented.
• Expectations / mandate: Execute the IG Act mandate at the deputy level (audits, investigations, semiannual reporting, congressional oversight liaison); step up as acting IG to keep the office's statutory functions running during a vacancy.
• Tenure norm: Continuing (career civil servant; does not turn over with administrations). His acting-IG dates are not stated in a first-party source we have.

Who they are

Sheldon Shoemaker is the career Deputy Inspector General of the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Inspector General (OIG) and, as the office's first assistant, the official who serves as Inspector General in an acting capacity when that position is vacant. That vacancy arose in late January 2025 when President Trump moved to dismiss SBA Inspector General Hannibal "Mike" Ware (see the Ware profile). Per his SBA bio, Shoemaker, a native of Dunbar, Pennsylvania, joined SBA OIG in 2011 (special assistant to the IG, later chief of staff) and was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2018 as Assistant Inspector General for Management and Operations. He earlier spent his career at the DEA (rising to Section Chief of its Congressional Affairs Section) and briefly at the Department of Defense.

Education

B.A. in Government and Social Science, West Virginia Wesleyan College (SBA bio).

Career before the pandemic

Per his SBA bio: DEA (from 1998): program analyst, then management roles in the Office of Professional Responsibility and Executive Policy & Strategic Planning, then Congressional Affairs Specialist and Section Chief of the Congressional Affairs Section; briefly a contract specialist at the Department of Defense; joined SBA OIG in 2011.

Role in the pandemic relief programs

As Deputy IG (and acting IG when the seat is vacant) he is part of the watchdog office overseeing SBA's pandemic lending, but the OIG's principal pandemic-fraud reports were published before his acting tenure began. His relevance is continuity of fraud-recovery oversight (semiannual reports to Congress, ongoing investigations and prosecutions support) into 2025.

Documents written or signed

Statement for the record before the House Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce (SBA OIG, March 2023; our copy does not carry his name legibly).

Career after / where they are now

His SBA biography lists him as SBA OIG Deputy Inspector General, the office's senior career leader, and he has been the point of contact for congressional oversight correspondence to SBA OIG. On April 30, 2026, William W. Kirk signed the office's Spring 2026 semiannual report to Congress as Inspector General (SBA OIG Spring 2026 semiannual report).

Sources held in this archive

Original source documents and archived captures

• SBA OIG Spring 2025 Semiannual Report to Congress Oct. 1, 2024 – Mar. 31, 2025
• About the SBA Office of Inspector General
• Official SBA bio
• Shoemaker statement for the record House subcommittee, SBA OIG, 2023

Related profiles

• Hannibal "Mike" Ware — the inspector general he served under and succeeded in an acting capacity.
• Michael Horowitz — PRAC chair for the IG community he stepped up inside.

Sources (first-party)

• Official SBA bio: Official SBA bio (original: sba.gov · stored capture)
• About the SBA Office of Inspector General: About the SBA Office of Inspector General (original: sba.gov · stored capture)
• SBA OIG Spring 2025 Semiannual Report to Congress (Oct. 1, 2024 – Mar. 31, 2025): SBA OIG Sar Spring 2025 (original: oversight.gov · stored capture)
• Shoemaker statement for the record (House subcommittee), SBA OIG, 2023: SBA OIG Deputy Inspector General Sheldon Shoemaker Statement For The R C2405bc6ffc895da (original: sba.gov · stored capture) (link now dead; copy taken from the Internet Archive, 9 April 2023)
• Senate Small Business Committee oversight letter addressed to Mr. Sheldon Shoemaker, Oct. 30, 2025: 103025 8a OIG Request Letter Final Sbc To SBA OIG 5a53ec98f8f45ab1 (original: ernst.senate.gov · stored capture)