Letter to Acting Administrator Woodel, Small Business Administration (February 3, 2025)
Summary
A letter dated February 3, 2025 to Acting Administrator Woodel of the Small Business Administration expresses alarm over reports that officials associated with Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have requested and are being granted access to SBA systems. It quotes an email to SBA employees stating that access to all SBA systems is being granted, including HR, contract and payment systems. The letter says the access endangers the private information of small business owners, resource partners and employees, and cites the termination of the SBA Inspector General on January 24, 2025. It asks questions on who granted access, DOGE employees at SBA, safeguards and the Privacy Act of 1974, with answers requested by February 7, 2025. The signature block names Ranking Member Nydia M. Velázquez and other Members of Congress.
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Cite this document
“Letter to Acting Administrator Woodel, Small Business Administration (February 3, 2025).”
Original at democrats-smallbusiness.house.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/4916-2025-02-04-ranking-member-vel-zquez-committee-democrats-deman-att-6bf340c362/
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February 3, 2025
Acting Administrator Woodel
Small Business Administration
409 3rd Street, SW
Washington, DC 20416
Dear Acting Administrator Woodel:
We write to express our alarm over reports that officials associated with Elon Musk and his
quasi-governmental side project called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
have requested and are being granted access to the Small Business Administration’s (SBA)
systems. Per an email sent to SBA employees, “access to all SBA systems” is being granted,
including HR, contract, and payment systems. According to reports, employees were told
such access was authorized yet the identity of who granted this permission remains unknown.
This unprecedented access to unauthorized non-governmental individuals will have wide-ranging
implications for America’s 34 million small businesses. It is especially concerning given the
recent access provided to the Bureau of Fiscal Service’s payment systems1 and the
actions taken regarding the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).2
The Small Business Administration (SBA) helps entrepreneurs launch and grow their
small businesses through several proven and time-tested programs that provide access to
capital, counseling and entrepreneurial training, and disaster assistance. In FY 2024, SBA
supported at least $37.7 billion in 7(a) loans, 504 loans, and microloans; counseled and
trained more than 644,000 small business owners; and provided billions of dollars in loans for
disaster survivors.3
After last week’s attempt to freeze federal grants and loans, we are concerned that
Musk’s followers intend to block critical SBA services from reaching our nation’s small
employers. Unauthorized access to SBA’s systems hurts not just small employers but also SBA’s
vast network of lenders and resource partners and will have a disastrous effect on the services
provided to small
1
SBA Grants DOGE Full Access to Its Systems, Yeshiva World News, Feb. 3. 2025,
https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/liveblogs/live-blog/2360047/sba-grants-doge-full-access-to-its-
systems.html.
2
Will Steakin, et al., Turmoil inside USAID as Musk calls the agency “criminal’ and says it has to die,
ABCNews.com, Feb. 3, 2025, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/turmoil-inside-usaid-doge-reps-offices-senior-
officials/story?id=118368900.
3
U.S. SMALL BUS. ADMIN., FISCAL YEAR 2024 ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REPORT (Jan. 2025).
businesses. Beyond the operational impact, this breach endangers the private information of small
business owners, SBA resource partners, and employees. It is alarming that sensitive personal
information, including names, addresses, business returns, and banking information could not only
be compromised but also downloaded onto new servers or integrated into a database accessible to
unauthorized users. 4 These businesses are taxpayers and deserve to know their information is
protected, safe, and not used for nefarious purposes. We strongly object to granting any outside,
unauthorized, non-governmental person access to this confidential and sensitive information.
We are deeply concerned that allowing sensitive information could not just harm our nation’s small
employers by eliminating critical services but also create an anticompetitive environment.
Allowing an unelected billionaire and his associates to gain access to SBA’s systems and
proprietary information could allow him or any inexperienced aides to target entrepreneurs.
Our nation’s small business community deserves better than this Administration’s attempts to
target them and the critical programs they rely on to start, operate, and grow their businesses.
Instead of attacking our Main Street businesses, we should be working together to provide more
investments in the policies that will help them continue to create jobs and grow our economy.
These actions combined with the termination of the independent SBA Inspector General on
January 24, 2025, are particularly troubling. The Offices of Inspector General was created to
independently and objectively hold federal agencies accountable – without the need for DOGE.
The American people deserve answers about this mismanagement, which threatens the privacy
and economic security of every American. Please answer the following questions by February 7,
2025:
1) Are the reports accurate that Elon Musk and his team have access to SBA’s systems? If so:
a. What are the names of the specific systems?
b. Who has asked to gain access to the systems and for what purpose?
c. Who granted access?
d. Have any of these requests been approved? Are any still under consideration?
e. What information was obtained and what is it being used for?
f. Was there any breach of personal information?
2) The Executive Order directs each agency head to establish a DOGE team of at least four
employees within each agency. Please provide a comprehensive list of all DOGE
employees at SBA, as well as a specific list of every individual who has been granted access
to the system since President Trump’s inauguration.
a. Did they have appropriate clearances to protect sensitive information?
b. Please provide detailed information on how DOGE individuals complied with
Ethics in Government Act, which include specific financial disclosure and conflict
of interest safeguards.
c. Are the DOGE employees internal or external hires?
d. What specific access has been granted, and what was the rationale for doing so?
4
Billy Mitchell, Lawsuit claims systems behind OPM governmentwide email blast are illegal, insecure,
FEDSCOOP.com, Jan. 28, 2025, https://fedscoop.com/opm-email-federal-workforce-lawsuit-server-privacy-
security/.
e. Can you confirm that no individual outside the SBA has been granted access to the
systems since President Trump’s inauguration?
3) What safeguards are in place to ensure access to these systems are not abused?
a. What safeguards are in place to protect Americans’ personal and private data?
b. What safeguards are in place to protect the integrity of the programs and ensure that
no authorized service or payment is delayed or canceled?
c. Please detail the extent to which you complied with the Privacy Act of 1974, which
prescribes how federal agency records are stored, accessed, used, and disclosed?
4) The EO Establishing and Implementing the President’s Department of Government
Efficiency reorganizes the U.S. Digital Service, to be led by an Administrator within
DOGE who reports to the White House Chief of Staff. While we’ve seen reports that Elon
Musk is leading this effort, we’ve seen no formal communications from the White House
naming Elon Musk as Administrator. Please provide specific information as to who is the
administrator at DOGE, and please list all of the vetting of the appointment that has taken
place.
5) What role did you personally play in granting access to Mr. Musk or other individuals
affiliated with him?
6) What procedures are in place for controlling and providing access to the system, and were
these procedures followed in this case?
7) Were any SBA employees threatened with administrative leave or otherwise in order for
access to be granted?
8) Did President Trump, Elon Musk, or anyone at the White House suggest making any
threats to fire or place anyone on leave that objected to grant the access? If yes, who
suggested it and when did they suggest it?
9) Has the SBA threatened to remove or put any other career civil servants at the Small
Business Administration on administrative leave following President Trump’s
inauguration? Has anyone else in those offices left the Department since then?
10) Were additional unsecured servers set up after access was granted to the SBA’s systems?
If so:
a. What purpose do they serve and why were they necessary?
b. Please provide a list of anyone with access to these servers?
c. Have these servers undergone a Privacy Impact Assessment? If so, please provide
detailed information.
11) Please provide the legal authority under which the SBA granted access to systems to
anyone associated with Elon Musk or DOGE
12) Copies of all communications between associates of Elon Musk or DOGE and the SBA
related to accessing SBA’s systems.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter. If you have any questions, please don’t
hesitate to contact committee staff. We look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Nydia M. Velázquez Morgan McGarvey
Ranking Member Member Of Congress
House Small Business Committee
Hillary Scholten LaMonica McIver
Member of Congress Member Of Congress
Gil Cisneros Kelly Morrison
Member of Congress Member Of Congress
George Latimer Derek Tran
Member of Congress Member Of Congress
Lateefah Simon Johnny Olszewski
Member of Congress Member Of Congress
Herb Conaway Maggie Goodlander
Member of Congress Member of Congress
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