GOP holds up SBA post

Senate Small Business Committee at a standstill

      Republican members of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee are holding up the committee’s vote on the nomination of Dilawar Syed to the second highest post at the Small Business Administration.

     Syed would be the highest-ranked Muslim American in the Biden Administration if confirmed as SBA Deputy Administrator.

      Born in Pakistan, Syed earned an undergraduate degree and an MBA in the U.S., served in President Obama’s administration, led an entrepreneurship task force for the state of California and is CEO of a healthcare tech company.

      His confirmation is being delayed by several GOP members criticizing his ties to a Muslim-American organization, while national faith groups say the GOP critics are wrongly targeting Syed’s religion.

      Republican senators on the committee, including former chair Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, are stating concerns about Syed’s involvement as a former board member with the EmgageUSA non-profit organization that focuses on empowering Muslim-Americans to be politically engaged and to vote.

      Syed apparently recently left the board. He was not listed as a board member last week on Emgage’s website.

      Eight of the 10 Republicans on the panel outlined their concerns in a letter dated June 30 to Committee Chair Ben Cardin, D-MD. The GOP members claimed that the EmgageUSA organization had made “anti-Israel” statements in recent months indicating “deep-seated prejudice” against Israel.

      GOP members of the committee did not attend the scheduled hearings on Syed’s nomination in April and in July, resulting in a lack of a quorum and an inability to officially convene the hearings.

      The Republicans are demanding another committee hearing to air the concerns and reportedly are preventing other hearings. The Senate committee’s schedule has been at a standstill for months with no hearings held since June.

      A coalition of national faith groups is decrying the GOP actions as “anti-Muslim” and Islamophobic. “We understand this is the first time in the committee’s long history that it has chosen to boycott a vote on a nominee. We are deeply concerned by the apparent anti-Muslim animus driving this unprecedented action against Dilawar Syed,” the groups wrote to the Senate committee on Aug. 9.

More information:
GOP letter: https://bit.ly/3n1HERy
White House nomination: https://bit.ly/38Gnu6Y
Faith groups letter: https://bit.ly/3jJn9XO

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