The top Republican on the House Committee on Small Business is calling for President Donald Trump’s new Small Business Administration (SBA) chief to do what he says the Biden administration wouldn’t – and provide answers on alleged taxpayer-funded electioneering in swing states and the failure to actively recoup fraudulent or misappropriated COVID relief funds.

Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, chair of the House Committee on Small Business, told Fox News Digital Thursday his committee has sounded the alarm on how the Biden administration ‘moved the [SBA] far away from its intended mission: serving Main Street America.’

Williams recalled how the House Small Business Committee had been ‘stonewalled’ in multiple requests for information on how the SBA was working under a 2021 Biden executive order on ‘promoting access to voting’ when it forged a ‘memorandum of understanding (MOU)’ with Michigan election officials.

In the committee’s letter to SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler being sent later Thursday, the panel will note Trump rescinded the Biden order, but remains ‘deeply troubled by the lack of transparency from the Biden-Harris SBA and looks forward to working with you to determine what impact this may have had on the 2024 election.’

The letter will also alert Loeffler to several Biden-era rule changes they believe present an ‘immediate threat’ to its small-business-lending portfolio.

As for allegations the previous SBA leadership punted on recovering misallocated COVID aid, the letter invokes Trump’s DOGE endeavors and floats a project to investigate fraud and recover the funds, which they characterize as a prime example of how Loeffler can assist that cause.

‘It is estimated that across the SBA’s COVID-19 lending programs, approximately $200 billion went to potentially fraudulent recipients,’ the letter said, while also noting the Biden SBA ‘unilaterally decided’ to suspend delinquent disaster loan and PPP collections for loans under $100,000.

‘The Committee is interested in determining the Biden-Harris SBA’s rationale for this decision and seeks to understand the impact this had on the ability of law enforcement to track and prosecute fraud,’ the committee wrote.

Last year, Williams issued a rare committee subpoena for staff travel calendars and more information from the SBA seeking to discern whether or how taxpayer money was potentially being spent to register voters in heavily Democratic areas in Michigan under the MOU.

Democrats on the panel, however, have long criticized the GOP majority’s machinations:

‘Unfortunately, with [these Michigan/MOU] subpoenas, Republicans have rejected these principles to pursue a partisan inquiry,’ ranking member Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., told Fox News Digital.

While the Biden-era SBA maintained they did nothing wrong, Williams persisted in trying to conduct congressional oversight of the alleged electioneering. Similar could be said for the committee’s efforts to probe the SBA’s position on recouping the problematic COVID aid amounts.

‘The Committee looks forward to working with Administrator Loeffler and the Trump Administration to return credibility and transparency to the SBA,’ Williams said Thursday.

‘Together, we will ensure small businesses have a voice in our government and bring the Golden Age of America to Main Street.’

The Senate voted to advance the confirmation of FBI director nominee Kash Patel on Thursday. 

A vote to invoke cloture and begin up to 30 hours of debate on the nominee passed 51 to 47. 

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted earlier this month, 12 to 10, to advance Patel to the full floor for a vote. 

Still, Patel faced a somewhat rockier path to confirmation, even in the Republican-majority chamber, after Democrats on the panel used their political weight to delay Patel’s confirmation vote earlier this month. 

Top Judiciary Democrat Dick Durbin claimed on the Senate floor that Patel had been behind recent mass firings at the FBI, citing what he described as ‘highly credible’ whistleblower reports indicating Patel had personally directed the ongoing purge of FBI employees prior to his confirmation.

But that was sharply refuted by Senate Republicans, who described the allegation as a baseless and politically motivated attempt to delay Patel’s confirmation, and by a Patel aide, who described Durbin’s claim as categorically false.

This person told Fox News Digital that Patel flew home to Las Vegas after his confirmation hearing and had ‘been sitting there waiting for the process to play out.’

Patel, a vociferous opponent to the investigations into President Donald Trump and one who served at the forefront of Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims, vowed during his confirmation hearing last month that he would not engage in political retribution against agents who worked on the classified documents case against Trump and other politically sensitive matters.

But his confirmation comes at a time when the FBI’s activities, leadership, and personnel decisions are being closely scrutinized for signs of politicization or retaliation.

Thousands of FBI agents and their superiors were ordered to fill out a questionnaire detailing their roles in the Jan. 6 investigation, prompting concerns of retaliation or retribution. 

A group of FBI agents filed an emergency lawsuit this month seeking to block the public identification of any agents who worked on the Jan. 6 investigations, in an attempt to head off what they described as potentially retaliatory efforts against personnel involved. 

‘There will be no politicization at the FBI,’ Patel told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing. ‘There will be no retributive action.’

But making good on that promise could prove to be complicated. 

Trump told reporters this month that he intends to fire ‘some’ of the FBI personnel involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots, characterizing the agents’ actions as ‘corrupt,’ even as he stopped short of providing any additional details as to how he reached that conclusion.

‘We had some corrupt agents,’ Trump told reporters, adding that ‘those people are gone, or they will be gone— and it will be done quickly, and very surgically.’

The White House has not responded to questions over how it reached that conclusion, or how many personnel could be impacted, though a federal judge in D.C. agreed to consider the lawsuit.

And in another message meant to assuage senators, Patel said he didn’t find it feasible to require a warrant for intelligence agencies to surveil U.S. citizens suspected to be involved in national security matters, referring to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

‘Having a warrant requirement to go through that information in real time is just not comported with the requirement to protect American citizens,’ Patel said. ‘It’s almost impossible to make that function and serve the national, no-fail mission.’

‘Get a warrant’ had become a rallying cry of right-wing conservatives worried about the privacy of U.S. citizens, and almost derailed the reauthorization of the surveillance program entirely. Patel said the program has been misused, but he does not support making investigators go to court and plea their case before being able to wiretap any U.S. citizen. 

Patel held a number of national security roles during Trump’s first administration – chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, senior advisor to the acting director of national intelligence, and National Security Council official. 

He worked as a senior aide on counterterrorism for former House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, where he fought to declassify records he alleged would show the FBI’s application for a surveillance warrant for 2016 Trump campaign aide Carter Page was illegitimate, and served as a national security prosecutor in the Justice Department. 

In public comments, Patel has suggested he would refocus the FBI on law enforcement and away from involvement in any prosecutorial decisions. 

In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, he suggested his top two priorities are to ‘let good cops be cops’ and transparency, which he described as ‘essential.’

‘If confirmed, I will focus on streamlining operations at headquarters while bolstering the presence of field agents across the nation,’ he wrote. ‘Collaboration with local law enforcement is crucial to fulfilling the FBI’s mission.’

Patel went on: ‘Members of Congress have hundreds of unanswered requests to the FBI. If confirmed, I will be a strong advocate for congressional oversight, ensuring that the FBI operates with the openness necessary to rebuild trust by simply replying to lawmakers.’

Moderate GOP Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, revealed she will not back President Donald Trump’s nominee to be director of the FBI, Kash Patel. 

‘The nomination of Kash Patel to serve as Director of the FBI comes to the Senate against the backdrop of recent personnel actions at the Department of Justice, including the resignations of several career federal prosecutors who felt they were being instructed to act in a manner inconsistent with their ethical obligations,’ she said in a Thursday statement released just before a key procedural vote. 

‘While I strongly support efforts to ensure all federal employees perform their responsibilities ethically and in accordance with the law, Mr. Patel’s recent political profile undermines his ability to serve in the apolitical role of Director of the FBI,’ she added. 

Trump’s controversial FBI nominee cleared his last procedural hurdle on Thursday morning, despite losing Collins’ support. 

Key Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., are backing Patel for the role. 

Tillis, who held out on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s nomination, was one of the first to get behind Patel, helping to shepherd him through the Senate. 

Moderate Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has not said if she will vote to confirm Patel, but she did vote ‘yes’ on the last procedural hurdle, indicating she would do so on the final vote. 

Patel will have a final confirmation vote on Thursday afternoon. 

Collins also opposed Hegseth, alongside Murkowski and former Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Vice President JD Vance needed to break the tie in the Senate and confirm Hegseth. 

With full attendance, Patel can only afford to lose three Republican votes, assuming that all Democrats will oppose him. 

Collins is notably up for re-election in 2026 in Maine. She was an exception during her last bid when she won the state alongside then-President Joe Biden, as a result of split-ticket voting. 

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will not run for re-election in 2026 and will instead retire, the longtime senator announced Thursday.

McConnell has served in the Senate for decades, including as Senate majority leader under President Donald Trump’s first administration. McConnell is the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history, and he announced his retirement on his 83rd birthday.

‘Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,’ McConnell said in prepared remarks to the Senate floor. ‘Every day in between, I’ve been humbled by the trust they’ve placed in me to do their business here. Representing our commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime. I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last.’

McConnell was first elected in 1984, and he plans to serve out the rest of his term ending in January 2027.

The announcement comes after a series of health scares for McConnell, who has frozen up during statements to the public on multiple occasions.

His office never provided an explanation for the episodes.

Most recently, McConnell fell while exiting the Senate chamber earlier this month. He also fell during a GOP lunch in December.

McConnell’s announcement comes roughly a year after he ceded his role as Republican leader in the Senate, ultimately to be replaced by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.

‘One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,’ he said in floor remarks at the time. ‘So I stand before you today… to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is planning to slash approximately 7,000 probationary workers in Washington, D.C., and across the U.S. starting Thursday, according to reports. 

The layoffs will affect probationary workers who have been employed for one year or less and have not been able to secure full civil service protection, The Associated Press reported, citing a person familiar with the plans.

Reuters also reported about the expected layoffs, citing a person familiar with the matter who said about 6,700 IRS workers, or 7% of the tax agency’s roughly 95,000-person workforce, would be eliminated. 

The source told Reuters that those employees on the chopping block included those holding positions that ranged from revenue agents, to specialized auditors to IT specialists across all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.

It is unclear how the layoffs will affect tax collection services at the IRS, which is expected to receive more than 140 million returns this year, according to the AP.

The source told Reuters that the IRS will keep several thousand probationary employees who are considered critical for processing tax returns, including workers tasked with supporting and advocating for taxpayers. 

The AP’s source, meanwhile, reportedly said the job cuts will largely impact the employees in compliance. The compliance department oversees whether taxpayers are filing their returns, paying their taxes and meeting other tax obligations in full and on time by the April 15 due date.

The IRS has not confirmed the reported layoff plan. Fox News Digital reached out to the IRS and the Department of Treasury for comment Thursday but did not immediately hear back. 

Laying off probationary federal employees comes as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to increase government efficiency and eliminate wasteful federal spending. The Department of Government Efficiency has been tasked with trimming the federal workforce, which includes laying off nearly all recent hires.

The announcement comes after President Donald Trump stated on Jan. 29 that federal employees must return to in-person work by early February or face termination. 

IRS employees involved in the 2025 tax season were also told earlier this month that they were not eligible to accept the Trump administration’s buyout offer until mid-May, after the taxpayer filing deadline, the AP reported.

Trimming the workforce will partially undo the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, which devoted $80 billion to employing 87,000 new IRS agents, according to a September 2023 report from the House Oversight Committee. 

The funds were used to hire agents who specifically targeted middle-class Americans, the oversight committee claimed. 

The Biden administration, however, argued that staffing up the IRS would help the federal government better ensure wealthy Americans were paying their fair share of taxes.

Service performance and phone wait times at the IRS have improved in the past two filing seasons, according to a statement from the IRS in January.

‘This has been a historic period of improvement for the IRS, and people will see additional tools and features to help them with filing their taxes this tax season,’ IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel wrote in the statement. ‘These taxpayer-focused improvements we’ve done so far are important, but they are just the beginning of what the IRS needs to do. More can be done with continued investment in the nation’s tax system.’

Fox News’ Alexandra Koch and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Democrats on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee claimed their GOP counterparts would ‘rue the day’ they confirm FBI Director nominee Kash Patel, who is slated for a final vote Thursday afternoon and is expected to be approved. 

‘There’s no question here he is unqualified and unprepared,’ Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said outside the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Thursday morning. 

‘The only question is whether my Republican colleagues will do the right thing.’

He warned that a vote in favor of Patel’s nomination ‘will haunt you.’

‘You will rue the day of this vote if it’s in favor of Kash Patel, because the American people will hold you accountable, and we will make sure that the American people know about this vote,’ he concluded. 

The Senate will vote to end debate on Patel’s nomination in the late morning and conduct a final confirmation vote in the afternoon.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the Judiciary Committee ranking member, led the morning press conference, telling reporters, ‘My Senate Republican colleagues are willfully ignoring myriad red flags about Mr. Patel, especially his recurring instinct to threaten retribution against his perceived enemies.’

‘This is an extremely dangerous flaw for someone who seeks to lead the nation’s most powerful domestic investigative agency for the next 10 years,’ he added. 

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., added, ‘Kash Patel, mark my words, will cause evil in this building behind us, and Republicans who vote for him will rue that day.’

Durbin and the committee’s Democrats echoed claims they made earlier in the month about Patel directing terminations at the FBI already and allegedly lying during his confirmation hearing about it. 

They said ‘highly credible’ whistleblower reports pointed to Patel ‘personally directing the ongoing purge of FBI employees prior to his Senate confirmation for the role.’

But a representative for Patel’s nomination effort categorically denied the accusation and pushed back on Durbin’s claims that Patel had any involvement. 

The direction to begin terminating some FBI employees and identify all current and former bureau personnel assigned to Jan. 6 and Hamas cases for an internal review was handed down to acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll last month, the day following Patel’s confirmation hearing. 

Democrats pointed to the fact that Patel denied during the hearing having any knowledge about planned terminations of those involved in investigations involving former President Donald Trump.

According to a senior transition team official for Patel, the nominee had departed the capital the night of his hearing, flying home to Las Vegas, where he had ‘been sitting there waiting for the process to play out.’

‘Mr. Patel has been going through the confirmation process, and everything he has done since his nomination has been above board,’ the official said in an interview earlier this month with Fox News Digital. ‘And any insinuation otherwise is false.’

In addition to his trip home to Vegas, Patel has also spent time hunting away from Washington, the official said, providing photographic evidence of Patel’s activities.