Amid Commerce Department’s stonewalling, Senators ask GAO to investigate if Trump officials violated the law or engaged in misconduct & what officials are doing with funding Congress appropriated to serve minority enterprises & create jobs

Senators have been demanding accountability, answers, documents & DOGE details since Trump issued illegal executive order

Washington (June 3, 2025) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, joined Senators Maria Cantwell, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Science, Manufacturing and Competitiveness, Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) to hammer the Trump Administration for its illegal dismantling of the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA). The Senators asked the GAO to investigate whether actions by Trump Commerce Department officials or others in the Administration violated congressional directives, the extent to which they undermined MBDA’s congressional mandate and whether any officials have engaged in misconduct.

“On May 2, 2025, the White House released its recommendations on discretionary funding levels for fiscal year (FY) 2026, which expressly acknowledge that the Commerce Department under Secretary Howard Lutnick has ‘fully eliminated’ the MBDA,” the Senators wrote in a letter to the Comptroller General. “Prior to this admission, my colleagues and I repeatedly raised concerns about the Department’s efforts to dismantle the MBDA unilaterally, particularly given Secretary Lutnick’s clear testimony during his confirmation hearing stating he did not support dismantling the agency. We sent multiple letters to Secretary Lutnick and the Department seeking basic information about the current state of the MBDA. To date, the Department has failed to substantively respond to any of our requests, and it is becoming increasingly clear that Department leadership is not taking these concerns seriously.”

The Senators have raised concerns and demanded accountability and answers from the Trump Administration since the president issued his unlawful executive order. Today’s letter follows a letter the senators wrote late last week to Keith Sonderling, Acting Under Secretary for MBDA, demanding the Trump Administration detail its compliance with a May 13 federal court injunction ordering it to stop the illegal dismantling of the agency and reinstate its personnel and grantmaking capacities. The Senators previously sent a May 1, 2025 inquiry to Sonderling and two previous letters to Sec. Lutnick in March and April on his failure to protect the agency, despite his testimony before the Committee stating he did not support dismantling it.   

The text of the letter can be found HERE. 

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