Today U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and seven colleagues sent a letter to Senate Small Business Committee Chairman Ben Cardin (D-Md.) calling for an additional hearing on Dilawar Syed, President Biden’s nominee for SBA deputy administrator. The senators’ concerns come from recent inflammatory statements from Emgage Action, a vocally anti-Israel political action committee of which Syed is a member of the board.
“While his membership was disclosed to the committee prior to his nomination hearing on April 21, the political organization has since made alarming statements that have members of your committee and the small business community that we represent seriously concerned,” the senators write. “Emgage’s history of supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement combined with its overtly anti-Israel positions and rhetoric necessitates an additional hearing to ensure Mr. Syed’s confirmation to be the second-most-powerful individual at the SBA would not jeopardize small businesses with close ties to Israeli companies or small businesses owned by Jewish Americans.”
Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), John Kennedy (R-La.), James Inhofe (R-Ark.), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) cosigned the letter.
Full text of the letter is available here and below.
June 30, 2021
The Honorable Ben Cardin
Chairman
Senate Committee on Small
Business and Entrepreneurship
428A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Chairman Cardin:
We write today to express serious concern regarding Mr. Dilawar Syed, President Biden’s nominee to be Deputy Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA), given his involvement with Emgage Action. As you know, Mr. Syed has been an active board member of Emgage Action since 2017, a political action committee affiliated with Emgage USA and vocally anti-Israel. While his membership was disclosed to the committee prior to his nomination hearing on April 21, the political organization has since made alarming statements that have members of your committee and the small business community that we represent seriously concerned.
Following Mr. Syed’s confirmation hearing, Emgage Action released incendiary statements during the regional unrest, stating “This state of affairs is not a case of ‘both sides.’ Not when Palestinians are occupied and the State of Israel is the occupier.” The organization amplified accusations that Israel is an apartheid state and issued a statement of support after a House member inexcusably equated Israel and the United States to Hamas and Taliban terrorist organizations, something that earned the rebuke of the Democratic Speaker of the House. These comments are not only inflammatory, they demonstrate a deep-seated prejudice that is of serious concern to the small business community.
Emgage’s history of supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement combined with its overtly anti-Israel positions and rhetoric necessitates an additional hearing to ensure Mr. Syed’s confirmation to be the second-most-powerful individual at the SBA would not jeopardize small businesses with close ties to Israeli companies or small businesses owned by Jewish Americans. If an individual who supports these accusations was to be confirmed, it would hinder the close cooperation businesses in America and Israel have in areas such as, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, medicine, bio-medicine, and more.
Respectfully,
James E. Risch
United States Senator
Marco Rubio
United States Senator
Josh Hawley
United States Senator
Tim Scott
United States Senator
John Neely Kennedy
United States Senator
Jim Inhofe
United States Senator
Roger Marshall, M.D.
United States Senator
Joni K. Ernst
United States Senator
