Congress demands quarterly fraud reports on COVID-relief loans
H.R. 826 — COVID Fraud Transparency Act of 2026 · Filed by Roger Williams (R-TX) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 28, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
This bill requires the Small Business Administration's Inspector General to submit quarterly reports to Congress detailing fraud cases involving COVID-19 relief loans (PPP and EIDL loans). Each report must include the number of loans made, new fraud cases, resolved cases, and fraud types. The requirement expires two years after enactment and costs nothing to implement.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole function is to mandate transparency and oversight of fraud in a specific category of federal loans. It creates no new programs, spending, or private benefits—only a reporting requirement designed to expose and track misuse of public funds.
What the text implies
- Quarterly reports will create a public record of fraud patterns, potentially enabling journalists, auditors, and law enforcement to identify systemic vulnerabilities in COVID-loan administration.
- The two-year sunset means Congress must affirmatively reauthorize if it wants ongoing fraud transparency—a deliberate choice to revisit the issue rather than create permanent bureaucracy.
- Reports to both House and Senate Small Business committees ensure bipartisan visibility, reducing the risk that fraud data becomes partisan ammunition rather than a shared accountability tool.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Citizens benefit from transparency into how COVID-relief funds were misused and whether fraud is being detected and prosecuted. Quarterly public reporting to Congress creates accountability for both the SBA and fraudsters, and helps taxpayers understand the scale of losses from their own money.
Named in the bill
Small Business Administration (SBA), SBA Inspector General, House Committee on Small Business, Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), CARES Act
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Jan 28, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 28, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Small Business and Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Small Business”
- May 20, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- May 20, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute by the Yeas and Nays: 23 - 0”
- Jun 23, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H4141)”
- Jun 23, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Williams (TX) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $980,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 17 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Roger Williams, the sponsor, reported $529,851 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Association of Equipment Manufacturers — $980,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,529 characters) on Jul 10, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jan 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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