Restoring the SBA: Putting Main Street America First
House Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Regulations
2025-03-11
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Source: Congress.gov
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Good morning, everyone. Before we get started, I want to recognize Congressman Brad Finstead from the great state of Minnesota to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer. Regulation to order. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any time. I now recognize myself for my opening statement. Welcome to today's hearing which will focus on restoring the SBA to its original mission of serving Main Street America. First, I want to thank our witnesses, all three of you, for joining us today on your own time and your own dime. I really appreciate you being here. I hope this hearing will continue to be a productive dialogue on how we can ensure that the Small Business Administration returns to its mission to assist small businesses while increasing efficiency at the agency. owning your own business is one of the most rewarding careers in our great nation the s b a has dedicated resources to aid job creators who find themselves having a tough time navigating their entrepreneurial journey through the public private partnership with the small business development center small businesses at all stages can receive critical counseling and training sbd sees have many solutions to support main street from preparing loan applications to workforce development
Since we spend taxpayer dollars providing these resources to entrepreneurs, we must ensure that these programs operate effectively and efficiently. Importantly, these programs must be consistent with the intent and mission of the SBA. Unfortunately, during the Biden-Harris administration, the SBA strayed from its core mission and prioritized politics and misguided policies over American small businesses. An overall theme was the SBA's flawed operation that limited the agency's day-to-day work. Notably, the agency's work-from-home policy for SBA staff hindered its ability to execute its mission up until a few weeks ago, thanks to President Trump and our new administrator. Biden's SBA falsely claimed that it could operate remotely, but the reality was that the SBA was a ghost town. We saw it firsthand. When members of this committee visited the SBA headquarters, we found rows of empty desk calendars that had not been moved since 2020. And this was when they knew we were coming. The Biden SBA repeatedly failed to deliver for America's small businesses while also failing to conduct sufficient oversight of its programs. Instead, they focused on turning the agency into a voter registration arm of the Biden hearing reelection efforts. It is critical that we conduct the necessary oversight over the SBA's operations, especially for political initiatives like voter registration, that we're well outside the scope of the agency's core mission, providing support to America's small businesses. As I just mentioned, thanks to President Trump's steps to address these egregious failures and more are being taken with the new SBA administrator, Kelly Loeffler. During this hearing, we will dive into what went wrong However, it's equally vital to focus on creating positive change. These efforts should begin with the untapped potential of the SBA Office of Advocacy, better known as just advocacy. The Office of Advocacy is supposed to serve as the independent voice for small businesses within the federal government, monitoring and ensuring compliance with the Regulatory Reflexibility Act and helping policymakers better understand issues confronting small business owners.
Over the years, though, advocacy has faced several challenges in advocating for small businesses. Of top concern, the Biden administration's refused to even nominate an individual for the position of chief counsel of the Office of Advocacy, leaving the top small business advocate position vacant. Last Congress, a committee sent letters to then President Biden calling on him to fill the position, but instead reckless rulemaking followed. While small businesses were forced to endure Biden's unprecedented onslaught of regulations, his administration shamefully did not prioritize appointing an independent voice for small businesses. These failures have shown just how out of touch the SBA had become. It's time. It's time to return the SBA to its core mission and finally meet the needs of Main Street America. And that is why I'm proud to announce that I have introduced the Returning SBA to Main Street Act in the U.S.
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