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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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.