"A Voice for Small Business: How the SBA Office of Advocacy is Cutting Red Tape."

Committee on Small Business

2026-01-07

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Source: Congress.gov

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Good morning, everyone, and I now call the Committee on Small Business 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.
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The Honorable Casey Mulligan
I want to say welcome and thank you for being here for today's hearing, A Voice for Small Business, How the SBA Office of Advocacy is Cutting Red Tape.  I want to thank our witness, Dr. Casey Mulligan, the Chief Counsel of SBA's Office of Advocacy, for appearing before us today.   This hearing comes at a critical time for small businesses nationwide.  Main Street endured inflation, burdensome regulations, and rising interest rates at the hands of the Biden-Harris administration.  It is estimated that the total cost of regulations is now over $3 trillion a year, equal to 12 percent of the entire U.S. economy.  To put this in perspective, the cost of regulations in the U.S. exceeds the entire economy of the United Kingdom.  To make matters worse, the Biden administration's regulatory onslaught cost over $1.8 trillion in   due to new regulations.  Now more than ever, we must ensure that the federal government doesn't make it harder to do our job, to create hardship for job creators, and make it easier for them to thrive.  And what is where the SBA Office of Advocacy comes in.   So the Office of Advocacy is an independent voice for small businesses within the federal government in fights against burdensome regulations.  Under the Regulatory Flexibility Act, or the RFA, federal agencies are statutorily required to ensure that regulations have a limited impact on small business.  However, last Congress, this committee investigated agency compliance and simply put, agencies skirt the law and end up implementing a mountain of crippling regulations on Main Street America.   Despite their best efforts, the Office of Advocacy lacks the legislative authority to hold the agencies accountable for ignoring the RFA, and that must change.  Under President Trump, the Office of Advocacy has been pivotal in repealing Bernson misguided regulations.  This includes their work with FinCEN to roll back the Bernson Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Rule.  I'm happy that so many of my colleagues are dedicated to fighting crippling regulations, including those who have joined my bill, H.R.   796, this 1071 repeal to protect Small Business Lending Act, which was reported favorably out of the Committee on Financial Services.
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The Honorable Casey Mulligan
So I genuinely hope that the hearings like this will show how important it is to remove regulatory barriers that stifle American entrepreneurship, which should have bipartisan support.  I look forward to discussing how we can strengthen the Office of Advocacy's role and how Congress can give it tools   It needs to continue advocating for Main Street.  I want to thank you, Dr. Mulligan, again, for being here today.
And with that, I yield to my friend and distinguished ranking member from New York, Ms. Velasquez.
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The Honorable Casey Mulligan
Good morning, and thank you, Chairman Williams, and welcome to the committee, Dr. Mulligan.  The Office of Advocacy plays a unique role within the federal government, serving as the independent voice of small businesses and promoting the concerns of small firms before both federal and state policymakers.   Advocacy's important work, when done in a thorough and independent manner, as the Congress intended, can help prevent well-meaning rules from unintentionally harming small competitors.  Small businesses need a strong advocate right now.  Over the past year, small firms have lost government contracts,   experienced supply chain chaos, and endured a constant state of confusion aimed amid President Trump's tariffs, rising prices, and avalanche of policy changes.   Manufacturing jobs have fallen every month since April 2025, extending Trump's losing streak that cost 58,000 jobs.  I would like to enter into the record a Wall Street Journal editorial   entitled, Where Are Those Manufacturing Jobs?  The op-ed contends that tariffs are the primary factor leading to job losses and a broader decline in the economy.

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