SBA Hot Topic Tuesday — No Cuts to SBA 7(a) or 504 in Trump’s 2018 Budget

May 23, 2017

By Bob Coleman
Editor, SBA Hot Topic Tuesday

SBA Hot Topic Tuesday — No Cuts to SBA 7(a) or 504 in Trump’s 2018 Budget

It’s a one line statement on page 43 of the President’s proposed fiscal 2018 budget released this morning.

There is no change from the SBA budget overview issued last March. That report calls from $45 billion in SBA lending authority in 2018 — a sufficient level to support anticipated SBA 7(a) and 504 lending demand.

Plus, recent House hearings signal support for legislation allowing the Administrator increase funding levels by up to 10% to avoid the lending “holiday” suspensions in recent years.

Still, the budget projects a 4.9% cut. What part of SBA’s mission will be cut?

Robb Mandelbaum of Forbes writes, “The blueprint suggests that most of the $42 million in cuts to the SBA budget would come from the various counseling and entrepreneurial development programs that the SBA supports. The budget would save $12 million by zeroing out three small grant programs: PRIME technical assistance for microenterprises, regional innovation clusters where the government partners with research and financing institutions, and growth accelerators for start-ups.”

This corrects an earlier version of the Coleman Report which had the embarrassing typo of $45 million, instead of $45 billion.