House Small Business SubCommittee Holds a Hearing of the Importance of SBA Staff in the Field

March 12, 2025

Bob Coleman
Founder & Publisher

House Small Business SubCommittee Holds a Hearing of the Importance of SBA Staff in the Field

The following questions were posed to Missouri State SBDC Director Ted Gutierrez (pictured right) about moving staff out of Washington, D.C. to the states and streamlining SBA lending programs:

Chairman Alford: Can you speak to us about how an SBA that is focused on Main Street could actually help small businesses? 

Mr. Gutierrez: Having the SBA focused on the mission and values of what the SBA should be, in supporting small businesses, is crucial. I know that several SBA field offices are short on staff. I know many of them were not necessarily available to help as soon as help was needed. Therefore, we were able to fill the gap, along with some other resource partners as well, but the SBA essentially just needs to focus on what it is they’re doing and serving small businesses, relying on its partners to work and to help on the front lines. Having SBA in the field would be a tremendous asset to small businesses, particularly throughout the Midwest, of course, working with the community bankers. Having those subject matter experts in the field would be amazing. Over the past few years, we’ve had one SBA representative in the field in Missouri, down in Springfield, and the others in St. Louis and Kansas City. So that simply just is not enough assistance from SBA throughout the state.

Chairman Williams: Mr. Gutierrez, as we’ve been discussing, bloated and duplicative SBA programs waste taxpayers’ dollars and undermine the effectiveness of services provided to small businesses. Could you elaborate on ways the Committee can streamline SBA programs?

Mr. Gutierrez: Sure, I love the idea of having more SBA presence in the field to serve the rural communities. I believe that there are a lot of programs that were created to duplicate some of the services that we’ve been doing for over forty years. For example, I believe the navigators program was designed to reach those underserved populations. We are already there. We are already serving the underserved populations from rural America to Main Street in St. Louis and Main Street in Kansas City to down in Joplin, Missouri. We do all that sort of stuff, so to have that money duplicated to a whole new agency or organization, you’re recreating the wheel. We’ve been doing it for over forty years. During the time that there was CARES ACT money, we were allocated a large amount of money. Our results doubled or sometimes tripled in some of the areas. When that funding did go away, we were left with what we called what we believe would have been the COVID cliff, where the money dried up, but the demand for our services didn’t. We’re still at an all-time high. So, for the services that we provide, we often have up to two weeks before someone can come in and see one of our business councilors in the rural area. As far as duplication in the process, we’re the first ones here, and we will be the last ones out the door because we’re here every day doing what we need to do to serve Main Street America.

Rep. Finstad: As president and CEO of the Job Creators Network, you know the important role the SBA plays in supporting small business owners. One of the things I’ve seen in my past experience working in the federal government is the ability to meet the customer’s needs, and that’s usually a relationship-based, face, ‘how can I help you’ kind of situation. So, I am really happy to hear that Administrator Loeffler has returned the SBA to in-person work. So, I just want to know from you, do you believe this move will improve the services at the SBA?

Mr. Gutierrez: I believe that face-to-face interaction is critical for the interaction of small business owners and their success. I still would say that we have to get more people out to the field and to the resources where the small business owners are. It’s great that there are some small businesses here in the D.C. area serving the community and serving Congress, but that’s not where the bulk of our small businesses are. It’s out in the field. It’s out in Pella, Iowa, and Portland, Oregon, all across the country. That’s where they need to be, and that’s where the resources need to be allocated. I think it’s a great step in the right direction. But I think we need to go further, and we need to reallocate those resources out to the fields.

Watch the hearing here: youtube.com/watch?v=eqFRmXY4DII