SBA Hot Topic Tuesday – 9.4% Increase for SBA Funding Included in Discretionary Spending Proposal

April 13, 2021

Caity Roach
Editor

SBA Hot Topic Tuesday – 9.4% Increase for SBA Funding Included in Discretionary Spending Proposal

Last week, President Biden released his $1.5 trillion proposal for discretionary spending in fiscal year 2022. Among other things, the proposal includes $852 million for SBA, a $74 million (9.4%) increase from the 2021 enacted level.
“President Biden’s first budget request to Congress is a welcome change following years of senseless proposed cuts to the SBA,” says House Small Business Committee Chairwoman, Nydia Velázquez. “I am especially pleased to see that the budget request emphasizes investment in underserved entrepreneurs. The pandemic has devastated minority, women-owned, and rural small businesses. To build the small business economy back better, we must ensure that these entrepreneurs aren’t left behind.”
Specifically, the budget includes:
  • A $31 million increase in funding for SBA Entrepreneurial Development Programs that support women, people of color, and other underserved entrepreneurs. With this funding, the Administration hopes to increase entrepreneurial access to SBA counseling, training, and mentoring services.
  • Funding for the SBA to increase staffing capacity for Government contracting programs. This increase in funding is intended to deliver on the President’s goal of increasing Federal contracts awarded to Small Disadvantaged Businesses to 15% by 2025.
  • An $18 million increase in SBA funding to scale the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. This increase would enable the SBA to expand the geographic and demographic reach of its innovation programs, enhance outreach and training efforts, support the development of innovation hubs across the Nation, and help ensure America’s small businesses stay at the cutting edge of innovation.
  • $10 million to help facilitate access to capital for investments that would help small businesses become more resilient to climate change, support a clean energy economy, or both.
Although Congress will spend the next few months looking over the proposal before approving it, preliminary Congressional sentiment appears to favor the SBA budget increase.
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