SBA’s Office of Advocacy Deemed Essential Workforce – Operates During Shutdown

October 27, 2025

Bob Coleman
Founder & Publisher, Coleman Report

SBA’s Office of Advocacy Deemed Essential Workforce – Operates During Shutdown

I was very intrigued last Thursday when the SBA’s Office of Advocacy posted a blog “Spotlighting Cyber Security Month.”

The content of the 10/23 blog isn’t remarkable. It simply emphasizes that small businesses now rely on internet-connected systems just like large firms, notes that over 600,000 small manufacturing firms depend on such systems, and highlights how AI and cyber threats (such as hackers manipulating temperature controls in cold-chain operations) pose real economic risks.

Can’t argue with that.

But I didn’t know why this was posted during the government shutdown so I did a little research.
I zeroed in on the 40-person team within the SBA’s Office of Advocacy.

In the agency’s “Plan for Operating in the Event of a Lapse in Appropriations” the Office of Advocacy is listed as exempt because its funding is financed by “no-year” funds — meaning money authorized to remain available until expended, not at the government’s fiscal year-end.

Because of that classification 40 continue to show up to work.

Since their jobs aren’t tied to annual appropriations they receive scheduled paychecks.

In other words, while parts of the federal government are in shutdown mode, e.g. SBA 7(a) etran numbers and 504 loan approvals, this particular unit keeps churning out blogs and keeps getting paid.

In SBA’s operating plan in the event of a government shutdown the plan states the Office of Advocacy is Chief Counsel is presidentially appointed and Senate confirmed and therefore it is “necessary to perform activities expressly authorized by law. The Office of Advocacy staff is funded with no-year end funds.”

The Office of Advocacy advance[s] the Administration’s efforts to support the views, concerns, and interests of small businesses before Congress, federal agencies, and state policymakers. It represents the interests of small entities including small businesses, small organizations, and small governmental jurisdictions. Economic research, policy analyses, and small business outreach help identify issues of concern. Regional advocates and an office in Washington, D.C. support the Chief Counsel’s efforts. The Office of Advocacy’s economic research and regulatory interventions reduce regulatory barriers that impede small business growth and development.

And so here’s the story: while the federal government is grinding to a halt, the 40-person team at the Office of Advocacy is deemed “essential,” to Main Street, stays on the job, and continues to get paid.