House Small Business Chair Presses SBA on Impact of Shutdown
The new House chair wants to know how the SBA will handle the backlog of lending requests once the shutdown ends.
The new chairwoman of the House Small Business Committee is pressing the Small Business Administration to measure the impact of the partial government shutdown has had on agency activities and how the agency plans to handle a likely backlog once it reopens.
SBA “programs play a critical role in boosting the entrepreneurial and small business sectors of our economy by helping provide access to affordable capital, technical assistance, and procurement opportunities for America’s entrepreneurs,” Committee Chairwoman Nydia M. Velázquez (D-N.Y.) wrote in a letter to SBA Administrator Linda McMahon.
She asked McMahon to provide a detailed explanation of how the shutdown has affected SBA programs.
She asked McMahon to provide by Jan. 25 information, including:
- Any offices that are open and how many district outreach and engagement events have been cancelled.
- Guidance the SBA may have provided to lenders and borrowers about the impact a long shutdown would have on existing loans and loan applications.
- What loans may be made during the shutdown.
- The status of SBA’s secondary market during the shutdown.
- How the SBA plans to address a backlog once the agency opens.
The SBA website indicates that it will not be updated while the agency is shut down, but that disaster loans are still available.
Credit unions are working with businesses whose loans are on hold because of the shutdown. But if the shutdown lasts for a long time, it may slow the momentum of growth in small business lending.