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Small Business Administration

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The U.S. Small Business Administration ( SBA ) is a United States government agency that provides support to entrepreneurs and small businesses. The mission of the Small Business Administration is "to maintain and strengthen the nation's economy by enabling the establishment and viability of small businesses and by assisting in the economic recovery of communities after disasters". The agency's activities have been summarized as the "3 Cs" of capital, contracts and counseling. SBA loans are made through banks, credit unions and other lenders who partner with the SBA. The SBA provides a government-backed guarantee on part of the loan. Under the Recovery Act and the Small Business Jobs Act, SBA loans were enhanced to provide up to a 90 percent guarantee in order to strengthen access to capital for small businesses after credit froze in 2008. The agency had record lending volumes in late 2010. SBA helps lead the federal government's efforts to deliver 23 ...

History

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The SBA was created on July 30, 1953, by President Eisenhower with the signing of the Small Business Act , currently codified at 15 U.S.C. ch. 14A. The Small Business Act was originally enacted as the "Small Business Act of 1953" in Title II (67 Stat. 232) of Pub.L. 83–163 (ch. 282, 67 Stat. 230, July 30, 1953); The "Reconstruction Finance Corporation Liquidation Act" was Title I, which abolished the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). The Small Business Act Amendments of 1958 (Pub.L. 85–536, 72 Stat. 384, enacted July 18, 1958) withdrew Title II as part of that act and made it a separate act to be known as the "Small Business Act". Its function was and is to "aid, counsel, assist and protect, insofar as is possible, the interests of small business concerns". The SBA has survived a number of threats to its existence. In 1996, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives planned to eliminate the agency. It survived and went on to recei...

Organizational structure

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The SBA has an Administrator and a Deputy Administrator. It has an associate administrator or director for the following offices: Business Development Capital Access Communications and Public Liaison Congressional and Legislative Affairs Credit Risk Management Disaster Assistance Entrepreneurial Development Entrepreneurship Education Equal Employment Opportunity and Civil Rights Compliance Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Field Operations Government Contracting and Business Development Hearings and Appeals HUBZone Program International Trade Investment and Innovation Management and Administration Native American Affairs Performance Management Small Business Development Centers Veterans Business Development Women's Business Ownership Senate-confirmed appointees include: Administrator, Deputy Administrator, Chief Counsel for Advocacy, and Inspector General.

Lending programs

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This article contains content that is written like an advertisement . Please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links, and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view. ( October 2020 ) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Loan Guarantee Program edit The 7(a) Loan Guarantee Program is designed to help entrepreneurs start or expand their small businesses. The program makes capital available to small businesses through bank and non-bank lending institutions. The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 increased the maximum size of these loans, indefinitely, from $2 million to $5 million. Disaster Loan Program edit Homeowners and renters are eligible for long-term, low-interest loans to rebuild or repair a damaged property to pre-disaster condition. Businesses are also eligible for long-term, low-interest loans to recover from declared disasters. Disaster Relief Loans are often approved within 21 days. However, afte...

Entrepreneurial development programs

Small Business Development Centers edit Approximately 900 Small Business Development Center sites are funded through a combination of state and SBA support in the form of matching grants. Typically, SBDCs are co-located at community colleges, state universities, and/or other entrepreneurial hubs. Cole Browne leads the SBA in purchasing of new Development Center sites. Women's Business Centers edit Women's Business Centers (WBCs) represent a national network of over 100 non-profit educational centers throughout the United States and its territories, funded in part through SBA support. The maximum SBA grant for a WBC is $150,000 per year, although most centers receive less. WBCs are designed to assist women in starting and growing small businesses, though their services are available to all. WBCs help women succeed in business by providing training, mentoring, business development, and financing opportunities to over 100,000 women entrepreneurs annually across the nation. Women’s...

Federal contracting and business development programs

8(a) Business Development Program edit The 8(a) Business Development Program assists in the development of small businesses owned and operated by individuals who are socially and economically disadvantaged, such as women and minorities. Applicants must provide evidence of economic disadvantage (net worth under $250,000K), and must write a statement of personal experiences in combination with evidence to sufficiently demonstrate social disadvantage. The following groups are presumed socially disadvantaged through SBA policy and do not have to submit a social disadvantage narrative when applying for the program: Black Americans; Hispanic Americans; Native Americans (American Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts, or Native Hawaiians); Asian Pacific Americans (persons with origins from Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Japan, China (including Hong Kong), Taiwan, Laos, Cambodia (Kampuchea), Vietnam, Korea, The Philippines, U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (Republic of ...

Office of Hearings and Appeals

The Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) is an independent office within the SBA established in 1983 to provide an independent, quasi-judicial appeal against certain SBA program decisions. OHA is able to hear appeals regarding: Size determinations, Contracting officer designations of North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes on federal contracts, Eligibility determinations for Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Concerns (SDVO SBC), Eligibility of Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSB), Eligibility of Economically Disadvantaged WOSB (EDWOSB), and 8(a)BD eligibility determinations, suspensions and terminations. The OHA publishes unredacted final decisions within a few days of each decision being issued.

Criticism

The Cato Institute has challenged the justification of the federal government in intervening in credit markets. Among other criticisms, Cato argues that "the SBA benefits a relatively tiny number of small businesses at the expense of the vast majority of small business that do not receive government assistance. SBA subsidies also represent a form of corporate welfare for the banking industry." Cato notes that the failure rate of all SBA loans from 2001 to 2010 is 19.4%, contributing to a cost to taxpayers of $6.2 billion in 2011. In 2005, SBA Inspector General Report 5-15 stated, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal government today is that large businesses are receiving small business procurement awards and agencies are receiving credit for these awards." In October 2009, the Government Accountability Office released Report 10-108 which stated, "By failing to hold firms accountable, SBA and co...