House Small Business Committee reviews SBA entrepreneurial development oversight

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SBA entrepreneurial development review

Highlights

Chairman Roger Williams's July 22 hearing reviews SBA's Office of Entrepreneurial Development, focusing on program modernization and new oversight initiatives under Administrator Loeffler.
Testimony highlights $340 million in unpaid grant obligations, with outstanding payments stretching back up to five years including at least $12 million in the Women's Business Center program.
SBA aligns resource partner efforts with sector and geographic priorities, threatens removal of underperforming centers, and consolidates grant functions—including STEP grants—for operational efficiency.

Hearing focuses on program oversight

As reported by House Committee on Small Business, the House Committee on Small Business, Chairman Roger Williams holds a hearing on July 22 titled "Oversight of SBA's Office of Entrepreneurial Development" to assess how the office serves entrepreneurs and to review modernization initiatives under the Trump administration.

Williams says entrepreneurs depend on practical support and trusted partners, and he argues the SBA's nationwide resource network helps small businesses start, grow and compete. He also says the agency is strengthening oversight and updating programs under Administrator Loeffler's leadership after what he describes as weak accountability and outdated systems during the Biden administration.

During the hearing, Williams asks about priorities for improving performance, reducing administrative burdens, eliminating inefficiencies and targeting resources more effectively. Mr. Fitzpatrick says the SBA is aligning resource partner efforts with industry and geographic priorities including manufacturing, food supply and rural communities, while also encouraging outside fundraising so programs do not rely only on federal money.

Financial controls and operating changes

Fitzpatrick tells lawmakers the agency sees stronger results when federally funded, state, county, municipal and chamber of commerce partners work together as part of a broader support ecosystem. He adds that the SBA is also working with underperforming centers and may remove them from the program if they do not improve.

Representative Mark Alford raises concerns about roughly $340 million in unpaid grant obligations that he says the SBA recently uncovered. Fitzpatrick says some backlogs appear to stretch back four or five years, citing the Women's Business Center program as one example where payments went back five years and totaled at least $12 million.

Representative Jake Ellzey asks how moving STEP grants under the office will reduce duplication and improve service for entrepreneurs. Fitzpatrick says the SBA is grouping similar functions and cross-training staff who process grants so the agency can improve efficiency and shift personnel more quickly when demand rises.

In our earlier article on House committee action, lawmakers advanced a package of bills combining prescription drug pricing reforms with broader government-operations changes. The measures included tighter rules for pharmacy benefit managers in federal employee health plans, added congressional review of District of Columbia tax increases, and proposals to reshape inspector general coordination and strengthen the integrity of public rulemaking comments.

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