Out of its 6,201-person workforce, 4,745 agency workers will be retained in the event of a shutdown, according to the agency’s funding lapse plan. As of Tuesday, the odds of a federal shutdown climbed as negotiations on Capitol Hill among top lawmakers stalled.
The SBA’s capital access office, field operations, and general counsel are among those that are most impacted in terms of head count.
Core loan program services including the agency’s flagship 7(a) loan program will halt, meaning that the agency will neither approve new loans nor service existing ones. The same can be said for the agency’s 504 loan program and its microloan program.
That said, the agency will continue to disperse direct loans under its disaster aid program.
SBA staffers will also be on tap to help with loan forgiveness and repayment options for pandemic-era programs, including the Covid-19 Economic Injury Disaster loan program, plus the Paycheck Protection Program and the Paycheck Protection Program.
And the agency will continue to dole out awards for the Small Business Innovation Research program and the Small Business Technology Transfer program, which help fledgling startups with R&D efforts to encourage innovation.
Businesses owned by Native Americans will continue to receive aid from the agency as well.
Procurement support for women-owned small business contracting and service-disabled veteran-owned small business contracting will get put on ice. No new applications will be processed.
But the agency will retain some staffers to assist with small business set-aside programs for federal contractors that will continue to work throughout a shutdown. The agency’s HUBZone program, which helps entrepreneurs in “historically underutilized business zones” with federal procurement, will continue to accept and process new applications.