Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

Section 4 · The Economy

25 Small Business Administration

745–764 · Karen Kerrigan

  • 4 done
  • 16 partially done
  • 4 attempted
  • 18 not started

Major recommendations (1)

What has happened

The Mandate said

“Regardless of whether it reverses its forgiveness, if its investigation uncovers evidence that Planned Parenthood affiliates or any other loan recipients knowingly misrepresented their eligibility in their applications, the SBA should make appropriate referrals to the Department of Justice.”

What happened

Partially done

The referral relationship was institutionalized: SBA OIG signed the National Fraud Detection Center charter, committing analysts and investigators to a prosecutor-led DOJ effort alongside the DOJ Fraud Division, other Inspectors General and federal law enforcement. Still `partial`, because the Quote's condition attaches to the outcome of the Planned Parenthood investigation (#2049), which is open and has produced no published referral.

The Mandate said

“For example, the SBA wants to expand the number of licensed Small Business Lending Companies (SBLCs), implement a new “Mission-Based SBLC,” and remove a requirement for loan authorization within the 7(a) and 504 Loan programs and rely solely on a lender’s documents. … A conservative Administration should rein in these idealistic and impractical efforts, get current programs under control and properly staffed with people who can manage and perform competently, and outsource efforts where private-sector expertise is appropriate and more efficient.”

What happened

Partially done

SBLC licensing itself has not been reined in, only the mission-based category: the SBA granted Siemens Small Business Lending an SBLC license, making it the 16th approved non-bank SBA lender and the first industrial technology company to hold one, on the footing that it will prioritize manufacturing, energy, healthcare, logistics and technology borrowers. The agency presents it as private-sector expertise being brought in, which is the third limb of the Quote; it is also an expansion of the licensed SBLC population the Quote asks to restrain. The Quote's remaining object — restoring the loan authorization requirement in the 7(a) and 504 programs — has not been addressed, and reading the SOPs rather than counting keywords in them makes that firmer rather than weaker. What replaced the SBA-drafted loan authorization is described in both SOPs in the same paragraph: "The E-Tran Terms and Conditions is the digital loan guaranty authorization request by the Lender to SBA to authorize the Lender to make the loan with an SBA guaranty under the terms and conditions submitted in E-Tran" — the Lender's request, not SBA's document — and "SBA does not require signatures on the terms and conditions". SOP 50 10 8.1 changes only the platform, renaming it "the SBA Terms and Conditions" delivered through "the SBA Loan System". So no lender-document-independent authorization step has been restored under another name; the 2023 rule that removed the requirement (88 FR 21890) stands.

The Mandate said

“Ask Congress to make available a category of Section 7(a) loans with a larger available principal that is used to finance manufacturing facility construction and equipment upgrading. The proposed SBA Reauthorization and Improvement Act of 2019, for example, would have increased the maximum loan principal to $50 million for advanced manufacturing construction and upgrading.”

What happened

Attempted

The SBA announced a rule, effective 2026-07-04, letting a borrower combine 7(a) and 504 borrowing up to $10 million — doubling the cumulative limit from $5 million — and said the change gives "capital-intensive small businesses … greater flexibility to pair long-term financing for real estate and equipment with working capital". It is an executive route around the statutory 7(a) ceiling rather than a larger 7(a) principal: the 7(a) limit itself stays at $5 million, and the extra $5 million must come through the 504 program.

The Mandate said

“Entities receiving PPP loans that did not meet eligibility for forgiveness must be required to pay back the money.”

What happened

Partially done

The mechanism that actually compels repayment was switched on for 562,000 borrowers: the SBA referred them to Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service for collection on $22.2 billion in delinquent PPP and COVID-EIDL debt — its largest referral package on record — after, on its own account, none of them had been "compelled to repay" under the prior administration. `partial` and not `done`: the SBA OIG's estimate of pandemic-program fraud is about $200 billion, so the tranche compelled to repay is a fraction of the population the Quote describes.

The Mandate said

“Regardless of whether it reverses its forgiveness, if its investigation uncovers evidence that Planned Parenthood affiliates or any other loan recipients knowingly misrepresented their eligibility in their applications, the SBA should make appropriate referrals to the Department of Justice.”

What happened

Partially done

The SBA made the referrals at record scale: alongside sending 562,000 suspected fraudulent PPP and COVID-EIDL borrowers to Treasury for collection, "the SBA has transmitted the borrowers to the DOJ" — a population the release says the prior administration had neither collected on nor referred, and of which "fewer than 1,000 … had been subject to investigations by the SBA Office of Inspector General".

Still to come

Executive action 7

  1. 750 End SBA direct lending Notable Not started
  2. 752 Direct federal agencies to comply with the Regulatory Flexibility Act Notable Not started
  3. 754 Bar any new SBA direct lending programs Notable Not started
  4. 755 Notify Congress the SBA will not enforce religious-exclusion rules Notable Not started
  5. 754 Move the disaster loan program out of the SBA Minor Not started
  6. 755 Take down SBA Form 1971 Minor Not started
  7. 758 Report to Congress ranking SBA programs by cost-effectiveness in six months Minor Not started

Needs Congress 11

  1. 752 Presumptively exempt small businesses from new agency rules Major Not started
  2. 752 Amend the RFA to require 60-day pre-proposal review by Advocacy Notable Not started
  3. 752 Expand RFA economic analysis to cover indirect costs Notable Not started
  4. 755 Expand the agency R&D set-aside for SBIR Notable Not started
  5. 755 Require SBIR funds be spent on U.S. capital investments Notable Not started
  6. 757 Create a 'medium-sized business' classification Notable Not started
  7. 757 Enact the IMPROVE the SBA Act Notable Not started
  8. 758 Enact the Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act Notable Not started
  9. 758 Extend SBREFA panel requirements to all federal agencies Notable Not started
  10. 758 Enact the Fair and Open Competition Act to bar PLA mandates Notable Not started
  11. 758 Freeze the SBA budget pending the effectiveness review Minor Not started

All recommendations in this chapter

Every recommendation this chapter is the home of, in printed-page order.

  1. 749 End the SBA's bid to become a 'designated voter agency' Done
  2. 750 Confine the SBA to congressionally authorized programs Partially done
  3. 750 Hold an accountable SBA leadership that answers to Congress and the IG Partially done
  4. 750 Account for and end fraud in all COVID-19 relief programs Partially done
  5. 750 End SBA direct lending Not started
  6. 751 Make SBA programs nonduplicative and first-come, first-served Partially done
  7. 751 Strengthen the Office of Advocacy with a renewed mandate and resources Partially done
  8. 751 Require SBA performance metrics and program-integrity procedures Partially done
  9. 751 Require SBA to close out OIG and GAO recommendations within 90 days Partially done
  10. 752 Amend the RFA to require 60-day pre-proposal review by Advocacy Needs Congress Not started
  11. 752 Expand RFA economic analysis to cover indirect costs Needs Congress Not started
  12. 752 Require federal agencies to seek Office of Advocacy input Partially done
  13. 752 Presumptively exempt small businesses from new agency rules Needs Congress Not started
  14. 752 Increase the Office of Advocacy budget by at least 50 percent Needs Congress Attempted
  15. 752 Direct federal agencies to comply with the Regulatory Flexibility Act Not started
  16. 752 Restart Advocacy regional roundtables and small-business visits Done
  17. 753 Bring in private-sector expertise to close out COVID-19 loan programs Partially done
  18. 753 Require ineligible PPP recipients to repay their loans Partially done
  19. 753 Reverse PPP forgiveness decisions for ineligible recipients Partially done
  20. 753 Refer PPP applicants who misrepresented eligibility to DOJ Partially done
  21. 754 Move the disaster loan program out of the SBA Not started
  22. 754 Bar any new SBA direct lending programs Not started
  23. 755 Notify Congress the SBA will not enforce religious-exclusion rules Not started
  24. 755 Take down SBA Form 1971 Not started
  25. 755 Finalize the rule removing SBA religious exclusions Partially done
  26. 755 Continue the SBIR and STTR programs Done
  27. 755 Expand the agency R&D set-aside for SBIR Needs Congress Not started
  28. 755 Require SBIR funds be spent on U.S. capital investments Needs Congress Not started
  29. 756 Create larger Section 7(a) loans for manufacturing investment Needs Congress Attempted
  30. 756 Refocus the SBIC program away from technology startups Partially done
  31. 757 Reform SBIC financing to favor small manufacturers Needs Congress Attempted
  32. 757 Create a 'medium-sized business' classification Needs Congress Not started
  33. 757 Enact the IMPROVE the SBA Act Needs Congress Not started
  34. 758 Enact the Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act Needs Congress Not started
  35. 758 Extend SBREFA panel requirements to all federal agencies Needs Congress Not started
  36. 758 Enact the Fair and Open Competition Act to bar PLA mandates Needs Congress Not started
  37. 758 Enact the JOBS Act 4.0 Needs Congress Attempted
  38. 758 Appoint an SBA Administrator with finance or administrative law experience Done
  39. 758 Report to Congress ranking SBA programs by cost-effectiveness in six months Not started
  40. 758 Freeze the SBA budget pending the effectiveness review Needs Congress Not started
  41. 758 Terminate ineffective SBA programs and consolidate duplicative functions Needs Congress Partially done
  42. 759 Rein in SBLC expansion and outsource where private expertise fits Partially done