00:00Good morning. Thank you, Chairman Williams, Ranking Member Velazquez, and members of the committee.
00:05I'm grateful to have the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the President's Fiscal Year 2026 discretionary budget request for the U.S. Small Business Administration.
00:16This budget reflects our agency's return to its mission with a clear strategy, streamline services, eliminate waste, and ensure every taxpayer dollar delivers measurable results for America's small businesses.
00:28It consolidates duplicative operations, shifts resources to our field offices who are on the front lines, and refocuses our agency on proven solutions, including our capital access program and nationwide network of small business development centers.
00:45It reflects the President's belief that small businesses are not just part of the economy, they are the engine of it.
00:52And to build a stronger, more secure, more prosperous America, we must put Main Street and our job creators first.
01:01I'm pleased to report that under President Trump's leadership and through the reforms we've implemented at the SBA, this is exactly what's happening.
01:09Main Street is making a historic comeback.
01:12Since January, President Trump has cut core inflation to its lowest level since 2021.
01:18He's secured over $11 trillion in private sector investment.
01:23He's delivered a half million new jobs while deregulating after the last four years of massive bureaucratic expansion of the regulatory state.
01:31And he's brought dozens of countries, including China, back to the negotiating table for fair trade deals.
01:38Job creators and workers once again know they have a seat at the table, and they know that this administration has their back.
01:45Our economy is spring-loaded for growth, especially on Main Street.
01:49And I am pleased to report that the SBA has never been more prepared to help small businesses lead the America First economic comeback.
01:57Since January 20th, we've undertaken a sweeping overhaul of the agency to refocus it on its statutory mission of supporting small businesses and fueling economic growth through free enterprise.
02:09We're cutting red tape, restoring accountability, and delivering capital to the job creators who empower opportunity, growth, and innovation.
02:18When we arrived, the SBA was bloated and dysfunctional, weighed down by work-from-home bureaucracy that promoted a partisan political agenda.
02:27The Biden administration presided over unprecedented levels of fraud and four straight years of failed audits.
02:34Our flagship 7A loan program was mismanaged to the tune of $400 million of negative cash flow in just one year.
02:43Oversight and accountability had broken down along with any sense of fiscal responsibility to taxpayers.
02:50Common sense had left the building along with our workforce.
02:53That era is over, and it is a new day at the SBA.
02:56I come to this role with three decades of private sector experience.
03:01Following an extensive review of the financials and operating metrics, I launched a full-scale reorganization to right-size the agency, returning to pre-pandemic staffing levels.
03:13Our team is unleashing resources that had been consolidated in Washington back out into the field among our 68 district offices in local communities.
03:22We canceled wasteful contracts for total cost savings of more than $3 billion.
03:28I'm proud that we are working alongside the Doge team who are not partisans, but patriots and business leaders like myself who are working to strengthen the future of our nation.
03:38We also took urgent action to restore the financial integrity of our core loan programs by reinstating lender fees and restoring underwriting standards.
03:48Eliminating the reckless do-what-you-do criteria that put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars.
03:57And we implemented common sense identity and citizenship verification protocols to ensure that loans only go to eligible businesses, not illegal aliens or fraudsters.
04:06We made it a priority to depoliticize the agency and end the era of picking winners and losers based on race or ideological beliefs, replacing it with our nation's strong tradition of free enterprise.
04:18We eliminated DEI mandates, terminated the Green Lender Initiative, and withdrew SBA from voter registration schemes.
04:26And we began relocating SBA offices out of sanctuary cities that refused to enforce federal immigration law.
04:33At the same time, we're helping rebuild American industry through the SBA's Made in America manufacturing initiative.
04:40We're backing new legislation to give small manufacturers additional capital.
04:44And just last month, we introduced a first-of-its-kind on-shoring portal to help small businesses find American-made supply chain partners.
04:52The results are immediate and measurable.
04:55In our first 100 days, SBA loan approvals have skyrocketed by 80 percent compared to the same time under the last administration,
05:02and 20 percent when compared to the last administration left office.
05:08Loans to the smallest businesses, those with five or fewer employees, have nearly doubled.
05:13And the share of federal contracts going to small businesses is up to 23 percent from just 18 percent in January.
05:21So with new opportunity and a strong economic agenda, demand for capital is up.
05:26Businesses are growing, and confidence is rising across the country.
05:30I'm proud to say that this is not the SBA of the past.
05:33This is a leaner, stronger, and unapologetically pro-small business agency,
05:38one that supports American industry and its workers, that respects taxpayer dollars, and delivers results.
05:44I've seen the impact of these reforms firsthand.
05:48From Bay City to Boise, small business owners are expanding, hiring, and reinvesting in their communities.
05:56They know that for the first time since the first Trump administration, this administration is on their side.
06:01The SBA is once again serving the people who built this country.
06:05Not the globalists, the bureaucrats, or partisan political interests, but the small defense manufacturers,
06:11the local construction companies, and the founders who are putting everything on the line to live the American dream.
06:17Chairman Williams, Ranking Member Velasquez, members of the committee,
06:21as a former small business owner and employee myself, I firmly believe in the dignity of work,
06:27the American dream, and the power of free enterprise to lift up every job creator and worker across this country.
06:34That's what guides our work at the SBA, and I am proud to say it is also the vision that we're returning to at the SBA.
06:41Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
06:44We will now move.
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