SBA Still Needs To Get Better Organized
Jan 26th, 2010 | By Dawn R. Rivers | Category: Politics & PolicyEven though there wasn’t much in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that was specifically useful for microbusinesses, that is not meant to imply that the Obama Administration ignored small businesses completely. In fact, the ARRA included a fairly significant to-do list for the U.S. Small Business Administration, most of which was focused on the all-important issue of kicking small business lending back into gear. The SBA was supposed to have them implemented the relevant ARRA provisions within 30 days of enactment or by March 19, 2009. As you may know, that didn’t happen.
House Small Business Committee Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to look into SBA implementation of the ARRA and get back to her with a report on how they were doing. That initial report was made in April of last year and it found that the SBA was behind on its homework. Last week, the GAO issued a second report that found the SBA had finished all its chores by now, although the last item on the list was not completed until November 2009. The main reason for the delay was personnel related, a combination of retirements and Administration-change turnover that left the agency short of experienced staff. None of this is likely to matter much to microbusinesses, at least in the details. However, it is going to matter if the SBA continues to have some of the same personnel issues. After all, the agency offers non-ARRA products and services that can serve microbusinesses very well. So, we all need the agency to be working smoothly.
