Ernst to Work with Trump Administration to “Right-Size” Bloated SBA

WASHINGTON – After the Small Business Administration (SBA) failed to complete an audit, Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) provided President Donald Trump with a laundry list of waste and excess at the agency for his administration to eliminate. The letter follows President Trump issuing a series of executive orders aimed at undoing harmful and costly regulations that hurt families and businesses for the last four years.

In addition to identifying bloated programs, Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Ernst detailed numerous actions taken by the Biden administration that drove up costs on taxpayers, but did nothing to improve its service to small businesses, whose economic optimism fell to an 11-year low last year, but has since soared to a six-year high after President Trump’s election.

“The SBA is on a path of insolvency with numerous unnecessary and duplicative programs. I am ready and willing to work with you and SBA Administrator-nominee Kelly Loeffler to right-size the SBA and restore prudent decision making at the agency. However, as we start on this path, I must alert you to the following landmines that await you - caused entirely by the careless acts of the Biden administration,” wrote Ernst.

Click here to view the letter.

Background

Earlier this month, Ernst led several of her Republican colleagues in introducing the Complete COVID Collections Act, which would extend authorization of the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery through 2030 and expand its jurisdiction to ensure the fraudsters, who stole more than $200 million from aid designated for small businesses, are held accountable and every stolen tax dollar is returned.

In December 2024, Ernst introduced the Returning SBA to Main Street Act, which relocates more than a third of Small Business Administration employees outside of D.C.

In November 2024, Ernst called out the SBA for shutting down a vital portal for small businesses to bid for federal contracts during the busiest month of the year.

Ernst repeatedly raised concerns that the Biden administration’s rapid expansion of the 7(a) lending program was leaving taxpayers on the hook for risky lending practices by non-bank lenders.

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