The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) on Friday announced an agency-wide reorganization that includes a 43% reduction in its workforce as part of a broader effort to return to its original mission of supporting small businesses and increasing agency accountability to taxpayers.
The restructuring, authorized under Executive Order 14210, is intended to reverse what the agency described as “the expansive social policy agenda of the prior Administration” and eliminate non-essential roles added during the pandemic. The move will return SBA staffing to pre-pandemic levels.
Under the plan, SBA will eliminate about 2,700 of its approximately 6,500 active positions through voluntary resignations, expiring term appointments, and a limited number of reductions in force. The agency said the average SBA salary is more than $132,000, and the changes are expected to save taxpayers over $435 million annually by Fiscal Year 2026.
Core services including SBA’s loan guarantee programs, disaster assistance, field operations, and support for veterans will remain intact. The agency stated these services will not be impacted by the reductions.
“The SBA was created to be a launchpad for America’s small businesses by offering access to capital, which in turn drives job creation, innovation, and a thriving Main Street. But in the last four years, the agency has veered off track – doubling in size and turning into a sprawling leviathan plagued by mission creep, financial mismanagement, and waste. Instead of serving small businesses, the SBA served a partisan political agenda – expanding in size, scope, and spending,” said SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler.
“Just like the small business owners we support, we must do more with less. We have therefore submitted plans to pursue a strategic restructuring that will realign the agency and its resources with our founding mission. By eliminating non-mission-critical positions and consolidating functions, we will revert to the staffing levels of the last Trump Administration, which supported a historic economic boom. We will return our focus to driving private sector growth and delivering disaster relief with accountability, efficiency, and results.”
Key elements of the reorganization include expanding support for capital formation by shifting resources away from prior progressive programs; prioritizing risk management and fraud prevention through centralization within the Office of the Chief Financial Officer; and increasing disaster recovery support by transferring loan servicing responsibilities and personnel to the Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience.
SBA will also eliminate redundant pandemic-era positions associated with loan processing in the Office of Capital Access. The plan sets a goal of having 30% of agency staff located in the field, aiming to decentralize services and improve outreach to Main Street businesses. The Office of Veterans Business Development and the Office of Manufacturing and Trade will retain existing staffing levels, and the Office of Advocacy and the Office of the Inspector General will be exempt from the reductions.
According to the agency, much of the reorganization is focused on reversing the SBA’s expansion during the Biden Administration, which it said led to a deterioration of services and financial performance. The agency cited $200 billion in estimated PPP and COVID-EIDL fraud and claimed that changes to the 7(a) loan program had resulted in increased defaults and negative cash flow.
The SBA said it will carry out the reorganization plan in the coming weeks while preserving core public services through a strategic transfer of duties.
The post originally appeared on following source : Source link