“Connecting SBA to Main Street: Examining the SBA Office of Field Operations.”

Good morning everyone. I now call the committee on small business to order, and without objection the chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any time. I now recognize myself for my opening statement. Welcome to today's uh hearing, connecting uh SBA to Main Street, examining the SBA's Office of Field Operations. First, I want to thank our witness, Associate Administrator Shemkut, for uh appearing before the committee. Thank you for being here and I'd l- also like to thank her family, uh, for joining us today to see the committee in action. Uh, today the committee will review the activities of the SBA's Office of Field Operations, the office directly responsible for delivering resources to small businesses across the country. Through its network of sixty-eight district offices and ten regional offices the Office of Field Operations connections connects entrepreneurs with counseling, contracting opportunities, and access to capital. And just as uh importantly their offices have uh as a front door to the SBA at connecting small businesses with resource partners like small business development centers. The SBA's field office uh staff works directly with small businesses. Uh they hear entrepreneurs' concerns firsthand, help them navigate federal programs, and ensure that the SBA's services each uh or each committee communities across the country. Uh, this personal connection to Main Street is why it has been a priority to get the SBA out of Washington DC and closer to the entrepreneurs and communities it serves. Small businesses should not have to navigate a distant bureaucracy to access the programs meant to help them succeed. In twenty twenty five, SBA field staff hosted more than thirty thousand local events and connected with family uh with nearly a half a million entrepreneurs across the country. Field staff also plays a critical role in the federal disaster response efforts by connecting affected businesses with the financial assistance they need. Field officers are also uh played a key role in promoting American-made manufacturing through their Made in America Manufacturing Initiative and Roadshow events held across the country over the past year. In the last year, the SBA's helped uh connect small businesses with opport- uh opportunities to strengthen American supply chains and promoted the newly uh launched Make Onshoring Great Again portal, which includes more than one million U. S. suppliers. Somebody wants to say something while I'm opening this piece of paper. There we go. The portal helps businesses find American partners and reduce reliance on the on foreign production. This is just one of the resources that the SBA's district offices insure Main Street is aware of. Thank you for joining us today, Associate Administrator Shinkut. I look forward to hearing about the accomplishments of the Office of Field Operations and how Congress can continue strengthening the SBA's presence in communities across the country. With that, I yield to my friend and our distinguished ranking member from New York, Miss Velasquez, for her opening remarks.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning. Uh, um, Miss Shinka, thank you for testifying today. The district offices serve as the agency's boots on the ground and they are vital in connecting small business owners with the resources they need to succeed. I applaud the hard the hard work of a SBA field staff and commend them for their ability to do more with less, especially when small employers are dealing with uncertainty and increased costs. My Republican colleagues were so focused on influ- inflation last Congress, but despite promises to lower costs on day one, small businesses are dealing with rising costs, shrinking margins and mounting anxiety about watching years of hard work disappear. Instead of focusing on affordability, we now have a fight on tariffs, which has driven up costs for small businesses. And if that is in body noise, We now have increased energy costs for small businesses and disrupted global supply chains due to the Iran war. The cost of gas alone has increased by more than eighty cents from a month ago and is still spiking. We have a lot of ground to cover today. And first and foremost, I would like a commitment that you will work with this committee and provide us We couldn't get a straight answer for the from the administrator when she testified, nor have we received adequate responses to our letters. Mister Chairman, I would like to enter the letters and substandard responses into the record.

So much. So much.

Today, I plan to discuss the administration chaotic staffing costs. On one hand, the administrator promised to put more people in the field, but in reality, the number of employees in the field dropped twenty-seven percent in the first nine months of twenty-five. That is not just contradictory. It is deeply concerning that small businesses will have to pay the price with longer waiting times and less reliable customer service. I am troubled by the administrator's decision to relocate regional and district offices in major cities with high concentrations of democratic voters which is a blatant weaponization of the agency for political gain. I want to learn what studies, if any, the SBA has conducted to inform the decisions of relocating field offices in these cities and how you plan to maintain services to small businesses in these major economic hubs. I also learned that the Washington Metropolitan Area District Office is being moved to Herndon, Virginia, which is about one hour away, depending on traffic. I am hard-pressed to understand how a small Main Street business in Prince George's County will be able to partake in workshops and events in a distant suburbs. And finally, I would like to hear more about the importance of collaboration between the district offices and the resource partners. In twenty nineteen, we heard testimony from Mike Valente, your predeces- your predecessor under the first Trump administration, who said that any time that they held events with their resource partners, there was a synergy that helped to create a better business climate and a better opportunity for businesses to succeed. But it is hard to host this type of events when SBA is low-walking the disbursement of funds to their resource partners and, in some instances, withholding money altogether. SBA has withheld ten million dollars to score, which hasn't received reimbursement since last March, and is furiously close to running out of money. SBA is also lagging behind on payments to the SBDC and WBCs, and the FY twenty twenty-five step grants funds still haven't been released. Given your previous experience as IOA SBDC Director, you must be incredibly frustrated w- with SBA most recent decision to post grant payments while it upgrades its system. Let me be clear, SBA is completely out of step with the challenges small businesses are dealing with on the ground. Rising costs, shrinking margins, mounting anxiety, and the mass deportation machine that is impacting small businesses in this country. I look forward to your testimony. Thank you, Yilgba.

Lady Yilgbak. Uh, we'll now introduce our witness, Associate Administrator Lisa Shemkid. Uh, Associate Administrator Shemkut leads the Office of Field Operations for the U. S. Small Business Administration. She oversees sixty-eight district offices and ten regional offices across the country where she leads the SBA's nationwide field network ensuring that small businesses have access to vital capital, contracting assistance and uh business development programs. Before her work with the SBA, Associate Administrator Shemkut uh served as State Director of America's Small Business Development Center in Iowa, uh providing uh business counseling and support. disaster recovery efforts in rural business development to foster small business growth. Associate Shemkett earned an Associate of Arts degree from Iowa Central Community College, and later uh received her Bachelor's degree in Master of Business Administration from Iowa State University. Uh thank you for joining us today. Look forward to a meaningful conversation. And uh I would like to remind you that your oral testimony is restricted to five minutes. If you see the light turn red in front of you, it means that your five minutes have uh concluded and uh you should wrap up your testimony. And I now recognize Administrator uh Associate Administrator Shemkat for her five minute opening remarks.

Chairman Williams, ranking member of Velazquez, members of the committee. Thank you for this opportunity to testify today on behalf of the US Small Business Administration. My name is Lisa Shemkat and I'm honored to serve as the Associate Administrator for SBA's Office of Field Operations. In this role, I oversee the agency's nationwide field network of sixty-eight district offices and ten regional offices, which serve as the front-line connection between SBA and America's small businesses. Before taking this position, I served for more than a decade as the State Director of America's Small Business Development Centers in Iowa where I led a network of fifteen centers dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs across the state. During that time, our centers assisted more than twenty-four thousand entrepreneurs, supported the launch of twenty-five hundred new businesses, helped create more than eighteen thousand jobs, and secured more than nine hundred million in capital infusion for small businesses. My experience reinforced everything I see every day in my current role. Small businesses succeed when federal programs support, rather than hinder innovation, growth, and entrepreneurship. The SBA's field staff are the boots-on-the-ground ambassadors executing the vision and agenda of the Trump administration's SBA under the leadership of Administrator Kelly Loeffler. Under Administrator Loeffler, the agency moved the vast majority of its workforce to the field, strengthening on-the-ground delivery and improving access for entrepreneurs in America's main streets. After years of mission creep characterized by bureaucratic expansion and a politicized agenda, Administrator Loeffler fundamentally realigned the agency to serve its local lenders, job creators, and taxpayers. Today, ninety-seven percent of SBA Office of Field Operations employees are located outside of Washington DC, serving entrepreneurs through our regional and district offices across this great country. Through this robust nationwide network, SBA field offices remain deeply engaged with the lending community, small businesses, and other stakeholders under Administrator Loeffler's leadership. Since January twentieth, twenty twenty five, our field network has hosted over thirty thousand events, connecting with nearly half a million small business owners and entrepreneurs. These engagements include lender outreach, training opportunities, and partnerships with chambers, resource partners, and state and local economic development organizations to ensure that small businesses have more access to capital, training, and contracting opportunities. The agency also shifted field resources to rural and veteran communities that were ignored by the previous administration. This fresh approach has produced real results. In F way twenty-five alone, the SBA delivered seven point one billion in lending to rural small businesses and nearly one point five billion to veteran owned small businesses. Additionally, we're putting SBA staff back in the field where small businesses operate. Our district teams are spending more time in the field training lenders, visiting manufacturers, restaurants, family farms, and start-ups in their communities to share the resources that the SBA provides at no cost to small business owners. These visits allow us to hear directly from the small businesses about the barriers they face under the pre- previous administration and highlight how rolling back a hundred and ten billion dollars of burdensome regulations can support their growth as we continue the economic comeback under President Trump. Additionally, SBA staff are promoting the newly created red tape hotline, which provides a direct channel for small businesses to report burdensome, duplicative, and costly regulations that negatively impact their success. As responsible stewards of American taxpayers, the SBA identified identified opportunities to eliminate wasteful contracts and consolidate leases including the closure of nineteen offices that housed either zero or only one full-time employee that were not effectively serving small businesses, and often working from home. The agency announced last year it would relocate six of its regional offices out of sanctuary cities to prioritize the of our SBA employees and the small businesses we serve with a focus on less costly, more accessible locations that comply with federal immigration law. Most importantly, through round tables, community visits, small business tours and direct engagement, our field teams gather feedback and listen to entrepreneurs and small business owners across the US about the support they need from SBA to succeed. America's thirty-six million small businesses are the backbone of our economy. and the SBA field network plays a critical role in ensuring those entrepreneurs have the resources they need to start grow and compete. In closing, I want to thank this committee for its continued partnership and oversight. Together we can ensure SBA's Office of Field Operations remains a strong bridge between Washington and Main Street, delivering meaningful support to the entrepreneurs who power America's economy. Thank you and I look forward to your questions.

Thank you, and we will now move to the member questions under the five minute rule. I recognize myself for five minutes. Associate Administrator Shemket, a twenty twenty-three government accountability office report found that under the Biden-Harris administration, the SBA headquarters operated at just ten percent capacity. At the same time, the majority of the SBA's workforce is based in Washington DC rather than in the field. Fortunately, the Trump administration reversed the often abused work from home policy, And majority of the SBA staff have been moved into the field, close to the small businesses that they serve. So my question is, can you explain how those changes have improved responsiveness and accountability for small businesses?

Thank you, Chairman, for the question. As we moved our teams out into the field, and as I said, the Office of Field Operations has ninety-seven point nine eight percent of our folks are out in the field. Uh, that way we can be the boots on the ground, talking to the small businesses to get them to the right resource that they can use. We had a lot of offices, you saw the f- the famous video of the administrator walking the halls, the empty halls. So getting people back into the office, getting them back out into the field so we can actually get the dr- ground truth of what small businesses need has been critical to not only our success but being able to advocate better for small business.

Um, Associate Minister Shemkid, the SBA field staff are critical when disaster strikes and in twenty twenty five the agency deployed three and eighty one field staff to hundred and seventeen disaster centers and conducted more than thirty one thousand direct contacts with disaster survivors. So can you describe how the boots on the ground role of district offices allows the SBA to quickly reach small businesses and communities recovering from disasters?

Thank you for that question. And this is something that is a little bit even more unique under the Trump administration with it. Kelly Loeffler, Administrator Loeffler leading the SBA, we've been able to eliminate those silos and working closely with our office of disaster we've been able to do some shared positions and when there is a disaster headed to an area our field offices are the boots on the ground, so they can give that ground truth. They can tell them ahead of time and after the disaster what resources are needed, give them the information so that the office of disaster recovery and resilience can allocate the resources needed to better serve those small businesses and get them the help they need more quickly.

Uh, under Administrator Loeffler's leadership, the SBA uh has been heavily involved in on-shoring and rebuilding the American manufacturing base. As part of this priority, the Office of Field Operations has played a major role in the Administrators Made in America Roadshow. In twenty twenty five, the SBA field offices hosted six hundred and eighty-three Made in America events, where you and other SBA representatives uh engage directly with Main Street. So what has Main Street's, what has Main Street's reaction been to strengthening domestic supply chain? And how are district offices helping small businesses access the tools available to uh carry out this mission?

Thank you for that question. We had a round table actually in Newark, New Jersey, and the administrator was sitting there. On one side we had a business say, I can't find any suppliers here in the United States, I'm gonna have to continue to source from China. And on the other side of that same table, somebody raised their hand and said, " Well, I produced that. That was an aha moment for the administrator for our team, that we needed to be that conduit, that concierge service to really connect folks, to find suppliers, so that we can focus on on-shoring. At the same time we put together our on-shoring portal, which is able to connect over a million suppliers on there so that people can source American products, American companies. We also have an on-shoring handbook and other projects that we've done with our latest was last week in Charlotte we did a supplier matchmaking expo. So there's a lot of excitement and a lot of positiveness around being able to insure and utilize American companies.

Uh, I now thank you for that, and I now recognize the ranking member for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I just would like to remind you, um, that Democrats led the efforts during the one hundred seventeen Congress, one eighteen, one nineteen, To enhance, I led the efforts to enhance with Miss Gutlander and Mister Gordon the Office of Rural Affairs. And we codified the Office of Native American Affairs. Those efforts were led by Democrats. So we do care about rural America. Um, SBA post grant payments until May, well, the upgrade system, but with FY twenty f- twenty, twenty-five payments already delayed, another long interruption will hurt small businesses that depend on the resources uh resource partners' services. Given your experience leading the IOIA SBDC and your current role, how do you reconcile this funding delays with the need to support small firms?

Reinky Bambi, thank you for the question. I am here today to talk about the Office of Field Operations, and what you're talking about is within the Office of Entrepreneurial Development. OED is what we call it at SBA.

I I know that. I know that. But I do know that the resource partners help SBA achieve the goals of providing resources and educational uh and capacity building for small businesses. In fact, uh you just uh mentioned where was it, and uh the matchmaking ma- manufacturing matchmaking expert event in North Carolina. And I understand that you receive a tremendous amount of technical and logistical support from the local SBDC. So events like this won't be able to take place with these funding delays. That that is why I'm raising the issue of delays on payments uh for our resource partners.

Once again,

And at least, look, what I want is if you commit yourself to raise this issue directly with the administrator, because it's hurting our resource partners.

the event in North Carolina was a fantastic event and we we utilize apex as well as part of

My question is would you commit yourself to share this issue with the administrator, the delay on payments to the resource partners?

I can answer any questions with regards to the office of field operations?

It is just so funny, you know, in the previous uh administration when the administrator, democratic administrator, came before this committee and we were discussing any other topic That was not related to taxes. The whole member on this side, the all the members raised the issue of taxes. And when she said she wasn't here to discuss taxes. Everyone said, yes, you n- you are the voice of small businesses and you have to commit yourself to share this information with the President of the United States. I'm just asking you to raise this issue. with the administrator because it's impacting the work and the services that are provided by our resource partners. It's quite simple. Last March, uh the administrator announced an agency-wide reorganization, including ca- uh coding ta- staff by forty-three percent. Last year, the number of employees in the field offices declined by twenty-seven percent without a clear transition plan, leaving critical positions on field. What specific steps are you taking to ensure staffing reductions do not undermine services to small businesses?

Thank you for that question. And our focus in the field has also been, as I said, Administrator Loeffler had all of the associate administrators look at our programs. How can we streamline? How can we do business differently so we can be more effective? And as we did that, we're looking at all of our SOP's, we've been able to cut some of the process time and we've been able to make sure that our teams have the resources they need in the field.

Yeah. OK, um, so every poll that is taken with small businesses, they are raising the issues that are impacting them today. The rising costs of gas, the rising costs of the tariffs, the fact that they cannot fine workers. And you're telling me that with a twenty seven percent cut and forty three percent previously, you gonna be fine, that small businesses are going to be fine because when they call the regional offices they are going to get a phone call answer. No, but you can answer. I yield back.

General Adio's back. Uh. I now recognize uh Mister Muser from the great state of Pennsylvania for five minutes.

Thank you, Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Shimkat. Uh, we really appreciate you being here and your opening testimony was very clear uh and um uh confidence inspiring. So, uh, congratulations. Um, my my office has had a very good relationship up in uh Pennsylvania uh with in particular Mike Kane and Steve Dixell. um, uh, helping us, uh, with small businesses, loans, uh, investments with - with the SBDCs, particularly at Bucknell and Kutztown. Uh, so they - they worked very well, particularly during the period of COVID, uh, by the way. Um, and, um, well, not from them, but there was a high level, high level of frustration for four years during, frankly, during the Biden administration, which is amazing that would be brought up because the metrics, well, metrics don't lie. Right? Uh, during, uh, prior to the Biden administration coming in, there were twenty seven hundred people at, employees at the SBA. Then it went up to sixty five hundred. I don't know where they hired so many, sixty five hundred. And by the way, we did a field trip over there one day. They knew we were coming. And I think they maybe had ten, twelve percent of the employees there informing us, by the way, by the SBA administrator, that within six months they're gonna be up to forty percent of of of people showing up for work. So, absolutely remarkable. We're now down, once again, to twenty-seven hundred, uh, where from from sixty-five hundred, as as you probably know, or in in that range, and yet loans on seven A and five O four are up almost fifteen percent, slightly less, and SBIC investments are up over fifteen percent. So you're doing a lot more with less. Uh, and um, and it's highly effective and it's highly noticeable, which is most important when we, when we work with all of our, our small businesses. So maybe you can just expand upon, uh, the work you've done with the field office, how the improvements have, have uh expanded. Obviously the experience, uh, that you brought to it has made, had made it that much more effective just over the last fourteen months. So maybe just talk about the field operations.

Absolutely. I appreciate the question. Thank you very much. Um. One of the things that we have done, especially out in the field, and as you mentioned, the SBA guaranteed forty five billion dollars last year, the most ever in our seventy two year history. So the amount, the volume is going up, when it comes to field operations, we've been getting out there and talking to small businesses which has been critical and one of the small businesses we actually spoke to in Rhode Island, if I could share a story on them, is we spoke to her about it's a food-based product and in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, she said, " Do you know the cost of liquid eggs?" at the end of the Biden administration was five dollars and twenty nine cents a pound. And in one year the cost of liquid eggs is down to ninety nine cents a pound. And she said for the first time she's getting ready to hire employees. So we're starting to see that optimism out there. And um with our field staff as well, we're making sure that we have that partnership. As I said, we are working together in SBA and across the federal government, uh, you know, under the Trump administration and and Administrator Loeffler, being able to work across the federal government has made it easier for us to get information and to get resources more quickly to react to what small businesses need.

And you are, of course, a small business advocate, as we all all are. And that's why when you talk about competitive tax rates, like when we passed the Tax Cuts for for Working Families Act, for small businesses, one ninety-nine A, twenty percent reduction, bonus depreciation, no tax on tips, uh which certainly helps the workers for small businesses no tax on overtime you're not responsible for taxes but my guess is you're an advocate for competitive taxes

yeah absolutely

i'd imagine so ok uh but why that should be something that would be a surprise is um well a bit of a surprise uh from from previous administrators anyway um uh how did uh chairman williams legislation on seven a and five oh four loan limits um, to ten million dollars for small manufacturers. Can you discuss the impact this increase, uh, will have on small business ability to access capital?

Absolutely. Thank you for that question. Uh, it, this actually came up last week at our event in North Carolina at the supplier expo. In speaking with a couple of the lenders and some of the folks there, you know, the, the one big beautiful bill, being able for the, you know, depreciation or expensing it a hundred percent and some of the other items, they are helping. They're getting the equipment, et cetera. But A big expansion costs a lot more. And to have those higher loan limits has been, uh, a topic that has come up over and over. In fact, one of the lenders that was there said, I'm gonna send you some examples of deals we couldn't do because we're not at those levels. And that's what we hate seeing.

That's fantastic. And thank you very much for the Make Onshore and Great Again portal. We're hearing very good things about that. So thank you very much for being here. Now yield back, Mr. Chairman.

Gentlemen, yield's back, I now recognize Mister Tran from the great state of California for five minutes.

Thank you so much, Chairman and uh, Ranking Member, for convening today's hearing. Uh, thank you Administrator, uh, Shymkat for being here. Uh, the Small Business Administration has unfortunately undergone several chaotic changes in the last year. For example, SBA SBA announced the relocation of half a dozen regional offices without seeking any stakeholder input, then announced several district office relocation via tweets. The agency also issued reduction in force, publicly rescinded them and then reversed those decisions, once reversing course in just one day. Such actions hurt the SBA's credibility, and its credibility takes another hit when it unnecessarily stops supporting small business partners. Administration Cat. As you know, the Small Business Development Center program is a vital federal program that provides technical assistance and training to entrepreneurs and small business owners throughout the nation. I'm proud to represent Orange County Inland Empire, SBDC network, at California State University Fullerton, which is why I want to raise a serious concern about the reliability of the small business administration's support for local partners. Last year, SBA and the Office of Management and Budget withheld over three million in funding from the Orange County Inland Empire SBDC. Thankfully, my office successfully fought to release those funds to the community providing much needed relief. However, the SBA is withholding millions of dollars in funding from its resource partners. including the mentorship program, SCORE, women business centers, and the state trade expansion program. That helps small, the which helps small businesses trade internationally. This creates financially difficult, uh, and har- and harms programs, ability to provide services to thousand entrepreneurs across the country. It shouldn't take a member of Congress to fix this. It is literally SBA's job to disburse this congressionally appropriated funding. So my question is, what safeguards are you and SBA providing to ensure that grant payments to resource partners are delivered on time and without unnecessary political or administrative delays?

Thank you for your question. As the Associate Administrator for the Office of Field Operations, I wouldn't have insights into that. That would be my colleague at the Office of Entrepreneurial Development. But I'm happy to answer questions with regards to the Office of Field Operations.

So, how does your office interact with making sure that these funding gets dispersed? You don't you don't interact with that at all?

Our office does not.

All right, can you answer this question? SBA has paused all grant payments uh to update its grant solution system and may not resume until late May. Uh, we should be very clear about this, a system upgrade does not justify cutting off funding to small business support programs across the country. You would agree with that?

I can't offer any insight into that. I don't have any of the particulars. As the Administrator for the Office of Field Operations, that is where I can answer questions for you.

Ms. Shemka, I represent California's forty-fifth congressional district and in a international hub for America's small businesses. Over ninety thousand small business businesses call Orange County home, including many in Little Saigon. Our opportunity, our our entrepreneurs grow their businesses and bring in more to our community by exporting and importing goods and working with partners oversee. Small businesses benefit immensely from international trade. That's why I'm proud to have co-led the Small Business Advoc- Advocacy Improvement Act. My bill would provide small business with small businesses with improved access to international markets by expanding SBA's office of advocacy. What can the Office of Field Operation trade specialists do to help small firms maintain the benefits of international trade as they navigate the president's reckless tariff and licensing pro- policies.

Sure, I can uh answer that question to the point of we we don't have trade specialists under the Office of Field Operations, but we have uh within our offices we will work and point people

What do you have?

to the folks that with our resource partners state partners, et cetera. And one of the things that I wanna make sure as you spoke about, especially on international trade. We have an amazing on-shoring portal, and we wanna make sure that if a business is not listed there, an American business is not listed on that portal, we need to get them on that portal, so that they have more opportunities to be able to have other companies look to them, to be able to utilize them as an American resource within their own supply chain. Hopefully we can fill those supply chain gaps. We've had over fifty-six thousand hits on that website to date for the on-shoring portal.

Chairman, are you about?

Gentleman, he is back, and now recognize Miss Van Duyn from the great state of Texas for five minutes.

Hey, thank you very much, Mister Chairman. It's great to see you again. Um, um, uh, Sh- um, Shemkat, it's really good to see you again. Uh, we first met, uh, last August when you had the pleasure um,

Yes.

and we had the pleasure of hosting you at our annual job fair. Um, it's amazing to hear some of the com- the comments from uh the other side of the aisle talking about how the employers, uh, cannot find workers, and yet what we do in our office, maybe it's different than what they do in theirs. But what we do with ours is we partner with SBA, we partner with our chambers, and we try to get these, these employers, uh, workers, and we try to get folks in our, um, in our, uh, uh, district jobs.

Mm.

And so in fact, uh, you know, uh, we had the largest job fair in the country last year. As you saw, we had thirty-five thousand people come out. And I think that just shows the strength of the economy, I think it shows the strength of uh Texas, that policies actually matter, and people are moving into our state, and you saw it firsthand. You know, you had people who were looking for jobs, they wanna see, you know, better pay, more benefits, more flexibility, and you saw that job market hiring like crazy. So, that was our fourth annual job fair. And I think it always stands out to me, just seeing that the direct connection between the job seekers and the employers. Uh, small businesses, trade programs, large employers are. all in one place, you know, and they're creating these real immediate pathways to employment. And it's to me it's one of those things that we can actually do that's very successful, that doesn't take an act of Congress. And I think there's a little bit of confusion on about what your office does, at least the questions that I'm hearing asked of you. Um, can you, you know, it's great that you are actually thinking outside of DC, recognizing the fact that the the the government can actually help people where they live, I'm going to them as opposed to uh everything being DC based. Can you just tell me a little bit about what you, what your office does?

Absolutely, no, and and thank you very much for that question. Our office, with our sixty-eight district offices across the United States, what we're able to do is meet with small businesses to find out what are the challenges, what is standing in your way. And we'll walk a plant floor uh in uh Des Moines, Iowa and talk with someone who says, you know, PowerBerry is the owner said, you know what, this part right here used to be made in China. Guess what? No more. Now I'm gonna supply that for folks here in the United States to a coffee shop, uh, in, uh, Kannapolis that I was in last week that spoke about how, uh, so many of the regulations that came on, uh, in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two was hurting her business. We can take that information and what we do is we work with the National Ombuds Office. We work with the Office of Advocacy. so that we can also work with other agencies to hopefully shorten the runway to success for a lot of those small businesses, so that they can see financial success, they can see success with finding employees. Uh, under Administrator Loeffler's leadership, we also have an MOU with the Department of Labor, because we can't talk small business without talking workforce.

So, s- uh, you're speaking of local events, what you're doing. So in twenty twenty five alone, you guys hosted over thirty thousand events.

Yes.

Thirty thousand events, uh, across the nation. Can you walk us through what kind of events and and and, uh, uh, support the SBA has and how that benefited small businesses directly?

Absolutely. Uh, thank you for that question. One of the things, as you said, there's a sometimes a misconception with the Office of Field Operations. Our focus is lender engagement. We are working with lenders to help them, uh, take on more notes to take on more loans with small businesses so we can get capital in the hands of small businesses who need it. to look for expansions, uh to look for purchasing of equipments uh equipment. So uh that is what we see as a lot of lender engagement, but then also uh in partnership maybe with our disaster office, uh boots on the ground to get information to the communities. Uh I did a presentation in a rural community that it had a disaster, and it was under a thousand people there. And I had somebody say, you know what, for the first time we feel heard, and that is what our job is,

I pre- really appreciate that answer.

Mm-hmm.

And uh, um, just real fast, when, when you talk about like the numbers, uh, have those increased? Have they decreased?

Our numbers have actually increased. It has been absolutely phenomenal. We are looking for consistency across all of our presentations across the United States. But also making sure that we're focused on what we're good at and what we need to do, and then utilize others. I I wanna give you props as well with your job fair that I was at. I took some of the best practices there for our event in North Carolina, so that we could put everything in one area so people had resources, they had what they needed, so that one stop shop and then get them going on success.

I love it. Well, we're planning our next job fair in August of this year, and I look forward to seeing you and uh uh Secretary Loeffler.

Amazing.

Thank you.

Thank you. Gentlelady yields back.

Go back.

I now recognize Miss McIver from the great state of New Jersey for five minutes.

Thank you uh so much Chairman and ranking member for convening this hearing today, and thank you Administrator Shem Kat for being here to answer our questions today. America's small business owners have seen better days for sure. In February the United States lost ninety-two thousand jobs. Ninety-two thousand jobs. And this year we have seen the unemployment rate rise to four point four percent. We continue to hear nonstop concerns from small business owners who do not know how much longer they can keep the lights on. If there was ever a time for the SBA to step up, it is truly now. The SBA has cut staff and proposed relocating offices away from the very communities they are meant to serve. These decisions are making it harder for entrepreneurs to access the support they need to start and grow a business. The American people deserve to know what the SBA is doing to help them out, not make things harder. With that, Administrator Shemkat, I wanted to piggyback off something you talked about. You talked about the SBA roundtables that you've been hosting. Um, and you mentioned, um, the s- a larger city that I represent in New Jersey. With these roundtables that you host, do you ever invite members of Congress?

Um, thank you for that question, and, uh, With each of our round tables, uh, we do have staff that show up, uh, as we are out there. Uh, many times you guys are in session. So, uh

But do we get an invite? The question is, do our offices get an invite to the round tables that you host?

I'm gonna answer that with, uh, with my family.

I mean, I hope you're gonna answer, cuz it's in your field of what you do.

Yes, yes.

So you've been talking about what you don't answer cuz it's not in your department,

Absolutely.

but I want you to answer something that's in your field.

Absolutely. No, I appreciate the question very much.

OK.

And yes, there are times that uh invitations do go out. Sometimes we could have a workshop that we have four lenders at, and maybe a lender requested a uh for their market, maybe they're commercial lenders only. So there are times when there would not be an invitation going out. But we are always happy to work with your office.

I mean, how how do you deter who gets an invitation or not, when you go to Republican locations, do you invite members from the Republican party to these invites? Because I can tell you the one that you had in Newark, New Jersey, my invitation

Thank you for pointing that out. And what our focus is,

Mm.

is to make sure that we are serving that small business owner. that we are getting in front of the lender and we're getting the information there. What we wanna make sure that we also do, I I wanted to also say with our some of our relocations, when we talked about different offices, a horrific example was in Portland as we are relocating some of these offices.

So, first of all, I'm not interested in that. I asked you specifically about the invites that go out to members of Congress, because we all represent multiple districts across this country, and I find it very unfair that you all decide to invite members of the other side of the aisle in this body, in this chamber, but you don't invite us to events that you're hosting, which is very inappropriate and unfair. So I wanna point that out. Once again, you brought it up that you hosted this huge round table that was such a success in a city that I represent with four hundred thousand residents, and I did not get an invite and my office was not notified about the event. I find that to be very unfair and it's very disappointing and disheartening. With that, You talked about decisions to relocate offices that have been tied to so-called sanctuary cities policies, despite these regions contributing significantly to national economic output. Do you believe small business owners in these communities deserve fewer federal resources because of local political disagreements? Yes or no?

Our office of field operations, when we are looking at the location

It's a yes or no. Do you believe that these these businesses in these so-called sanctuary cities deserve less federal support. Do you believe that, yes or no?

I focus on employee safety when we are making decisions.

It's a yes or no thing, so obviously you believe yes. You do deserve less federal resources. How does that align with the SBA's mission to serve all businesses? Once again, you don't get to decide which businesses you choose to support. Rather they are Republican, Democrat, or Independent, or hell, don't know what they are, you all don't get to decide. who you serve. So how does that align with your mission to serve all businesses?

The district offices do not have a large walk-in population, and we work with all of the resources out there for SBA to make sure that

No, no, no, no, I I I disagree.

small businesses get what they needed for services.

First of all, my time is expiring, but I disagree with your saying it's not right and you're choosing who to serve underneath the SBA with tax, pay your dollars. With that, I yield back, Mister Chairman.

Thank you. The uh uh chair now recognizes uh Miss King-Hines from the Northern Mariana Islands for five minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chair, and thank you, Associate Administrator Shemkia for being here and allowing me the opportunity to have a conversation with you. Uh, first of all, I appreciate how um you are prioritizing getting the SBA field office employees out into the field from DC and for prioritizing rural, and veteran communities um I come from a very remote jurisdiction with a very high um enlistment rate per capita in the country and so I appreciate the the work that is focused on um prioritizing those communities. So last year uh when we were figuring out how to right size and right fit government, uh the Guam SBA field office was was shut down and there's only one staff member there which was laid off so that field office handles sba matters not only in guam but also the district that i represent the cnmi the freely associated states um the fsm and the marshall island so basically it's like for the entire region right and um now the local sbdc matters are handled by the hawaii field office uh which is a seven hour flight away on a good day on a on a bad day it's about nine and sometimes businesses and banks who are instructed to dial um a number in texas which is eight time zones away for advice and services that used to be provided by the guam field office and so i was just wondering i i know that there's been movement in with regards to reinstating that position but um i kind of wanted to elevate that issue because it is a concern for folks on the ground and see where we're at with that.

Uh absolutely, thank you for that question. And yes, we we do have uh what we ha call a procurement center representative uh that also works with businesses uh with regards to government contracting et cetera. So we do have someone boots on the ground in Guam and the Guam office, yes, also works with the SBA district office in Hawaii. Uh also our office just recently has a probably over the last six months been working with CNMI with regards to our Office of Capital Access. As I said, we're working across the agency to work with the team, uh, there as well as economic developers on onshoring. That has been a huge conversation point on how we can onshore, how we can work together with your existing infrastructure there. And in fact, I think there was a team that was just here, uh, not that long ago, and, uh, we were able to meet with them as well as Capital Access. So, uh, we are listening to what we need to do to make sure that we have somebody there so that services are available.

Yeah, and I appreciate all the effort that uh the administrator and yourself has put into trying to figure out how to make sure that we provide, you know, access on a regular basis to folks on the ground. Um and I I do understand the need to right size and right fit, but my concern is is that, you know, when when folks are having to call different time zones or you know having to to wait until certain times to be able to have access to somebody to either discuss their loans or or or things of that nature. Um and so I would like to work with you to figure out how we can um you know find what an appropriate structure looks like to ensure that our small businesses there are taken care of. Um and then you know one of one of the asks basically from community members is, you know, what what would it look like and is it feasible to add a commercial loan officer to, uh, the field office should we get the Guam field office operational? And I don't expect an answer. Uh, this is just something, uh, that I wanted to raise and flag for you. And perhaps in the future, um, sooner rather than later, we we can have a conversation as to, you know, what what the unique challenges are with regards to the region in general.

Uh, happy to work with your office anytime.

All right. Thank you. Appreciate that.

Mm-hmm.

And with that, I yield back.

Thank you. The chair now recognizes Mister Olsh- Sheskey from Maryland for five minutes.

Uh, thank you, Mister Chairman. Thank you to ranking member Velazquez and thank you, um, Deputy Administrator, uh, Shimkat for being here today. I appreciate your time. I look forward to a constructive conversation how we can work together, as we have, uh, SBA district office in Baltimore just outside my congressional district. Um, I wanna begin by entering a few letters into the record, uh, addressed to the Administrator, Administrator Loeffler that have gone unanswered regarding both the score and the step programs at SBA. Uh, committee staff has these letters and I ask unanimous consent to add them to the record. Guessing that's approved. I hope so. Uh.

Without objection.

Thank you, Mister Chairman. Um, a- and I, I enter these because as Administrator it is her responsibility to make sure that we have a working relationship with this committee and I think a conversation and responding to communication is one of the most basic things that we can ask for and so I would ask first that you please extend an urge extend our request to and urge the administrator to answer the questions that this committee sends to her I'm hoping that that's something you can do for us.

Ye- I will pass on information through our office.

Thank you, I I appreciate that. I also wanted to point out I know you mentioned that the agency has shifted resources from rural and veteran entrepreneurs which were quote ignored by the previous administration um I believe it's true that the Biden administration actually proposed to increase funding for veterans business outreach centers in fiscal twenty four are you aware of that?

I couldn't speak to that I'm I am not aware of that.

OK. And I it's also my understanding that the Trump administration proposed to zero that funding out in fiscal year twenty twenty five.

Once again, I have to speak to Office of Field Operations, but that's why I'm here today. I'm happy to answer questions with regards to that.

OK, but I'm just saying I think it's important to have the context of the full agency before we make these kind of blanket blanket statements about what the past and current administration does I think all of these facts are important parts of of that dialogue um I mentioned score and steps specifically because I am concerned that there have been cuts in this space more importantly, there have been withholding of funds um from the American people for programs proven to support Americans. Last June I received countless outreach from constituents regarding the SCORE program that has since nineteen sixty-four helped more than seventeen million entrepreneurs start, grow, or exit a business. Uh, there are ten thousand volunteers who provide free expert mentoring resources in education. Uh, SCORE served over four hundred clients in my district alone with eight hundred in eighteen mentoring sessions. So, with all the benefits that the program brings to Main Street businesses, I would think that you can understand our shock that almost ten million dollars from score is still being withheld by this administration. And can you can you agree that that might be problematic for folks who are looking to grow a business?

I can say that the Office of Field Operations stands ready to help small businesses get them to the resources they need to get to.

OK. Um. Cuz I I do commend you. I wanna commend you. I know that you did a lot of work with fifteen regional centers in your state back home. Uh, I understand that resource partners like SBDCs work hand in hand with the field office, and I know that you are aware of the importance of this partnership. Um, some SBDCs are on the verge of closing their doors to due to receiving no funding since March of twenty twenty five. I guess my question is what good does it do for American small businesses to have SBA's reliable and trusted resource partners close their doors?

For the Office of Field Operations, I can only speak to that. I don't have any insight onto the funding under Office of

I I'm I'm actually glad that you you said that because I know you you said you can't discuss SBDCs, et cetera, because that's an OED. But my colleague, Mister Muser, asked about loans, and that was an answer that you gave. Um, my understanding is that loans sit in OCA. So if you're gonna be prepared to talk about loans and other issues outside of your purview I would suspect that you would be able to have that same conversation outside of purview for questions that Democrats on this side of the aisle might have for you as well. frankly, that all my colleagues might have.

I, I am happy to answer any questions with regards to field and our offices work with lenders to not only lender engagement but also lender re-engagement. When we have a lender that maybe hasn't engaged for a while and to teach them about the mark loan our manufacturing loan that's out there with a line of credit, so that we can help capital stack with small businesses to help make them successful. That's where we get involved with our uh partners out there.

OK, well I I think the withholding of funding that's happened in these critical programs is is one way that we can help folks be successful too. So I'll have my staff follow up um and and the spaces where we can't get questions today, hopefully you can help facilitate um some answers and and in the future, hopefully if we're gonna go outside of scope, we do it for everybody and not just for select answers. But appreciate and I yield back.

Appreciate.

Thank you, the uh the chair uh The chair will now recognize myself for five minutes. Associate Administrator Shemka, thanks for coming and, you know, the Trump administration has made it clear that public safety and responsible stewardship of tax credit dollars must go hand in hand. In northern Minnesota and across my congressional district, the eighth district of Minnesota, families expect government to protect workers and use their hard-earned tax dollars wisely. On March sixth of twenty twenty five, Administrator Loeffler announced that the SBA will relocate offices out of sanctuary cities. Can you explain how these relocations help protect SBA employees, while also ensuring taxpayer dollars are being used more efficiently?

Absolutely. Thank you for that question. And I'm actually gonna start out with one of the most horrific examples that we have, as I had started, was in Portland. Uh, we had one of our employees get into the elevator, homeless man got onto the elevator with her, made threatening remarks, She rode the elevator up, was able to run into our office and lock the door and hide. She called law enforcement. Law enforcement got there, found him passed out in a bathroom with fentanyl on the counter. That is absolutely unacceptable and and scary for a small business, uh, for the SBA. We need to prioritize, and I think everyone can agree on that, prioritizing employee safety. We also had our, um, uh, New York District office had eight closures and one of them was due to a white substance that was delivered to ICE. So we looked at all of our locations across the United States, and we looked at uh where we had employee safety issues and that's where we needed to focus that was our number one priority but then also taking those offices and looking at what footprint we need we have an office that we have twenty cubicles that are open and empty and have been for four years we have another office that was in Pennsylvania that for the since uh uh the last four years, nobody's been in there to the cost of sixty thousand dollars per year, plus internet, plus heat, and we kept that office open. We closed, we have now since closed it, that's one of those nineteen offices. So, we focused on employee safety and being able to move at the speed of business, especially under administrative Leffler's leadership, to do what is right to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollars.

So for each lo- uh relocation, what specific steps are being taken to ensure the new office location's ultimately reduced cost while still allowing SBA to effectively serve small businesses? across the country, including those in rural communities like the one I represent in Northern Minnesota.

Absolutely. No, I thank you for that question. And we, as I said, we looked at, uh, where all the locations are in accessibility. We looked at the number of walk-ins. Uh, you know, uh, New York District Office has had five walk-ins so far this year. Uh, we've had

Wait a minute, say that again?

The New York District Office has had five walk-ins so far this year,

They've had five walk-ins.

yes.

Go ahead, continue.

And so what we needed to do was return our offices to Main Street. Uh we have some locations where parking, especially if it's on a baseball day, and no disrespect to baseball, but on a baseball day the parking could go over fifty dollars. And if you have a small business owner that maybe is the only or sole proprietor, and they're already shut down because they're coming to meet with someone, but then to have to pay parking on top of et cetera, so we're trying to make it more accessible. And we don't, not having a lot of walk-ins, we're able to look at where it makes more sense so we can get those services out there.

Um, so, for many small business owners in northern Minnesota, their first interaction with the federal government often happens through an SBA field office. Can you speak to how the Office of Field Operations has benefited from moving more SBA staff closer to the communities, communities they serve, and again, particularly small businesses in rural districts like mine and Minnesota's eighth congressional district.

Absolutely. No, I appreciate the question, coming from a rural state myself and growing up in in rural America, it is so important that there is a voice out there. So many times, you know, they refer to our state as a or as a flyover state. So we wanted to make sure that we are located where businesses are, the main street businesses, the forgotten ones. Um and as our field operations folks are out there, they're talking with them. What are their needs? What are their pain points? Uh, we had a business saying, you know what, I'm running into uh burdensome regulations with regards to uh PFAS. What do I need to do? Or labeling on my product. What do I need to do? We can take that information back. We get it to the Office of Advocacy. We get it to uh our Ombuds office so that they can help them out from there.

Thank you. And then how do you work with Administrator uh Loeffler to prioritize where the staff relocations and new hires should be placed especially again, in rural serve regions where entrepreneurs may not have the same access to resources as businesses in some of our major cities.

Absolutely. No, I appreciate the question. Our first focus is on employee safety. That has to be number one. We have to keep our employees in our workforce safe. Uh, after that, we look at what is our footprint. What do we need to do and where do we need to be located with regards to access? Is there parking? Is, you know, things that seem so simple, but can be the reason why somebody comes to the office or doesn't.

Thank you very much and my time is up. I now recognize uh Mrs. Morrison from Minnesota for five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you uh Chairman Williams and Ranking Member Velazquez for holding this hearing. And thank you, Associate Administrator um Shemkat for taking the time to testify. I appreciate that during your testimony you stressed the importance of keeping um SBA staff in the field and acknowledged that keeping staff close to the small businesses they serve helps deliver better results for our small businesses. That's one of the reasons I was deeply concerned to hear that after Rene Good, an American citizen and a Minnesotan was killed by federal agents, Administrator Loeffler announced that she had ordered Minnesota's district office to be relocated. Uh, the Minneapolis metro area is home to more than three hundred and seventy-five thousand small businesses, uh, more than seventy percent of the small businesses in the entire state. Since three thousand agents descended upon our state, overwhelming local law enforcement agencies, the small businesses in my district have been reaching out, for assistance to deal with the drastic loss in revenue that they've experienced during these past months small businesses across my district sustained fifty to seventy-five percent losses in sales and revenue they're being forced to scale back services or are considering closing they are in short in dire need of assistance now more than ever it's crucial for the s b a to provide assistance to minnesota's small businesses is s b a planning to relocate minnesota's district office

We are looking at all of our district offices. We looked at every single location out there. We did have to close the Minnesota district office multiple times because of protests that were located right by the the building that they are in. And employee safety is our number one concern.

And respectfully the the irony of that, saying that the reason it was closed just to prioritize safety, is that in Minnesota small businesses have employees

We are looking at relocation of our offices to areas that uh we're able to better have safety protocols in place. We're looking at uh accessibility. Many times, as I said, parking becomes an issue once you get past employee safety. parking constraints, we run into uh small businesses uh sometimes especially in rural small businesses, going into a city sometimes can be intimidating. So we wanna make sure that we take that off the table and look for ways that we can get out there. Now also our field offices focus on lender engagement. So the uh individualized meetings with small businesses uh aside from round tables, et cetera, uh we don't see as much of that, but we have had uh ex- a lot of success when we're working with them with regards to our expo, with regards to some of the other projects we've put together. It's been fantastic.

Thank you. Can can I ask you to commit to keeping Minnesota's district office in Minnesota?

Do you uh your question is to keep it in the state of Minnesota?

Yes, please.

Uh I will uh definitely put that on the table as we continue to move forward.

Wonderful. And if will you commit also to following up with my office with more details regarding the plans for the Minnesota district office?

Happy to work with your office.

Thank you so much. Um, and as I'm sure you're aware, last December, Administrator Loeffler announced that the SBA would halt disbursement of five point five million to SBA resource partners in Minnesota. Most notably, SBA has withheld over two point two million dollars in funding for Minnesota's small business development centers. I've been in touch with the director of Minnesota's small business, uh, development center, and I know they've been working hard to be good partners with SBA, and ensure there are no issues with financial misuse of funds. Despite this, funding for these crucial programs has remained fro- frozen. What steps does Minnesota's Small Business Development Center State Office need to take in order for SBA to release the funding? They have been guaranteed so that they can continue to deliver for Minnesota's small businesses.

Congresswoman, I appreciate the question. As a reminder, I am here today for the Office of Field Operations. I don't have insights into the Office of Entrepreneurial Development. It's outside my scope. But happy to answer questions today regarding what we're doing here. Appreciate it.

Will you commit to working with Associate Administrator Paul Fitz Fitzpatrick to get my office and answer on this, please?

Uh, we will always stand ready to work with your office.

Thank you very much for your testimony and thank you, Mister Chair, yield back.

Thank you very much. Chair, now I'll recognize this, uh, Miss Galton from Michigan for five minutes.

Thank you so much, uh, Mister Chair, and thank you, uh, so much. Uh, Madam Administrator, for joining us here today, over the past year we've seen significant reductions uh in SBA staff, as we've talked about today. Uh, while Administrator Loeffler has highlighted her goal of strengthening the agency uh in the field, these things uh seem to be inconsistent to me. Um, in Michigan, our main SBA field office is located in Detroit, all the way uh across the state with a virtual office in my district in Grand Rapids. We know that by September of last year, agency-wide staff reductions had reached twenty seven percent. Can you share how the Detroit SBA field office has been impacted by these staffing cuts, including any delays in wait times for counseling?

Uh, thank you for the question.

Yeah.

And for uh wait times in counseling, we don't do a lot of small business counseling uh because our offices are focused on uh as far as the office of field operations, more focused on lender engagement, lender re-engagement, and also uh being that voice for small businesses that maybe are struggling with regulation. And I do know this, that uh in uh this new year

But what does that mean, if if I may, being that voice for for small businesses,

Sure.

what what does that what does that mean in practice?

Sure. So, uh as I'm out on the road and uh you know, Administrator Loeffler has also taken charge and and been out there as a strong advocate, walking the plant floors. What are the pain points for these small businesses? So we can figure out what those are and get them back here to DC and get the information out.

Mm-hmm.

So then, we can look at is this a regulation that maybe doesn't need to be a regulation anymore?

Yeah.

Does it need to be modified? Because we can't have regulations. Obviously, we want safe product. We want safe processes.

Of course.

but not having regulations that effectively zero out the ability for a small business owner to compete.

Absolutely. And and and listening, of course, would seem to be a a critical point, the the first essential step in being a voice, right? Uh, we know as representatives we gotta go back, listen to our constituents, and then come back, take that message. Administrator Loeffler is one person, right? covering the entire United States. I I guess my question is to be that voice, to do your job effectively, almost a third of the staff being reduced, that's less listening, that's less resources. So what what what I'm asking is, you know, how i- i- and and feel free to speak nationwide, but I do wanna know about Detroit specifically and and our office in Michigan. How can you continue to do that job effectively with a third of of the people being the voice, you know, being cut?

Absolutely, and a fair question. Appreciate that. And actually in FY twenty-five, we had the highest number in four years of events that we had put together.

Mm-hmm.

So we have really streamlined what we need to do, how we need to do it, so that we can be more effective. And also, looking at doing business differently, uh, under Administrator Loeffler's leadership, she has done a fantastic job of allowing us to work at the speed of small business.

Mm-hmm.

And that's been very important for us and, and I I can't stress enough that I

Did you know, I'm sorry to interrupt again, but do you have any any data or um results that you can share

OK.

about how you have worked at the speed of of small business? What what in particular have you eh the speed of which have you increased? Are you eh, you know, is there eh have you how many visits has she done? Is it more than the past administration? How many cases have you resolved? Do you have publicly facing eh data, you know, metrics that we can we can look to to to show that you're able to do more with less.

I absolutely, no, and that's a great question. Uh, what we've been able to do, and I I have the number of states that I've been to. Uh, we also have the information of the number of hits through our Red Tape hotline. That's been a really great tool for small businesses to have that voice.

Uh-huh.

Many times before they said, " Oh, it's so intimidating if I have to write a case out" and things like that.

Right.

But Red Tape at SBA dot gov? I apologize, I don't remember the eight hundred number, but I do remember the email,

Yeah.

redtape@sba.gov, which is a tool where all they need to do is shoot an email to us saying, you know what, here's my business.

And I'm familiar, I am familiar with the hotline and,

Oh, okay.

and I, you know, we've had hearings on it before, I think it's really important,

Okay.

but again, the metrics, the publicly facing metrics, I think w- again the concern that so many of my colleagues have raised here today is we're talking about in some field offices a fifty percent reduction, a hundred percent reduction. And we wanna make sure that there are those eyes and ears. We agree with you a hundred percent, the voice of small business, elevating their issues. How are you able to do that with less? And if you're saying we are now moving at the speed of small business, we want some demonstrable metrics, publicly available metrics, that we can look to and say, that's not just, you know, speech. There's actually data to show that you are doing it. So we, you can submit those. um afterwards cuz I did not hear any metrics in your response, but that is what we're looking for. Thank you.

Sure.

I yield back.

Gentlelady yields back. I now recognize Miss Goodlander from the great state of New Hampshire for five minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and thank you to our ranking member, thank you to our witness for being here today. I I appreciate it. I wanna start by saying I couldn't agree with you more that the most effective place for for the SBA workforce to be is is where our boss is, and that is in the field offices and on the ground. Um, we agree on that point. Do you agree that we should be adequately staffing our field offices?

Thank you for that question, and I feel that we are adequately staffing our field offices.

Okay. Can I ask you, um, in in New Hampshire how many how many field sta- how many how many staff are are in the field office in New Hampshire? What's been the reduction in force?

Um. I can get you that information off the top of my head.

I can tell you that it it started at ten

I just

last year and we're now down by sixty to seventy percent. Does that strike you as adequate, a sixty to seventy percent cut in in the district, the field office workforce?

Uh, thank you for that question. And what I have to look at is what do we need to do at the end of the day to move the needle for small businesses? and making sure that our staff that we have in the field offices are trained the way they need to be trained. And getting the information out, working across the SBA, eliminating those silos, which the Trump administration has done for this and Administrator Loeffler. Eliminating those silos has made us way more effective out in the field for the field operations.

Well, I can tell you that small businesses in New Hampshire are suffering because you haven't adequately staffed our field office and I wanna point out that On June fourth of last year, Administrator Loeffler came before this committee. She testified and gave us her commitment that we would get a full update on your plan to fully restaff district offices, including in New Hampshire. And we still don't have that update. So can I get your commitment to giving me a full update on your plan to fully restaff New Hampshire's district office?

We will always stand ready to work with your office and At times though we have to also make sure that when it comes to HR, there are certain things that we have to keep confidential, but uh looking forward to continuing to move forward.

I do too, because that was nine months ago when Administrator Leffler was before this committee and this is an urgent moment for our small businesses they've never felt more uncertainty uh the cost of doing business has never been higher, and so I I just wanna confirm that I have your commitment to work with my team and with me to make sure we have a plan in place to fully restaff and adequately staff the district office in New Hampshire.

I w- we're uh always ready to stand ready to work with your office. And and just as a reminder, the Office of Field Operations, our focus is on lenders and lender engagement.

And lenders are the constituents I hear from most on this front. They are suffering the most because of a lack of staffing in the field and on the ground. So I I appreciate your commitment to working with me on this. You know, you and I share a commitment to cutting red tape and to making sure that regulations work for small businesses. Uh, you're currently uh, running the Office of Manufacturing and Trade within the SBA. Is that correct?

I am the Acting Administrator for the Office of Manufacturing and Trade, yes.

And and that office is uh, its mission is to make sure that small businesses can compete in the global marketplace.

Um, yes, that is the mission. But as today, I'm here in regards to my position under the Office of Field Operations.

OK, well, I I you've said in that capacity, too, you're committed to cutting red tape and to making sure regulations work for small businesses. What is what is the SBA's plan? When I hear from what I hear from my small businesses, number one, uh, the president's unconstitutional tariffs have been one of the biggest impediments to success. They've driven small businesses out of business. What is your plan to work with small businesses across the country and in my state of New Hampshire to make sure that they are reimbursed in the money that was unlawfully taken by the president's tariffs?

I appreciate your question. I I wanna start with saying what I'm hearing out in the field is vastly different from that. What we're hearing is uh small business acu rounds, uh actually

I'm sorry, you're hearing that small businesses are in favor of this unconstitutional tariff regime?

I am saying that small businesses, uh, Acuron is a small business manufacturer in Massachusetts, uh,

Hmm.

said that tariffs have been a net positive for their business.

Well, that is a first. I have not, this is a first, um, in in in the last year that I've heard from counting small businesses. I'm asking you what is your plan to address the concerns and the needs and the money owed to small businesses who are looking for refunds from these unconstitutional tariffs?

Well, I'm very happy to say working under the Trump administration and under uh Administrator Loeffler's leadership with regards to this, the focus on not only the feedback we get from Powerbrace out of Des Moines.

So you don't have a plan. Is that what I can take from your response?

We have put together the on-shoring portal, which is another way for your manufacturers and and I hope your manufacturers have all got listed on there so that we can help bru- build back the American Industrial Base so that folks look local first, they look to America first.

Data time is up.

Thank you, Mister Chairman. I yield back.

I yield back. OK, I'd like to thank Associate Administrator Shemkid for her testimony and for appearing before us today. Without objection, members have five legislative days to submit additional materials and written questions for the witnesses to the chair, which will be forwarded to the witness. I ask the witness to please respond promptly. If there is no further business business without objection, the committee is adjourned. ok