Vice President Harris Announces Record Lending to Small Businesses in 2024 and New Actions to Cut Red Tape and Expand Contracting Opportunities
Today, Vice President Harris announced that the Small Business Administration (SBA) provided a record $56 billion through more than 100,000 small business financings in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024—the most in more than 15 years. The Vice President also announced new actions by the Biden-Harris Administration to cut red tape and expand access to Federal contracting opportunities.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. And we know that small business owners need access to capital to hire more employees, grow their businesses, and advance innovation,” said Vice President Harris. “Today I am proud to announce that the U.S. Small Business Administration has made record lending to over 100,000 small businesses in the last year, the most by the agency in over 15 years. When small businesses thrive, our local economies thrive.”
The Biden-Harris Administration has powered a small business boom across the country. Since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, American entrepreneurs have filed nearly 20 million applications to start new businesses. Business ownership has doubled among Black families and hit a 30-year high for Hispanic families.
While the Biden-Harris Administration doubles down on supporting this small business boom, Congressional Republicans have repeatedly tried to cut SBA’s funding by nearly a third and want to raise taxes and costs for small businesses by repealing Inflation Reduction Act investments.
Building on these efforts to support small businesses, Vice President Harris is announcing:
New Records for Lending to Small Businesses
The SBA released its 2024 Capital Impact Report, showing that the agency increased its lending to small businesses to a record high $56 billion in FY 2024—a 50% increase over FY 2020. Further, SBA provided over 100,000 small business financings last year—the most in over 15 years. Since FY 2020, SBA has increased lending to underserved businesses including a:
3x increase in loans to Black-owned businesses
2.5x increase in loans to Latino-owned businesses
2x increase in loans to women-owned businesses
2x increase in small dollar loans (loans of less than $150,000)
Increasing Access to Federal Contracting Opportunities
The SBA is proposing new regulations to increase small business participation on multiple award contracts, a popular buying tool used for over 20 percent of all contracting by the Federal Government. The proposed rule will require agencies to set aside orders made under these contracts when two or more small business contract holders are expected to submit competitive offers. Multiple award contracts allow agencies to meet mission needs in a timely, cost-effective manner by awarding task and delivery orders to contract holders using streamlined competitions.
The SBA proposed rule will require agencies to take steps that make it easier for small businesses to become contract holders on multiple-award contracts where they will then be eligible to compete for task and delivery orders through streamlined competitions. SBA projects that the new rule, if finalized as proposed, will result in up to $6 billion in additional awards to small businesses each year. This new proposed rule will further implement OMB’s January 2024 memo on “Increasing Small Business Participation on Multiple-Award Contracts.” The members of the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council will also be proposing regulatory changes in the near future to implement OMB’s guidance and align with SBA’s rulemaking.
Direct Support to Meet Businesses’ Individual Needs
This summer marked the first year of the Capital Readiness Program (CRP), funded by the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA)’s State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) and announced by Vice President Harris in August 2023. The CRP is a $125 million investment to help minority and underserved entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses, the largest-ever direct Federal investment in small business incubators and accelerators of its kind. Today’s data shows the incredible impacts the 43 program awardees have already made in their communities in the first year of the program. Through September 30, 2024, following their efforts to quickly stand-up programs, the 43 awardees have already:
Enrolled over 6,300 small businesses
Hosted nearly 2,500 networking events
Supported the formation of over 2,600 new businesses
Raised over $260 million in capital for small businesses
Cutting Red Tape for Small Businesses Seeking Federal Contracts
The SBA just launched MySBA Certifications to simplify and streamline certifications for small business Federal contractors. The Biden-Harris Administration committed to using every tool at its disposal to reduce administrative burden for small businesses seeking to compete for Federal contracts. Building on this goal, MySBA Certifications is a one-stop-shop that allows small business owners to apply for multiple certifications with a single application, rather than submitting separate applications for the HUBZone, 8(a), Women Owned, and Veteran Owned Small Business Certification programs. SBA also simplified and modernized its application—using plain language, eliminating redundant questions, and reducing documentation requirements—reducing the time to apply by 40% for a single certification and over 70% for multiple certifications. SBA’s new operational efficiencies will reduce processing times across the programs—meaning firms will receive their decisions more quickly and can begin competing for sole-source and set-aside contracts. In FY 2024, SBA certified more than 17,000 small businesses—a single year record and a nearly 40 percent increase over FY 2023. The agency expects to build on this success with MySBA Certifications and significantly grow the base of certified small business government contractors—helping the Federal Government meet the President’s 15 percent small disadvantaged business goal in FY 2025.