Small Business Administration

The Small Business Administration (SBA) was established to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise, and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation.  Small business is critical to our economic recovery and strength, to building America’s future, and to helping the United States compete in today’s global marketplace.  The Budget provides $994 million for the SBA, a $170 million or 21 percent increase from 2010. 

Spark New Opportunities for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses

• $165 million in subsidy costs to support $17.5 billion in 7(a) loan guarantees that will help small businesses to operate and expand, including $16 billion in term loans and $1.5 billion in revolving lines of credit to support $39 billion in total economic activity through draws and repayments over the multi-year life of the guarantee.
• $7.5 billion in guaranteed lending for commercial real estate development and heavy machinery purchases.
• $3 billion in Small Business Investment Company debentures to support new businesses and new jobs through early-stage and mezzanine small business financing.
• $25 million in direct microloans for intermediaries to provide small loans to emerging entrepreneurs and other promising but "un-bankable" borrowers.
• $14 million to develop businesses in distressed areas by expanding the Emerging Leaders (formerly Emerging 200) program ($3 million) and support regional economic growth through competitive Regional Innovation Cluster grants to businesses ($11 million).
• $1.1 billion in direct loans, the normalized 10-year average, for homeowners, renters, and businesses whose property is damaged by natural disasters.
• Strengthen lender and procurement program oversight to protect taxpayer dollars.

High-Priority Performance Goals
The Administration is committed to building a transparent, high-performance government capable of addressing the challenges of the 21st century.  As part of developing the budget, every department identified high-priority performance goals (along with the strategies and in-house resources to achieve them) that each will work to accomplish over the next two years.  Highlights of this department’s goals are:

• Expand access to capital by increasing the number of active SBA lending partners for the 7(a) loan program to 3,000 by September 30, 2011, a 15 percent increase over the 2008 and 2009 average. 
• Increase small business participation in Federal Government contracting to meet the statutory goals and reduce participation by ineligible firms. 
• For the Disaster Loan Program, process 85 percent of home loan applications within 14 days and 85 percent of business loan applications within 18 days. 

To view a full list of the department’s high-priority performance goals, please visit www.sba.gov/aboutsba/budgetsplans/index.html.