“From Startup to Scale: The Role of the SBA Office of Investment and Innovation in Powering America’s Small Businesses.”
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House Small Business U.S. House of Representatives
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Derek Tran
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome, Mr. Carter. Innovation is the engine of long-term economic growth. It is through innovation that we raise living standards, improve the efficiency of business, and maintain American economic competitiveness. Small businesses pull more than their own weight in bringing that innovation to market. According to a 2022 SBA report, small businesses with between five to nine employees receive more patents per employee than any other category.
Entrepreneurs are essential catalysts for technology transfer, moving research innovations from the laboratory into the marketplace and doing the hard work of raising capital, conducting market research, and bringing those discoveries to the public. Importantly, these small businesses are everywhere, not just in Boston and San Francisco. The promise of America's innovation economy is that great ideas can come from anywhere and that even a startup in rural Missouri can have the same opportunities as a well-connected founder in Silicon Valley. Private capital markets remain extremely concentrated, and our federal programs at the SBA exist to correct that market failure. The SBA's Office of Investment and Innovation is the home of that mission, and it houses three sets of programs that I want to briefly highlight.
First is the Small Business Investment Company program, established in 1958 to give small business high-growth firms access to patient capital. In fiscal year 24, SBICs deployed over 7 billion to more than 1,100 companies, supporting over 113,000 jobs. Since its founding, the program has backed some of the names that have become most central to American economic life: Apple, Costco, FedEx, Intel.
Second is the Small Business Innovation and Technology Transfer, or SBIR, STTR programs. For over four decades, these programs have been the federal government's primary vehicle for directing research and development funding to small innovative businesses. Just last year, they directed roughly 4 billion in early stage technology funding to 4,000 businesses. These programs are enormously successful in bolstering American innovation and generating economic activity, which makes it all the more concerning that last year, they were allowed, these programs were allowed to lapse. The impact was devastating for thousands of small firms struggling to continue life-changing research.
Thankfully, the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act was recently enacted. It reauthorizes the SBIR and STTR program for the next five years. It contained genuine improvements supported by members of both sides, including my bill on extending due diligence requirement to protect American intellectual property. However, I would be remiss to ignore that it is much harder to negotiate a reauthorization package without up-to-date information, which is supposed to be provided by the SBA. It is 2026 and we have not received an annual report on these vital programs since fiscal year 2022.
I look forward to learning more about the actions the office is taking to provide this information. The third and final program sits in the Office of Investment and Innovation. They support entrepreneurship through their regional innovation clusters, the Growth Accelerator Fund, and the Federal and State Technology Partnership program. These are not just peripheral grant programs. They play an integral part and role of realizing the promise of the office to ensure that OII reaches firms that lack traditional pathways capital or live in hotspots of VC funding.
I look forward to your testimony and the ways you are diligently implementing these programs to ensure that there is equitable access to funding and resources for small business owners, no matter where they are located or who owns them. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Roger Williams
Gentleman yields back and I will now introduce our witness. Our witness today is Mr. Joshua Carter. Mr. Carter serves as Associate Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Investment and Innovation. Prior to assuming this role, Mr. Carter co-founded and served as Co-Chief Investment Officer of CPO Capital, a multi-family office and institutional investment firm based in Salt Lake City. He also previously held positions at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs.
He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in social studies and has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. I want to thank you again for being here and I look forward to our discussion. Now before recognizing the witness, I'd like to remind that your oral testimony is restricted to five minutes in length. You know that and if you see the light turn red in front of you, it means your five minutes have concluded and you should wrap up the testimony and with that in mind and his knowledge of that, I now recognize Mr. Carter for his five-minute opening remarks.
Joshua Carter
Chairman Williams, Ranking Member Tran, and distinguished members of the House Committee on Small Business, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on behalf of the U.S. Small Business Administration. My name is Josh Carter and I serve as the Associate Administrator for the Office of Investment and Innovation. It is an honor to discuss how the SBA's investment and innovation programs are helping America's entrepreneurs access capital, commercialize breakthrough technologies, and create jobs in local communities across the country. Under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump and Administrator Kelly Loeffler, the SBA has renewed its focus on supercharging access to capital for small businesses, commercializing new innovative technology, and creating good-paying jobs through strong public-private partnerships. Fiscal year 25 marked a record year for capital formation and innovation at the SBA.
Speaker 5
At the center of that success is the Small Business Investment Company, or SBIC program. Last year, the SBIC program reached a record 53 billion in total assets, the largest in its history, and a reflection of unprecedented levels of private capital being mobilized through public-private partnerships. For more than six decades, the SBIC program has served as one of the federal government's less well-known but most successful investment programs. In addition to providing capital, fund managers bring industry expertise, strategic guidance, and business relationships that help entrepreneurs grow and succeed. Today, approximately 360 active funds manage more than 55 billion in total capital, and since the program's inception, SBICs have deployed more than 147 billion dollars through over 200,000 investments in American small businesses.
These investments supported the creation of more than 10.6 million new jobs since 1995. Congress has also taken an important step to ensure the continued growth of the SBIC program through the passage of the Investing in All America Act, one of the most significant enhancements to the SBIC program in years. The legislation increases SBA leverage limits, allowing significantly more private capital to flow into American small businesses. For many funds, these higher limits can translate into nearly 200 million in additional investment capacity available to support growing businesses. The law also provides up to 125 million in additional leverage for funds investing in administration priorities such as critical technologies, rural communities, and small manufacturers, which is essential to America's long-term economic competitiveness and industrial strength in an increasingly competitive global environment.
During the past year, the SBA has removed regulatory barriers to facilitate SBIC investments in critical mineral extraction and processing and designated critical technologies, while eliminating restrictive eligibility requirements for fund applicants and improving efficiency for experienced fund managers. Additionally, the SBIC program aligned its investment strategies with SBA strategic priorities to create additional flexibilities around pre-licensing investments to ensure US small businesses receive the capital they need when they need it. These reforms strengthen the SBIC program and position it to mobilize capital at greater scale for the next generation of American small businesses. And while capital is essential, innovation is also remains equally important to America's future. The Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer, or SBIR/STTR programs, continue to demonstrate the power of investing in American ingenuity.
In 2025, more than 1,600 SBIR/STTR-funded small businesses reported nearly 29 billion in commercialization activity, including follow-on private investment, government contracts, and private sector sales. These outcomes demonstrate the SBIR/STTR program's effectiveness in translating federally funded research into deployable technologies with real-world economic and national security impact. The recent reauthorization of the SBIR/STTR program provides critical certainty for innovators, investors, federal agencies, and entrepreneurs. All these accomplishments tell a powerful story. The SBIC program reached a record portfolio size, providing unprecedented access to capital for small businesses.
The SBA approved new investment funds expected to generate tens of billions of dollars in private sector investment, and the SBIR/STTR-supported companies continue to generate significant commercialization activity with economic and national security impact.
Under investment and innovation, America's small businesses generate economic growth across the nation. The SBA remains committed to expanding access to capital, supporting innovation, strengthening domestic manufacturing, and helping America's entrepreneurs continue to lead the world in economic and technological advancement. Thank you for your time today. I look forward to hearing from members of this committee and answering your questions.
Roger Williams
The gentleman yields back. We will now move to the member questions under the five-minute rule. I recognize myself for five minutes. Mr. Carter, since Administrator Leffler was sworn into office, OII has seen record SBIC performance and modernized regulatory framework in two pieces of bipartisan legislation signed into law. Now, that record is difficult to match.
In your view, how have the Trump administration's priorities translated into concrete results for small businesses through OII's programs under Administrator Leffler?
Joshua Carter
Thank you, Chairman. I've been so honored to work with Administrator Leffler and under President Trump and Administrator Leffler's leadership. She's focused us intensely on the key themes that matter for our country at this time. Number one, reindustrialization of America. Number two, strengthening of our supply chain choke points, increasing the resilience of those.
And number three, continued to advance technology, the adoption of technology, advanced technology, the commercialization of it. And it's been incredible to see already the impacts that that's had. Just this last year for 2025, about 44% of our SBIC portfolio was in the industrials category, which is made up principally of manufacturing. We've seen incredible support from the funds as we've focused on this. And we've seen 3 billion last year just in that sector in the SBIC program.
And what's so powerful is when you actually look at the individual company impact, right? It's all about the small businesses and the entrepreneurs. And we've I found an example that was in in your home state of Texas. Cleburne, Texas, there's a cement wall manufacturer that's there that received SBIC funding. And you look at those individual situations and that's what that's what this program is all about.
Roger Williams
Thank you. And the SBIC's program has operated for nearly seven decades and its ability to deliver private capital to small businesses without using taxpayer dollars remains one of the most efficient models in federal government. Now, under Administrator Leffler's leadership again, the SBIC portfolio closed fiscal year 2025 at 53 billion in combined private capital and SBA leverage, the largest in the program's history. So my question is, how has the Trump administration's focus on mission, discipline, and regulatory modernization driven that record performance? And what does that signal about the direction of the OII as we move forward?
Carter
Yeah, from the beginning of her time as the administrator of the SBA, Administrator Leffler's focused on efficiency and on aligning all of us at the SBA with the mission of the president. And it was incredible to see in OII and and frankly, the team that we have there in my professional experience 25 years as an investor is is as good as any institutional investor out there. And watching how they came together last year to process a record number of funds, about 170 funds that were processed. We mentioned the statistics, 88 funds that were approved for greenlights, which is a conditional approval, 46 licenses. And watching them come together, find efficiencies, focus on processing and helping funds through so we can get capital to American companies has been really inspiring.
Roger Williams
In the time we got remaining, access to capital still remains one of the most persistent barriers for small businesses looking to grow and scale. How has the landscape for small business investment changed over the past few years? And where do you see the private market falling short in ways that the OII programs are designed to fill?
Joshua Carter
There's a few trends that in my mind make this program even more essential and more meaningful to American small businesses. We've all seen how funds have become larger and larger. They're mega VC funds now.
Roughly 76% of first quarter volume in venture capital this year was with six venture capital investments. So the investments themselves are bigger, the funds are bigger. Similar trend is happening in private equity where the funds are getting larger. And funds over $5 billion are representing 35% of the volume. That's up from like 26% five years ago.
So our small funds, smaller funds that thankfully with the great legislation you passed can have more access to capital now, are vital to these small businesses because everyone else is moving up market. And this capital allows them to stay focused on the lower middle markets and on the entrepreneurs and the innovators that are so important to our country and that all these programs are focused on.
Roger Williams
In the short time that I have remaining, I want to just, well, let me go to the back here. My time, my time is up and I'll go to who's next? Ranking member.
Derek Tran
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Carter, one of the main ways to do oversight is through reporting requirements from the administration in congressionally authorized programs. The SBA has not published data on the SBIC program typically done through the SBIC program overview report since September 2024. Why has the SBA not published this data since fiscal year 24?
Joshua Carter
Thank you for the question, Congressman. The opportunity for us, and I've been in this seat since August of last year, and one of the first things that I did was to analyze our data, analyze our technology and the resources we had because as someone who's managing the division, the office, you need to see the data to be able to understand. And what I would say is that we've got a huge opportunity at the SBA that our CIO is focused on. He talks all the time about how there are 15 different data centers throughout the SBA that he's trying to rationalize and reconcile. And I've been focused on this with industry colleagues since I've been there.
I'm pleased to say actually we're going to be producing an SBIC annual report in the next two weeks. I've got my draft of it, it's not quite ready to be published yet, but we're very, very focused on data. And we're also similarly focused on it for the SBIR. And, you know, our first focus was to help work with Congress to get that reauthorized and that was what I spent most of my time in that part of my office on for the first six months, but it's a high priority for us and I appreciate you flagging it for us.
Speaker 7
Yeah, thanks, so you answered my next question. So we can expect it in the next couple weeks? The report?
Joshua Carter
That is my hope. Yes, barring unforeseen circumstances, but I've, my team and I have been working late hours to get this done as soon as possible. And the reason for SBIR, for private equity performance data, as you may appreciate, you have to benchmark it versus the industry. And we just now got our 2025 industry benchmark data in the middle of May. And so we've been waiting for that data and we'll have an annual performance report to you as soon as possible.
Derek Tran
Great, and with that, would you be able to provide a timeline to us, to this committee, on when you expect the SBIR report to be sent in?
Joshua Carter
You know, I don't have a timeline for that yet. What we're focused on first and foremost is updating our policy directive given the great legislation that this body helped to pass. And there's a significant amount of work involved in that. And as you can imagine, there's 11 major agencies, but there's probably 40 sub-agencies that we all work with and interact with for all of our policy directives. And my team's working diligently on that, but as an administration, we're incredibly focused on getting that report out as soon as possible.
Derek Tran
And I'm sure as you can understand, you mentioned that you need to see all the data in order to manage. So do we. We need to see all the data in for us to be able to conduct oversight and manage as well. You know, GAO recently did a review of potential use cases for artificial intelligence systems at the SBA and specifically noted the potential for using AI to fulfill reporting requirements. Is that something your office is actively considering?
Joshua Carter
Absolutely, we have an AI czar and appointee in each office. And we've, and as you may know, I am a late adopter.
Some of the young folks in our office are unbelievable with it. And actually, I literally have a list here of all these incredible companies that are in your districts that we were able to do by using AI to analyze our Form 468 data for the SBIC program as well as the SBIR data. So I think there's a great opportunity and use case for it.
Derek Tran
That's great. I'm going to shift gears a little bit, Mr. Carter. Congress awarded 9 million in each of the past three fiscal years for the Growth Accelerator Competition Program. To date, the SBA has only awarded 5.7 million with the fiscal '24 funds. What is the remaining 21 million being used for?
Joshua Carter
Thank you for the question, Congressman. One of my first jobs again in the Office of OII was to focus on all of our programs. The administrator asked me to evaluate them all and make sure that they're aligned with the priorities of our country and with the priorities of the administration. And so we're doing that and I'm excited that we're in process right now of getting our new GACP program out. And again, without committing to a specific date, it's in process and certainly before September 30th and before the end of the fiscal year, that program will be out and you'll be able to look at it.
Speaker 8
So I have your word as you sit here that you're going to obligate those remaining funds?
Joshua Carter
I'm doing everything I possibly can and the administration is to obligate those funds, yes.
Derek Tran
Thank you. Mr. Carter, Regional Innovation Clusters, RIC, are an important part of the entrepreneur ecosystem, helping small businesses launch and scale their businesses. Why did DOJ cancel 17 RIC program grants?
Joshua Carter
Thank you for that question. Similar approach. The administrator asked everyone at the SBA to focus on all of the programs and to evaluate them based on their alignment with the mission of our country, their efficacy, their ability to serve small businesses in our country, and that's what we're doing with the RIC program as well.
Derek Tran
Thank you so much. Mr. Chairman, before I yield back, I'd like to enter into the record this June 10th article from FedScoop, "Innovation on Ice: How DOJ Derailed an SBA Tech Program." Thank you so much and I yield back.
Roger Williams
Gentleman yields back. And I now recognize Mr. Meuser from the great state of Pennsylvania for five minutes.
Daniel Meuser
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Carter. Appreciate you being here. Thanks for your work at the SBA. You and Administrator Lefler have created some and revitalized much of the office and created some important reforms.
My understanding, before I get to some of my questions regarding the All of America Act and the SBIC program, so when you folks entered a year and a half ago, my understanding is SBA had somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,300, 5,400 employees. That was up from about 2,600, 2,700. So basically double. When we went and visited the SBA, there was nobody there. I think they told us that maybe 15% of the employees were showing up for work.
Everybody else was remote, who knows, throughout the country. My understanding now is not only have you right-sized it, it's a little higher than it used to be, about 3,000 employees, but loans to small businesses have actually doubled during that time. So you have half the people and double the loans. I'd say that's pretty serious improvement in operation. Could you expand on that?
Carter
No, absolutely. I mean, it's all the same theme that the administrator and the president have focused this administration on being effective and on streamlining. And it's incredible to see what they've done. And in fact, I just this week had one of our team members who's moving from the portfolio management group into exams within the SBIC business.
She threw a party for her bosses. Normally the bosses would throw the party for her. And in this meeting she was thanking them for all that they do for her and how they came together last year with so much opportunity. They streamlined things and they worked as a team and got so much done. And and another important thing to to contextualize this is is the COVID era, right?
I mean, this committee, this office, put 1.2 trillion dollars out in a very short period of time to help save our country at a at a valiant time. And this office had to staff up materially for that. And it it's very rational that as that winds down that we can staff back down again to to pre-COVID levels. And and do more with less.
Daniel Meuser
Well, good work and and it does sound rational. So onto the SBIC programs, 53 billion dollars in combined private capital, largest amount in the program's 67-year history. So congratulations to you there. Your flagship program is the SBIC program, which by the way is run tremendously well by some people in this room. So we appreciate that.
And so with the All of America plan and the increases in the Investing in All of America Act focused on rural areas, tech, manufacturers, tell us how that legislation has allowed you to serve more of where it was intended to serve and support loans.
Joshua Carter
Now again, I I just want to thank this body. Thank you for sponsoring and and Congresswoman Scholten for sponsoring. It's an it's an incredible bill. I know it's been worked on for years and and, you know, many folks in this room have been very focused on it. I think it's brilliant.
You look at what's happened to, you can look at CPI, but you can also look at like the Russell 2000 for those, you know, investment nerds. It's gone up 90 percent since 2015. So if you just think about it in like purchasing power that our funds have, like it's 90 percent lower had you not done this, right? So it was huge. And to me the brilliance is the is the bonus leverage.
That it's a way that that, you know, we're providing capital but but our country has such a need right now to reindustrialize. You know, we're in a geo-economic competition against very strong adversaries that think in decades and have been doing this for 30 years and hollowing out our manufacturing base. You've created an incentive for them to invest in manufacturing, critical technologies, rural, etc. And and it's economic, right? It's economic, it's rational, and it's scaling the investors that are professional investors as opposed to us picking all the companies ourselves.
It's brilliant.
Daniel Meuser
Well, I will tell you and on behalf of the chairman, myself, and many others, we're former, we well, some of us are continue to have small businesses and all or even larger businesses. And you're talking like someone who's very much focused on advocating, expanding, and and helping small business. So that's what this committee's all about. So it's great to hear what you have to say. You also mentioned your testimony, how you're removing regulatory barriers to facilitate SBIC SBIC investment in critical minerals.
So maybe you can talk about that a little bit.
Joshua Carter
Yeah, we our SBIC thank you for the question, Congressman. Our SBIC companies were not allowed to do project finance and we enabled through our regs, through our re-regulations, for them to do project finance for critical minerals and mining companies, which just allows them to invest in specific deals, specific like assets and investments. And it's a great it's a great change and we're hoping that it will be taken advantage of and it will expand.
Thank you. My time has expired. I yield back, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Roger Williams
Gentleman yields back and now recognize Mr. McGarvey, one of the great catchers of all time, from the great state of Kentucky for five minutes.
That's why I brought it up.
Joshua Carter
I was cheering for you all and I was scared to death. Just being a 50-year-old man, I I can't believe you guys could do that. So congratulations.
Speaker 11
I broke my foot two years ago in the game, but it was good to be back. So, no, thank you for being here, Mr. Carter. Appreciate this.
And look, I think this is a really important hearing, especially now as we're all looking at the 250th anniversary of our country, the legacy in this country of being able to build a business, of entrepreneurship, of innovation. And importantly, you know, I have sort of an overarching theory of government, right, which is if you want more people to do something, make it easier. If you want fewer people to do something, make it harder. We've made it easy to innovate in this country. And one of the ways we've done that is by having the government as a partner in the innovation for small businesses.
And just look at what that has been able to produce: GPS, the internet, semiconductors, mRNA vaccines. Look back even further at precision manufacturing in the Civil War, telegraph lines, cutting-edge lighthouse lenses. All of these world-changing innovations and inventions began actually with investment from our government into small businesses. And I think when the government works as a partner with the people who are willing to innovate in our small businesses, when they provide seed funding, right, so we're talking about this SBIR, Small Business Innovation Research, often referred to as America's seed program, right, America's seed research, then it makes this type of thing possible. Since the Second World War, US research and development has been the envy of the world over.
So have our universities, so have our federal labs. And so, you know, one thing I do want to point out, it was troubling for a lot of us on this committee to watch the very top levels of this administration attack and tear that down. When you had the president, when you had Elon Musk, when you had a kid who referred to himself literally as Big Balls going in and tearing down the system that made this legacy possible, that is something that is alarming because of what it has stood for for so long, what it has produced, and I think what everybody in this room wants it to continue to do as we move into the future. I think you believe in that legacy, Administrator Carter, and I am glad you're here. So I hope you'll continue to fight for it and for those small businesses that count on our country to be the incubator, right, to be the engine that has produced this, to work as a partner, enable our small businesses to do what they have always done.
Now that I've said that, I want to move on to a few specific questions. For many of the SBIR recipients, federal support ends once technology has been proven effective, and this is the period where we see, and you've probably heard this term, "the valley of death" for small businesses, not something we want to have happen. It's where these companies struggle to transition from development to commercialization. And so, are there existing federal programs that can help SBIR-funded firms survive that valley of death, and how is SBA connecting SBIR recipients with those programs and resources?
Joshua Carter
Thank you for the question, Congressman. Absolutely, one of the things that I'm so excited about in the SBIR reauthorization is that there's an emphasis on commercialization. And as we update our policy directives, we're going to be very focused on that. There's training for contracting officers within the government agencies, and we're orienting all of our programs within OII on this notion of commercialization. And so, couldn't agree more with the sentiment.
We're incredibly focused on that. It's not an easy problem, as we all understand. Like, acquisitions within the Department of War, which is, as you know, is 56% of the SBIR program, you know, it's a massive challenge and opportunity for our country. But we're going to do everything we can within our programs to support that. And we've got a tremendous dialogue with our partners at all the agencies, in particular Department of War, which is our largest partner for SBIR.
Speaker 11
And you mentioned a bill earlier introduced by my colleagues. Are there additional tools or resources, things we can do to be helpful that would help more companies successfully make that transition to commercial-scale production?
Joshua Carter
Well, we appreciate absolutely the support of this committee for all of our OII programs. The administrator really views these as point of spear for all that we're talking about, and her leadership team's been incredibly supportive of what we're trying to do, our resources and all that we need. And we thank you for your support. I'm sure we have a lot of ideas that we could talk about, and our legislative affairs team would love to connect with yours, and I'd be thrilled to engage with you on ideas.
Speaker 11
Be happy to, I look forward to that, seriously.
Last question in the quick time I have remaining. We often see these companies they're fighting to survive, they're spending all their time trying to win these federal contracts, then they lose the edge that made them the innovators in the first place. What can we do to make sure that businesses remain innovative once they graduate from SBIR?
Joshua Carter
Thank you for that question. You know, it's a great, I wrote a thesis in college on disruptive versus sustaining innovation, right? The idea that as you get bigger and bigger, it's harder to be an innovator, right? And you almost have to have companies spin out. What's so interesting about the SBIR program, we call it America's Seed Fund, but if you read the statute, which I'm sure you're much more expert at it than I am, it's really about small business R&D.
And some of these companies are R&D companies themselves, not necessarily companies that are trying to become the next Anduril or the next Qualcomm. And so I do think there's a huge opportunity for that. And I think a lot of the work we're doing with our programs that support the innovation ecosystem as well as SBIR and our regulations and our engagement with each of the agencies are going to be very important for that. So thank you for the question.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Roger Williams
Gentleman yields back. I now recognize Ms. King-Hice from the Great Northern Mariana Islands for five minutes.
Speaker 14
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I want to say on behalf of the people of the Northern Marianas, I want to convey our appreciation to Secretary or Administrator Loffler. SBA's presence on the ground with regards to the disaster recovery has been incredible. There's a woman who is I think the information specialist who has been very good about going out in the community. Her name is Renata Mason.
I just want to give her a shout out. She's done an incredible work in terms of, you know, just the disaster recovery programs. And I want to say first of all, thank you. So I represent the Northern Mariana Islands and we are as remote as it can get, right? And there's never been a SBIR or a STTR grant awarded to a CNMI small business.
And I think in large part because of our remoteness, right? And then we also don't have the financial ecosystems that, you know, that is available here on the mainland, which basically serving as a barrier to folks on the ground to have access to some of the programs that, you know, is currently available under the SBA. And so I kind of just, you know, want you to talk me through how we get over some of these barriers so that our very hungry young entrepreneurs can be, you know, involved or participate in these opportunities.
Carter
Thank you for the question. I was studying your economy last night and I think if you would invite me to visit you...
Oh, you're invited. Let's go.
Carter
And that would be a great, if I could, if you could get Administrator Loffler to bless a visit to you on what looks like a beautiful place that I guess tourism is your main industry. Wonderful question, certainly something we're wrestling with with all of our states. I've got lists of all of your states and your districts even, you know, with all the awards that we have. And it's disheartening to see that there aren't any SBIR awards or SBICs in, you know, in your territory. And what I love about what we're doing and the advances of technology and entrepreneurship is that you don't have to be on physical location to make things happen.
So our SBIR, we did our annual innovation summit just after the reauthorization, which was important to us in May for two days. And it was virtual. And so we had three days of incredible virtual seminars, lessons, engagements with each of the program managers. So someone in your territory could actually be there and an entrepreneur could learn how they can engage with the SBIR program. And so I think that's an opportunity.
Not an easy thing to solve for sure, but certainly something that we're focused on for all of the states, you know, in this great union.
Speaker 14
So thank you for that. And I am looking forward to welcoming you and Secretary Loffler hopefully as well to the Northern Marianas. I know that the chairman has been trying to do a CODEL out there, but just the schedules haven't aligned. And I think it's very important, you know, for folks to actually set sight to the ground and kind of see what the conditions are, right? You know, we just got, as I stated, we just got hit by a super typhoon which has damaged our utilities grid.
And so there's a lot of conversation as to how we can bring, you know, new innovation so that we're not wholly reliant on fuel that we get from Southeast Asia, right? And right now our utilities has gone up from 22 cents to about 46 cents per kilowatt. And, you know, that's just cost prohibitive for many people on the island. And so what I'm very curious is how do we incentivize researching, testing, and commercial deployment of innovative technologies like that in the CNMI? How do we open up these opportunities, especially given the fact that everybody talks about our location being strategic to national security, right?
But that's not coming with the investment that supports the economy. And so how do we have these conversations and look towards opportunities like that?
Carter
Thank you for the question. You know, I really think this, while it seems that it impacts and it's so tangible with what's occurred there, and I'm sorry for that. And it was very kind of you to give the shout out to a member of our team, Chris Stallings, and Administrator Loffler are on the road all the time, incredibly focused on disasters. And it's inspiring what they do. But what I would say is this is a challenge for our entire country.
We have allowed China to hollow out our industrial base. Like, we, like, I was at a critical minerals conference in New York a month or two ago talking to people about, okay, well, if we have mining, that's great, we need mining, right? Well, we actually can't refine anything. Like, we can do our mining and then we still have to send it to China to actually be refined. And so these are major problems that our programs, SBIR, STTR, and, you know, in particular, and all the national research labs, etc., are focused on.
But our SSBCI programs and other programs can be focused on it as well. And so it's an urgent priority for our entire country. And I appreciate you flagging it for us.
Hillary Scholten
Gentlelady yields back. I now recognize Ms. Scholten from the great state of Michigan for five minutes.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, Mr. Carter, for being here. Really appreciate your knowledge on these programs and your enthusiasm. Appreciate the love for investing in all of America. It is such a common sense bill.
We were walking down the House steps together after we passed and there were throngs of reporters. I don't know if Dan remembers the first time we passed this out of the House. And it was like, they must be so excited to talk to us about this common sense bill that is going to put more capital in the hands of small business owners. No, they were there for another member of our Congress who was, you know, saying the latest sort of clickbait of the day. And I often refer to that just as like when people ask, is Congress actually getting anything done?
Yes, it is. And I'm so proud and I will give credit where credit is due. I'm grateful to President Trump for signing this into law. And it's going to really make a big difference. There are very few bills like this that have actually been signed into law this Congress and we're really, really grateful.
So to that end, we're going to stick with investing in all of America just a little bit. Can you tell us when the SBA plans to undertake the rulemaking and what you anticipate that looking like in terms of the timeline and actually getting this going?
Joshua Carter
Yes. You know, it's interesting what I've learned in this role is that, thank you for the question, is that it's very important for me to dig in personally. You know, we have amazing people. We have an amazing staff.
Carter
We have 40-year veterans that are just patriots beyond all patriots that are the leaders of the OII that are career staff. But what's important for me is to dig in personally and I do bring an outside perspective and I have sort of a perspective of what LPs might experience through our programs and we're trying to make it easier for them, you know, the investors in the funds, the GPs who are the actual managers of the funds. And, you know, so we did a simplification and re-regulation, if you would, of our program earlier last year that I wasn't personally part of. Now with this Investing in All America Act, we are doing it again and I've literally spent 15 hours personally with my team so far. I have a list of 140 questions that I'm about three quarters of the way through.
And we're doing it again as quickly as we can and we've got very able staff that are focused on it. Our most urgent priority recently has been to get the annual report out and the next is updating the regulations for the act. But we're very, very excited and we did put out a letter to the industry giving them instructions on how they can access the leverage now.
Of course, thank you.
Joshua Carter
Do you have a timeline? Oh, timeline. Oh. Yeah, yeah. I thought you were just thanking me.
No, so it's very easy for us to for the increase in leverage from 175 to 250, it's very easy for us to just say that's done and submit your request before August 15th. So we're getting requests for those, we're processing them on a case-by-case basis. We don't want we just want to make sure that people aren't just taking more money to have more money to charge more fees. We want to make sure it's not going to change their investment strategy and that it's going to fulfill the intent with which you authorized that. We have to do re-regulation for the bonus leverage.
I am also very grateful for the context, but the question was about the timeline. I thought you were very happy with it.
That's obviously new and creative and ingenious. And so that's taking a little bit more time, but I've got a draft that they told me as soon as I'm done with my hearing should be in my inbox and I can focus on it, my team, tomorrow. So as soon as we possibly can, we're working with utmost urgency.
Speaker 23
Heard. We would love to follow up with your team just to stay engaged on that because I think, you know, the devil is in the details on those kinds of things and we want to of course make sure that it's moving forward. Thank you for the compliment on the ingenious bonus leverage. Agreed. Can you say more about that and, you know, just explain from your perspective, you know, how the utilization of the bonus leverage in this legislation is going to increase investments, particularly in some of these underserved communities, rural communities, you know, communities that have not had the ones that we raised the caps on.
Carter
Yeah, no, thank you. You know, it's interesting, you know, professionally as a professional investor my whole career, I've kind of thought of myself and, you know, as almost a laissez-faire capitalist, like free market kind of guy. As I've been in this job and studied what we're facing as a country and understanding what's really happened, I think that I'm an industrialist now. It's like I think that these are important programs, but there's different ways to do it. You know, Office of Strategic Capital is doing it one way and DOE is doing it like they have direct dollars that they're putting to work in in direct loans.
This program is an incredible ability to scale and again, the ingenious part of it is that you're incentivizing them, but we're not telling them exactly what to do and exactly what to invest in. We're letting the professionals do that, but we're giving them themes to invest in. I think it's brilliant. We meet with companies all the time each week. My team's meeting with companies today that are trying to get into our program and they're constantly telling us that the banks aren't lending to these companies and so they're able to get in and lend to them and it it's proving this the virtue of this program that it's providing capital to companies in places that they're not getting it otherwise.
And so again, brilliant program. I think it should double, triple, quadruple. I think it's an amazing program, especially given what we're facing in our country right now.
Let's work together to make it happen.
Speaker 21
So, yeah. Well, I appreciate the honesty here. Now to the topic of the day. One thing that I try to share, I'm from Northwest Georgia and there's an industry that was essentially started by a young entrepreneur, Catherine Evans. She saw this quilt in the 1890s and wanted to do how that quilt was made, figure out how it was done.
It was an art form that was basically lost. And this young teenager in our community, because people started to invest in what she was doing, created one of the largest industries in my district, the carpet and flooring industry in Dalton, Georgia. And it all started with one teenage entrepreneur in Northwest Georgia. One of the things that I want to celebrate with President Trump and Administrator Leffler and with the work that you're doing, for far too long investment capital stayed on the East and West Coast. It didn't go into Appalachian communities like mine, what I represent.
So if you kind expound on how your leadership and the work you've been doing has been getting capital into underserved communities like in Appalachia.
Carter
Thank you for that great question and for the story. It's again, it's been really fun. I went through all of your districts and had my team help me come up with companies in your districts that have been benefited by our programs. And when you said Dalton, Georgia, I'm like, oh, I think that's one of them. Like, there's a plant-based compounds company that is manufacturing compounds for type 2 diabetes and that is really, again, this China theme, like American-made critical raw materials.
Like we know the pharmaceutical base ingredients have been totally, like we invented them and now they're over there. And so it's brilliant what's happening in Dalton, Georgia. Again, these programs are incredible because they're accessible by a kid in a garage or they're accessible by, you know, the Torrance, California firms that I meet with that are like R&D companies that use the SBIR program to generate incredible innovations that VC is not going to invest in. Right? Like VC is not going to invest in a repair an old part for the F-35 that this team can update and do using the SBIR program.
And so, and again, SBICs, we've got them spread across the country. We're working urgently to expand that. We don't lower our standards. We have very, I mean, we haven't, it's been zero subsidies since 1999. Our team's phenomenal, the people, the process, the way they do due diligence, the way they monitor, the way they examine.
We're not lowering our standards. That's not what this is. But we're working aggressively to double, triple, quadruple this program so that we can get more capital out to the small businesses across our country that need it, not just in the coast.
Speaker 21
No, and thank you for that work, too. And one of the things that I've seen you become most animated about besides our conversation on universities was when you started talking about the Communist Party of China and what we're facing there. I think this is an issue that I came to Congress to work on. I think far too many Americans don't understand what we're facing when we talk about the threat that the Communist Party of China poses to our country and our national security. I think what you're talking about with critical minerals and rare earth metals is that race is just as important as the space race was to this country.
If you could just tell Americans, what is that race, how do we compete, and how important is it for us to win that race? And Americans just don't understand how important this is.
Carter
Thank you for the question. Obviously, it's something I've become passionate about, you know, in particular since being here serving in the government. It's mind-boggling.
You know, it's estimated low end $500 billion a year that is being stolen in economic intellectual property, probably more like two or three trillion. Right? And so like the FOCI work that you've done on the SBIR reauthorization is huge. We're going to bolster that. And it's ironic that, you know, the small businesses are leading out on FOCI, but it's, you know, there's all sorts of different standards, there's all sorts of different challenges and threats even within DOD, who, you know, are expert at this.
So it's a huge urgent need for our country. We saw that in COVID when we had supply chain choke points and we had inflation and all these other challenges. And so we're doing everything we can working with our partners at USG to address that problem within OII and with our programs and at the SBA under Administrator Lefler's leadership. She's incredibly focused on it. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Roger Williams
The gentleman yields back. I now recognize Ms. MacIver from the great state of New Jersey for five minutes.
LaMonica McIver
Thank you so much, Chairman, and thank you to our ranking member for convening today's hearing, and thank you to the Associate Administrator Carter for appearing before this committee today. I can say it's been a little refreshing having you here today, and I don't usually say that a lot about members who come before from this cabinet here, but thank you for being here. Small businesses are extremely anxious, and with good reason. Across the country, entrepreneurs are being squeezed by the affordability crisis, rising costs, and increasing uncertainty about whether they can keep their doors open. The system is failing them, and the consequences are extremely real.
Recent polling shows that 67% of small businesses have seen their expenses increase in just the last three months, while half have watched their revenue fall. These are real people being forced to raise prices, delay hiring, and lay off workers. In my district, New Jersey's 10th, I regularly hear from small business owners struggling with rising operating costs, inflation, and uncertainty about the future. This is the reality facing startups and small businesses trying to survive and grow. Instead of easing the pressure, we've seen in some sorts that this administration has chosen to pile on more uncertainty, imposing broad tariffs, shuffling agencies, and pushing policies that make it harder for businesses to truly plan.
The people need SBA to step up and defend them more now than ever, even with some of the progress we've seen happen in just this Congress with bills that we've passed with support and partnership from both sides of the aisle. Still, small businesses need more. Small businesses are telling us that they do not know if they can make it week after week, month after month. Their costs are just rising and rising. Associate Administrator Carter, do you believe small businesses are better off economically today than they were a year ago, in your opinion?
Joshua Carter
Thank you for the question, Congresswoman. The challenge that we've been talking about is so important and so real, and our focus at OII and at the SBA is to support the small businesses across America. And we understand, we understand that all the challenges that we face. And I think, you know, you mentioned tariffs. I am, again, like you read the economic textbooks that we studied when we were young and it talks about comparative advantage and how rational it is.
But we're not operating in a rational world. We're operating in a world where our main competitor globally doesn't obey the laws of economics. They're not, you know, this sort of like perfectly rational utility-seeking economic actor. They are operating, they're subsidizing industries to basically make it so that we can't compete and so that we don't have those supply chains. And I'm so thrilled that President Trump had the courage to stand up and demand fair trade, right?
Speaker 20
So with all that being said, I'm still looking for the answer. Do you believe they're doing better now than they were a year ago, small businesses?
Joshua Carter
I think yes, there's indicators that small businesses are doing better and importantly, like, what's the time frame on which we measure? If we can actually have fair trade for our companies, while there will be a transition period for sure and we're incredibly focused on that, we're, you know, the administrator launched the onshoring portal that came out of a meeting where someone said, oh, I can't, I have no choices but to, but to go to China because my textile is only made there. Someone at the table said, oh, I actually do that, and that started the manufacturing portal.
LaMonica McIver
So let me just interject. So despite the fact that half of small businesses report declining revenue and 63% report shrinking profit margins, you would say to these struggles, you know, these struggling small business owners that they are better off today.
Joshua Carter
So the change, thank you for the follow-up. The changes that are being made in our country right now that are long-tailed changes, they're not all going to happen overnight, right? It's, we're not going to transition from 50 years of, of export, allowing our industry to leave our country. That's not going to change overnight, but the changes that we're making are making us all better off and we're focused on small businesses and on serving them and the programs we have.
Speaker 25
So basically in what you're saying is that you acknowledge that they are struggling. Like small businesses are struggling and they're not better off because you're saying that things are not going to happen overnight with the policies and the plans that you guys have, you know, implemented, they're still struggling. Despite all of what you said and how proud you are of Donald Trump, of the president, still small businesses are struggling. Well, I think we can, I think it's okay to agree to that. Like there's small businesses who are watching this who are struggling and I invite you come to New Jersey's 10th congressional district at any given time.
I know King's Hinds has the great sun over there in her district, but you're more than welcome to come to the 10th.
Joshua Carter
I want to come. I lived in New York, I lived in New York City and my sister-in-law lived in New Jersey. I love it, it's beautiful there. You've got two great SIBIR, you've got amazing SIBIR and SBIC companies there that I'm looking at, a specialty packaging manufacturer that had a $12 million investment. You've got defense communications for off-grid connectivity with SIBIR, would love to come there.
No, I mean, of course at any time. I mean, we're, I'm a small business owner. I started a small business with my partners in 2017, nine of us. We were all wearing five different hats and struggling. Anyone that is a small business owner, that's the definition of being a small business owner, you struggle.
And there's macroeconomic factors all the time that cause us to struggle.
Speaker 22
Okay, I'm going to have to cut you because our chairman is banging on his gavel. But thank you so much for your questions and with that, Mr. Chairman, I apologize and I yield back.
Speaker 17
Thank you. It's just a habit. Gentlelady yields back and I recognize Mr. Weed from the great state of Wisconsin for five minutes.
Tony Wied
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Carter, for being here. It's so refreshing to see somebody that, like you said, started and founded and worked in a small business and struggled and you know exactly what it takes to run a business and of course that's what drives our economy is small businesses. So it's so great to have you here working in an agency along with Administrator Leffler who too, who also was in business for herself. And I see you have your loving and supporting beautiful family behind you.
So welcome to all of you as well. Since the beginning of the Trump administration, we've seen a new emphasis on supporting American manufacturing. Because of this, many manufacturers are looking to increase their production capacity and invest in R and D. How does your office help a manufacturer or small business secure R and D funding?
Carter
Thank you for the question and for the kind comments. The SIBIR program is incredible. I mean, if you look back at the history of public-private partnerships for R and D and for innovation, you know, it's not an easy thing to do, right?
And as was pointed out earlier, our country's been a leader in innovation. It's what one of the things that makes America so amazing and our capital mobility. The SBIR program, which is a huge focus of ours, as well as the programs that support it, the FAST program and our other programs that we spoke about earlier today, are focused on helping innovators get the access and get the training and get the support they need. So like our innovation conferences, we introduce them to the program managers for each of the different agencies. And as everyone I'm sure understands that the agencies themselves are the ones that create the topics and you apply directly to the agency.
And so that's how you get the access. So our job is to train them, to support them, to help them be more successful in that. And then importantly, as they're trying to commercialize, which is just as hard as the innovation at times, how we can support them in doing that.
Tony Wied
Thank you. I was very pleased to see the President sign the bipartisan Investing in All of America Act and the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act earlier this year. How do these laws strengthen OII's programs?
Carter
Oh, they're huge. They're huge. I mean, there's sort of six major changes that came about from SBIR. I could talk, you know, for minutes about each one of them. They're all very impactful.
We talked about FOCI and due diligence earlier. That's an important one. You know, and commercialization, like we're going to continue to focus on commercialization and making sure that we both track and hold ourselves accountable, hold the companies accountable, the innovators accountable to commercializing. And so that program, that reauthorization is vitally important. And again, we've spoken about it already with Invest in All America, but I think it's a brilliant way to incentivize the type of investment that we need in a way that's different than just making the investment.
Like we've all seen the challenges of the government making every investment decision. It doesn't always go well. This program allows the professional investors who are the experts and it highly incentivizes them through the structure of a fund to have those companies succeed. Unlike loans where they get securitized and there's not that accountability in that same tie, these managers get paid more money if their companies succeed. And that's easy economic principles to incent what we want.
I think it's a phenomenal partnership. So again, thank you for the increase of the leverage caps, for the bonus leverage, for the SBIR reauthorization, and for the support of the OII programs, which we feel are point of spear for what's important in our country right now.
Tony Wied
I want to thank you and of course Administrator Guzman for really making a priority to reduce the regulatory burden here, you know, in this country and with the SBA. My bill, the Dump Red Tape Act, which passed the House last year, what it does is codifies the SBA's red tape hotline, which allows small businesses, the owners, to report burdensome federal regulations that they encounter. What regulatory burdens have you in your office helped to eliminate? Have you gotten feedback through that hotline?
Carter
I'm not aware of getting feedback from the hotline that is very palpable, but you know, ours is a little more esoteric and a little more niche in terms of our programs. But we're constantly seeking feedback from everyone. I'm a former LP and a former GP. And so I can understand the world from both the investor and the investment fund perspective. And so when I go through the regulations, and we've already done some incredible changes where we made it easier for subsequent funds to get through the program.
So we're already seeing subsequent funds coming through more quickly than they had in the past because we've made it easier and there were some burdensome regulations that were in our regs for those. But as we're going through it now again, not just to update it for the Invest in All America, but we're literally asking why, why, why, why, why for every single thing that's there to make sure that it's not unnecessarily burdensome. We're not going to lower our standards. We're not going to lose money in this program. We're going to do everything we can to not, right?
But it's very much a focus of ours.
I now recognize Mr. Cisneros from the great state of California for five minutes.
Gilbert Cisneros
Thank you Mr. Chairman and I want to thank you and the ranking member for having this important hearing today and thank you Mr. Carter for being here. We don't often get somebody from the SBA to join us. However I'm a bit surprised we're only now hearing from you given the SBIR and STTR programs under your purview have recently paused for six months. Given your stated commitment to small businesses and the effectiveness of the programs you mentioned in your testimony I would have expected more urgency and engagement with Congress to get these programs reauthorized. I'm glad we are there for the sake of America's small business innovations now.
I do hope we can count on working with you and your office more proactively going forward. I also have concerns regarding the regional innovation clusters under your office that previously had been bipartisan had bipartisan support. The clusters help match small businesses with technical assistance providers development and financing opportunities and mentoring among other things. They touched on a lot of important topics such as advanced manufacturing, biosciences and health, unmanned aerial systems, critical minerals, cybersecurity and defense. In 2024 the SBA awarded 14 new awards to innovative small businesses as part of the regional innovative cluster network.
It is my understanding that the Trump administration cancelled some of these grants because of DOGE. I agree with the ranking member's quote from a recent article that read, if we are serious about making the US the most innovative country in the world, it makes no sense to walk away from these programs. Unsurprisingly like the like with the SBIR and STTR we didn't hear from you or the SBA. We found out about these cancellations as they happened. The small businesses you were committed to according to your testimony were just hung out to dry with these cancellations.
There was an announcement last year from new clusters that went nowhere. Millions have been appropriated for regional innovation clusters over the last few years and Congress has no idea how much has been awarded and how much remains unobligated. So Mr. Carter, of the money Congress appropriated for regional innovation clusters, how much has been awarded and how much remains unobligated?
Joshua Carter
Thank you for the question. And just want to state that the as I mentioned before, Administrator Lefleur has been and and let's make no mistake like the the
Gilbert Cisneros
It's a simple question. How much has been obligated and how much remains unobligated?
Joshua Carter
So let me get the data the the numbers for you but the essence is other than what we talked about before that went unobligated last year for RICs, we are planning to obligate all of those all of the money appropriated to us by September 30th.
Speaker 32
You don't know you don't have that information with you right now how much remains
I have it with me. I just don't have it all memorized but
Gilbert Cisneros
Well then you don't have it if you have it written down somewhere you you would have it with you but get back to me on that. Can you?
Yeah, super. Well yeah absolutely.
Gilbert Cisneros
All right. Um so there are four RICs listed on the SBA website but under the Office of Investment and Innovation page under the RIC programs it mentions 25 RICs across the country. Why the discrepancy? Was the the website administrator was that one of the DOGE cuts that got cut there when they came through? Um why the discrepancy on the websites?
Joshua Carter
Thank thank you for the question. The accurate information is four RICs that are existing, two are focused on defense industrial base, two are focused on critical minerals. And they're doing a great job and we're engaging with them very regularly. And I mentioned before that we have some technology challenges. I'm not exactly specifically aware I can't verify that but I I trust that that's the case.
And so we'll work on fixing that. So thank you for bringing it to our attention.
Gilbert Cisneros
All right, well let's get that fixed. The SBA cancelled clusters throughout the nation including in California that had hundreds of small businesses depending on them. What did your office do to ensure that these small businesses could stay afloat without the resources they were relying on?
Gilbert Cisneros
So the, you cancelled all these clusters throughout the nation. We said there was like 17 that were cancelled, including some in California, that had hundreds of small businesses depending on these clusters. What did your office do to ensure that the small businesses could stay afloat without these resources?
Joshua Carter
Got it, thank you for that. I appreciate that. So all of our programs were focused on aligning with the priorities of this administration and making sure that there's accountability for these programs and that they're effective in what they do. And that's what the administrator tasked us to do and that's what we've done. You know, while it's our intent to support small businesses, you know, this is a, this is a capitalist economy, right?
It is not the government's job to support, to make sure that a small business doesn't fail. That's the risk that we all take as entrepreneurs.
Gilbert Cisneros
Well, the fact is these, these companies were left out to dry because the carpet was pulled out from under them and that's unfortunate that it was done by this administration. And with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Roger Williams
The gentleman yields back. I now recognize Mr. Schmidt, great state of Kansas, for five minutes.
Derek Schmidt
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your convening this hearing. And Mr. Carter, thank you for being here with us today. It's such an important area that you operate in and your team operates in, as has been discussed, both for the country's top line and also for many of our districts and our communities, getting things from concept to market and the role you all play in that, that chain. I know it's been discussed a bit, sort of the intersection and the work you all do with respect to the research universities.
I want to focus on a slightly different aspect of the same issue and just to frame it to make the point. I mean, the mostly Division I, the major research universities, critically important to this country's future, to innovation. But so too are smaller colleges and universities, at least to the extent they choose to fill a role there. So for example, in Kansas, we're very proud of our three major research universities, none of which are in my second congressional district, though we love them all. But we are particularly interested in our three regional public universities, Pittsburg State, Emporia State, Washburn University in Topeka, and in the half dozen much smaller private colleges and universities that I represent, some of which are performing similar types of activities.
They may not be doing, you know, front-edge research on, on the chemistry of polymers, but Pittsburg State, for example, is very much in the graphene commercialization stage and how you do the research to get from the scientific discovery to something that an entrepreneur could pick up and run with. Can you talk a little bit about the role of those smaller universities, may not be major research universities, but how you all interact with them so that they get the type of assistance you're able to provide, or the folks who want to invest based on ideas that they're helping develop get the assistance you provide?
Carter
Thank you, that's, I really appreciate the question, Congressman. The focus that we have right now, especially with reauthorization and with all the work we have to do that we've been talking about and that we're very focused on, just to the individual agencies, the, you know, 44 or so sub-agencies, the 11 major agencies, they create the topics, they are the ones that are engaging with the research institutions with respect to SBIR. But we do have our Federal and State Technology Partnership, the FAST partnerships, and we have all the other SBA partnerships within each state that are there. But I certainly think that, you know, as we focus on administration, as we focus on policy, there's opportunities for us to engage more with the universities. And frankly, if I haven't personally engaged much with the universities yet on STTR, but I appreciate you flagging it for me and it's something that we'll follow up on.
Speaker 31
Well, I know your schedule's full, but we would love to be some of the early engagement. I'd invite you out to Kansas. We've got some folks doing some really sort of forward-thinking work. And and again, they're they're not they're not so much in the laboratory space. They're taking the laboratory ideas, they're looking at entrepreneurs, they're looking at at business needs and they're trying to do the next step of research to connect those.
I think they'd be a very very natural fit. Sort of on the related space, do you all have any sort of collaboration, interaction with the DIU, the Defense Innovation Unit, to the extent that you might be working with businesses, entrepreneurs that are are working on products or or ideas that that are in their space as well as general business development?
Carter
Absolutely. Thank you for the question. We have an incredible partnership within the SBIC program with the Department of War. It's called the SBICCT program. You're probably familiar with it, critical technologies, where funds commit to invest over 60% of their portfolio into the critical technology areas that the Department of War have have established are their priorities.
There used to be 14 of them, now there's six of them. It is and and so we've engaged we engage regularly. In fact, the my investment committee is meeting as as we're meeting today and we have often OSC representatives there to engage with our SBICCT funds. And we've personally been developing relationships with Department of War for for all of our programs at the SBA and in particular in OII. And with DIU, we've got contacts there and we're having conversations.
One of the things that I meant to focus on with RICs and with these other programs is that we did an RFI where we went out to the whole marketplace and said, hey, tell us what are your biggest pressing issues. Tell us where are your supply chain choke points. Let us talk to you. And and we're hearing back in order to focus our programs on those supply chain choke points. And and the engagement we've had with the small business groups at at DOW, within ANS, within R&E, it's it's been incredible.
There's a spirit of collaboration that, you know, I'm new to government, but it's been it's been surprising to me. And DIU and the other agencies there, there's so many that are all doing similar things, trying to solve similar problems. But it's great to see more collaboration. And frankly, the SBA can can help with that because a lot of times they don't talk to each other. There's like 25 different groups within DOW that are doing supply chain mapping and none of them like talk to each other.
So it's a huge opportunity for us across government to come together and to get leadership from Congress, from the administration to really make a difference in these areas.
Well, thanks for your work in that space. The relationships and the information flow matter. We might have some folks we might perhaps bring to you if you're open to it and do some introductions. And Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Speaker 43
Gentleman yields back. I now recognize Ms. Goodlander from the great state of New Hampshire for five minutes.
Maggie Goodlander
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Carter, for being here today. I want to start in a place that I think we can all agree on. The programs that your office runs are good for America and they work. And to me, that's because every public dollar that's going towards these programs is pulling in private capital that turns American ideas into American companies into American jobs.
So I come to this as someone who really wants to see the programs that you administer succeed and to grow. And that's exactly why I am very concerned by many of the choices that the Trump administration has made. Some of them very, very quietly, quietly pulling the rug from under small businesses in my state of New Hampshire. And I want to come back to the discussion we were having about regional innovation clusters or RICs.
These, it was a good idea to start these clusters to support small businesses, including in the life science sector. New Hampshire was awarded in 2024, with the lead being an incredible life science company based in Lebanon, New Hampshire, Seldara. They were awarded and named to be the head of the RIC for New Hampshire. The rug has been quietly pulled from underneath them because right now this innovation cluster is no longer listed on your website. So, Mr. Carter, I want to ask you, can you confirm yes or no whether the Seldara Regional Innovation Cluster was terminated?
They're not currently one of our four RICs that I mentioned.
Joshua Carter
Just to be clear, I was an advisor to the administrator until August of last year, so I personally didn't make that decision, just to clarify. But as I mentioned before, the process for all of our programs that the administrator encouraged us to do was to go through and evaluate their efficacy, their accountability, and how they were serving the mission of our country and the administration. And so those decisions were made based on that criteria.
Maggie Goodlander
Well, I will be seeking from you a full written explanation for how this completely arbitrary, capricious, and costly decision was made. What's your timeline or expectation on reinstating the cluster in New Hampshire?
Joshua Carter
We're pursuing a solicitation for regional innovation clusters, as I mentioned, based on the priorities of the administration, and that we will have those out by September 30th, by the end of the fiscal year, in terms of obligated.
Maggie Goodlander
Mr. Carter, you mentioned the FAST program, which is, you know, I come from a law enforcement background, whenever we can partner between the federal government and the state government on technology partnerships, it's a good thing for the country. What I'm concerned about, you've spoken highly of this program, but your budget request for the coming fiscal year zeroes out the FAST program. Why?
Joshua Carter
Thank you for the question. So, the budget request reflects the administration's, the president's and the administration's priorities, and we support those 100%. My job is to execute the law and what is given to me as the head of OII. And so as there's programs authorized and appropriated, I will do my best to make them effective and make them serve the mission of our country.
Maggie Goodlander
Well, they won't be effective if they're zeroed out in the budget. And, you know, I hope we can count on you to continue to provide the testimony that is true to how it's operating on the ground. This is a good program for the country. How much of the money that was appropriated by Congress in fiscal year 2024, 2025, 2026 for FAST and for the regional innovation clusters remains unobligated today? Mr. Carter.
Speaker 36
Yes, sorry, I was just taking notes to make sure I had the data correctly. You asked for '24, '25, '26 for FAST and RIC.
And for GAFC.
Joshua Carter
And for Growth Accelerators Fund Competition. Super. I have that data in my binder, but I think it would be best for me to get back to you through our legislative affairs team.
Speaker 38
Mr. Carter, we don't often have the opportunity to have you here in person, so I'm willing to wait.
Speaker 40
Okay, this shouldn't be a hard question. When is, when are the funds that, so obviously there is a sizeable chunk of unobligated funds, when are they going to go out the door?
Speaker 38
All right, well with that, Mr. Chairman, I'm out of time, but I appreciate you being here, Mr. Carter. These are pretty basic questions. We have an obligation to our constituents and to the American taxpayer to have visibility into how funding decisions are being made. So I expect a full accounting of these reckless and extremely costly decisions that were made quietly without any transparency and that have hurt my home state. Thank you.
Roger Williams
Thank you. Gentlelady yields back. I now recognize Ms. Maheia from the great state of New Jersey for five minutes.
Nellie Pou
Thank you, Mr. Carter. Thank you, Chairman. Mr. Carter, you spoke earlier about doing more with less, although however I think sometimes less is just less. You also spoke at length about the need to reindustrialize, and while most of us on this dais support rebuilding American manufacturing, it seems like your stated efforts are undermined by this administration. I want to return a little bit to what my colleague started to ask you about.
Your office has invested millions of taxpayer dollars to help small manufacturers commercialize new technology, expand production, build in America, all laudable. But simultaneously, this administration has imposed these sweeping tariffs that are driving up costs for these same businesses, driving up cost of machinery, electronics, industrial equipment, raw materials, and countless other manufacturing inputs. It almost seems like your efforts are actively undermined by the policies of this administration. In my district, this matters a lot. We have a diverse and innovative manufacturing base from medical technology to food products, advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing.
I also welcome you to New Jersey's 11th Congressional District right next to the 10th if you're visiting. But I'm curious, how are you helping small businesses navigate this volatility? My first question is whether or not, first and foremost, whether or not you believe specifically President Trump's tariffs are hurting American small businesses. I'll ask you all three of my questions at once. Second, has the SBA analyzed the impact, the rising cost of these tariffs for different small businesses and sectors, and are you sharing that information, that rising cost and impact for both to both the small businesses that you are hoping to support as well as investors so that they they can navigate the volatility created by this administration?
Nellie Pou
Three. First is, are the tariffs, from your assessment, are tariffs harming small businesses? Second, are you have you created, are you analyzing the impact, the percentage of of impact or rising cost, and third, are you sharing that information with small businesses and investors alike?
Joshua Carter
Got it. Thank you very much for the questions, Congresswoman. So we talked about tariffs earlier, right? I talked about my appreciation that the administration has been strong enough to demand fair trade from our trading partners, and I think that has been a challenge.
Nellie Pou
Yes, but are they hurting? Have you made an analysis or shared information on how much these tariffs have actually increased production or or cost for small businesses?
Joshua Carter
But it's it's a great question, it's not an easy question that I'm sure many economists and both in the government and without outside are analyzing and have many very different opinions upon, but we analyze.
Nellie Pou
Well whether or not you've created a report or or created some kind of an analysis and then shared it is kind of simple.
Joshua Carter
Yeah, no, no, I I appreciate it. I think I mentioned earlier that my priority right now is to get our data in order. I'm publishing our first SBIC annual performance report shortly. Every conversation we have with our SBIC's, I'm sorry.
Nellie Pou
Got it. I understand. I'm sorry, I'm short on time, I don't mean to be rude. So, um, with this analysis, if since you're saying that, um, you've created a you're going to issue your report and it will include the the percentage of rising costs in different sectors and industries, will we expect that in your report? Specifically the rising costs that tariffs, that President Trump's tariffs have created, is your report going to include both an analysis and perhaps the percentage of of rising costs?
Joshua Carter
Oh, thank you, I understand. So my report is focused on my programs and my areas of expertise. Those are those are economic questions that are very important for sure, and we discuss them in every meeting we have with our fund managers, how are you dealing with all the macro economic and micro challenges you have with your companies?
Nellie Pou
I have 20 seconds, so I would say I'm walking away with a no. I will say that not having data and information on on the volatility created by these tariffs by this administration's policies in effect are are creating a condition in which both investors and small businesses are flying blind. Understood. They're there therefore investing, we're asking them to invest millions of dollars and yet not giving them critical information about the environment in which they're going to operate. Thank you, I yield.
Speaker 45
Thank you. Gentlelady yields back and I now recognize Mr. Olszewski from the great state of Maryland for five minutes.
Johnny Olszewski
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to our ranking member. Thank you to Associate Administrator Carter for your time here today. We can all agree that supporting American innovation and helping small businesses grow remains a bipartisan priority. I think you've heard some of that today.
The Office of Investment and Innovation plays a critical role in that mission, and I appreciate the work your office does to expand access to capital and to foster entrepreneurship across the country. The Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs are among the federal government's most effective tools, as we've discussed today, for supporting early stage innovation. Together these programs provide more than four billion dollars annually to help small businesses develop new technologies, create jobs, and bring cutting edge products to market. In my home state of Maryland, small businesses received nearly one hundred and forty million dollars in SBIR awards in 2024 alone. We thank you for that.
Across our district, technology, engineering, life sciences, and defense related firms have leveraged these programs to compete for federal research funding from agencies such as the Department of Defense and the National Institute of Health. These investments help level the playing field and allow innovative small businesses to compete and succeed. That's precisely why I'm so concerned about the recent lapse in SBIR authorization and the uncertainty it's created for businesses that depend on these awards. Delays in funding have real consequences for small firms, limiting access to capital, slowing research and development, and making it harder for entrepreneurs to plan for growth. Now, I recognize that the challenges surrounding SBIR reporting and data transparency span multiple administrations.
I appreciate your willingness to work with Congress to improve oversight, as accurate and timely data are essential for evaluating program performance, ensuring taxpayer accountability, and demonstrating the value these programs deliver to innovators across the country.
I look forward to continuing to learn more about what your office is hearing from small businesses regarding the importance of a stable and predictable cyber program and the ongoing implementation of the program following its recent lapse and the steps being taken to get back to annual reporting. So with that, Mr. Carter, just two quick questions, first of which is what feedback has OII received from small businesses regarding that recent lapse in authorization and what impact did those delays have on companies who were awaiting awards?
Joshua Carter
Thank you for the question and for the support of the program. Absolutely. I mean, during that lapse, and we're so thrilled that Congress was able to do that and we worked diligently. That was one of my main areas of focus during the lapse and since being in this seat to help Congress have the data and the analysis and the information that they needed to be able to reauthorize the program. And so we're thrilled that that was able to happen.
And of course we had feedback. We had countless people telling us how terrible it was and how difficult it was. There are companies that, as I mentioned earlier, that are set up as R&D companies, small businesses that are focused on R&D, and without this program their business models are completely blown up. And so it was a challenge. We're thrilled that Congress was able to make that happen and we tried to do everything we could to support it.
And we will continue to do that, especially as we update the policy directives and improve reporting and efficiency of the program.
Johnny Olszewski
I appreciate that and agree that it does definitely make things difficult for those companies. So sort of as a follow-on, can you talk to the committee a little bit about what steps OII has taken to ensure future reauthorization uncertainties don't have that disruption to the flow of funding to innovative small businesses?
Joshua Carter
Yeah, thank you. I thought a lot about that because it was a difficult six-month period to see something that seemed so obvious that should be reauthorized and wasn't. And so we really struggled and again worked hard to help all sides to agree to get it reauthorized. What I feel, and it goes back to the same question that we've hit on already, which is that I think OII needs to have the resources, the capabilities, the focus, and that's what we're doing to produce reports and to be the owners and the masters of the data. There's all sorts of, there's a whole cottage industry focused on reporting and opining and sharing their perspectives on SBIR and its effectiveness and how it should operate and how it shouldn't.
We need to own that and we need to control that and that's certainly within my mandate to do that in the time that I've given to be the AA of OII.
Johnny Olszewski
I appreciate that feedback. I'm sure I speak for members of this committee of both sides of the aisle when we say we would welcome any solutions, including legislative, that would help bridge the gap in the event we have a lack of reauthorization, which shouldn't happen, but clearly we should be talking about what happens in the event it doesn't. So thank you again for your testimony. And with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Brian Jack
Gentleman yields back. I now recognize Mr. Jack from the great state of Georgia for five minutes.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mr. Carter, for testifying. Administrator Lefler has made reducing regulatory burden and cutting red tape a priority of the SBA's approach to small business success. In January 2026, SBA finalized the SBIC modernization rule, which streamlines licensing for follow-on funds, eliminates obsolete provisions, and aligns the program with President Trump's executive orders on critical minerals and industrial dominance. The rule also clarifies that certain long-duration investments in critical minerals and critical technology qualify for an exemption from the program's project financing restriction. What specific barriers has OII eliminated and how has that deregulatory approach translated into more investment reaching Main Street?
Carter
Thank you for the question. So I think you actually hit on some of those and I mentioned them earlier in my remarks, that we've gone through and we're going through all of the regulations with an eye towards how do we make this simpler and easier for our LPs, our investors in these funds, and then the managers of these funds without lowering our underwriting and our diligence standards.
And so that's been a focus. In terms of what's already happened, I talked about subsequent fund. One of the main things that we accomplished in that first round was making it easier for subsequent funds, meaning funds that are already in the program, to not have to go through another, you know, three-month intense due diligence process and to not have to have burdensome constraints on the way they operate their business that were put in place by the last administration. And we've removed those, and we're making it simpler, and we already see the flow-through in the record numbers that we had last year, and funds are very happy with the improvements that we've made, and we look to make more in the near future as well.
Brian Jack
Mr. Chairman, I'd like to next share a story about a constituent and something I think you'll appreciate, Mr. Carter. This concerns a company called NAECO, N-A-E-C-O, and its president, David Bergman, who is an outstanding example of what the SBIR and STTR programs can accomplish. In 2014, NAECO was 14 years old and had enjoyed steady growth and success. After acquiring a former competitor and seeing how they operated, my constituent, Mr. Bergman, concluded that if NAECO wanted to remain competitive over the long term, it needed to make research and development a much larger part of its business strategy. Unfortunately, the cost of pursuing a truly ambitious R&D program was more than he could commit at the time.
So in 2018, he attended an SBA event on Georgia Tech's campus, and there he was asked, "Have you ever heard of an SBIR grant?" The following year, Mr. Bergman applied for and received NAECO's first Phase I SBIR award. Seven years later, NAECO has received three Phase I SBIR awards and one Phase II SBIR award, totaling approximately $1.9 million in funding. Approximately half of that funding went to the national laboratories with whom NAECO collaborated, strengthening both the research and the partnerships behind this technology. The question I have for you is, more broadly speaking, what opportunities do you see to build on the reforms of the SBIR/STTR programs and more innovative small businesses like NAECO leveraging or seeking to successfully leverage commercial new technologies, and how is SBA working with agencies like the Department of Energy to ensure companies have a clear pathway from research and development to market?
Carter
Thank you for the question. Great topic. And in terms of how I think about the various priorities that we have, obviously we've talked about getting the policy directive updated, getting our report out, improving our data analysis. Commercialization is huge. You know, it's like for decades, the valley of death that's already been spoken about today is in focus.
And I think there's a lot we can do working with the agencies. I mean, they ultimately have to control it, right? They're the ones that have the programs of record in the case of DOD that we need to get... we need to have the demand signals coming out of DOD and the other agencies to be clear signals and not noise, because if you have noise, these great innovators may respond to a topic, but there's nothing behind it, there's no outtake. And so that's going to be the opportunity that we have, and we're working across the SBA with our partners at DOD and other agencies to make sure that we can improve that in the time that we have. It's an urgent need for our innovators.
Thank you, Mr. Carter. And lastly, with the minute we have left, would love for you to illuminate to this committee how helpful the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's enactment has been for small business and how you have benefited as a department serving small businesses through the authorities granted therein.
Thank you for that question. The Administrator Leffletter is phenomenal at talking about this. She's constantly talking about the benefits to these small businesses of the specific actions that are making a difference. You know, the no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, the opportunities for capital write-offs. And so I think she's been amazing at talking and meeting with small businesses and hearing directly from them on how impactful this has been.
The tax relief for small businesses that is so important at this time and at all times.
Brian Jack
Well, wonderful job today. I'm a big fan of the administrator. I represent, of course, the state she once represented in the Senate. So I appreciate your testimony, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Roger Williams
Gentleman yields back. And I now recognize Ms. Simon from California, great state of California, for five minutes.
Lateefah Simon
Thank you so much for being here today, Associate Secretary. I'm super excited to meet you because before I go into my comments, I'm going to really ask you, can you come to Alameda County, California's 12th District? We really, really have so many great things going on and we could deeply use, again, the information that you have, the expertise, but more importantly, the resources. So that's a yes or no question. Will you come?
I'll host you.
Joshua Carter
They told me not to say yes or no to anything, but I grew up in the East Bay and I worked with a Boy Scout troop in Oakland.
You did?
Okay, you're not supposed to say yes or no, but that was a yes.
Lateefah Simon
No, I didn't say, I don't know what I said. I said I enjoy Oakland.
But you know, when you come to the Bay Area, particularly the East Bay, and I love that you know Oakland, one, Oakland is the number one food city in this country, and that's all small businesses. But it's also, if you go, you know, three miles over the bridge, you're in Alameda, the city of Alameda, which hosts, I think, one of the most innovative innovation strolls in the country. You know, I have business owners there that are this close to ensuring that people who have retinitis pigmentosa or macular degeneration can see again. They're in third stage clinical trials. I have a company that is so close to creating new molecular opportunities to cure hormonal breast cancer that's killing tens of thousands of women every single year.
We have folks who are doing, as you know, plant-based innovation to create more opportunities in our food ecosystem. And I can go on and on and on. It's one of the reasons why I'm so happy to be on this committee because red or blue, we know this administration, the past administration, the administration before, that small businesses do deserve everything. They are competing in the market and yet our innovators oftentimes believe and feel like they're on their own to create new innovation and opportunity, whether it be in medicine or materials or in manufacturing. They're on their own.
And we know that that's not true. So I cannot wait to host you. We're going to go to Alameda. We're going to visit your old Boy Scout or Boys Club troop in Oakland. But I have just a couple of quick questions.
The, and you mentioned it, I'm not even going to go by my script. You said that your wonderful staff created a list of small businesses in each of our districts. I would love to hear mine. That's California's 12th District.
Yeah, yeah.
You did all that homework, so.
Joshua Carter
I know, we did, we did. And I wrote them out so they would stick in my mind now and I'm going to pull them up so I can talk about. No, it wasn't exhaustive. It was just, it was SBIR or SBIC investments and or funds.
Carter
Oh, great. Okay, great. But no, but they're great. I mean, there's, I'm not going to say all the names, but there's a SBIR success story and I've actually engaged with this company. They offer AI risk-driven intelligent solutions for detecting and mitigating financial crime.
So it's like a focus due diligence company. And you know, and I met, funny enough, here on the Hill, a company in, I think it was either Emeryville or maybe Oakland, that was recycling critical minerals from old equipment and turning it into precious metals. And they were a SBIR award recipient. And so I mean, it's very exciting to see the innovation. But we will be happy to circle back with you and give you an exhaustive list of all our investments in the SBIC and the SBIR program in your district.
Lateefah Simon
I think that's great. And I have more questions to you, but I will send them to your office. I have a staff member here and we would love to connect. At the end of the day, our innovators on Main Street, they need the SBA.
You talked about the competition element of what makes this country so great, but I can tell you in my district, there are innovators who will in fact cure cancer, who will in fact cure blindness, who will extend the opportunities of how folks breathe clean air and eat good food, and they need SBA's help, particularly small businesses that are led by women, people of color, immigrants who have come to this country to build great opportunity for their neighbors in our communities. And I want to make sure that with the staffing shortages that we know that are real in the SBA, that folks can see what you're doing here in Washington and we can get you in a roundtable. I'm really looking forward to that, sir. And I'll yield back.
Roger Williams
Thank you. Gentlelady yields back. I now recognize Dr. Morrison from the great state of Minnesota for five minutes.
Kelly Morrison
Thank you, Chairman Williams and ranking member for holding this hearing, and thank you to Associate Administrator Carter for taking the time to be with us today. I think I'm bringing us home, Mr. Chair. You're almost done, sir. The Small Business Administration's recent budget request proposed eliminating the FAST partnership program, as Representative Goodlander mentioned. I was especially concerned to see this proposal since it's the only program within the SBA specifically dedicated to helping firms in low participation areas compete for SBIR awards.
I have the honor of representing Minnesota's third congressional district, and one of the recipients of the FAST program funding is Minnesota Small Business Innovation Research, an organization located in the third that has helped over a hundred small businesses across Minnesota secure over a hundred million in funding through the Small Business Innovation Research and Technology Transfer programs. Their work has helped advance technological innovation and scientific excellence, bolstering Minnesota's economy. MNSBIR and FAST partnership organizations like them assist small businesses and startups in applying for these federal research and development programs for the first time and help them navigate this complex process. So how does SBA reconcile the need to support new entrants and rural participants with the proposal to eliminate the program that delivers that support?
Joshua Carter
Thank you for your question. And I think I maybe spoke about this a little bit earlier. We support the president's budget proposal and we support the administration priorities with respect to those. My job as the officer or as the administrator for the Office of Investment and Innovation is to execute the law within the construct that I have. And so as we have authorization and appropriation for these programs, my job is to make them as effective as possible and to have, you know, in particular for FAST, have them effective at helping small businesses achieve success within the SBIR program and to drive innovation that's so important for our country.
Speaker 52
Thank you, Mr. Carter. So it sounds like we're not really reconciling the need. If FAST were eliminated, what mechanism would SBA use to sustain SBIR outreach and proposal assistance in states that currently send few applications?
Joshua Carter
So all of our programs within OII, as I mentioned, we're orienting towards the three, you know, I'd call them like investment themes or three themes for the administration is laying out and that we're implementing: reindustrialization, supply chain choke points, and advanced technology. And so both the SBIC, the SBIR, and our other programs, Growth Accelerators, RIC, FAST, will, you know, to the extent they're authorized, will be focused on accomplishing those missions and those themes. An important one of them, of course, is driving innovation within the SBIR program within our innovative small businesses.
Speaker 51
Thank you. Just one more question, Mr. Carter. As my colleagues have highlighted, the SBIR program lapsed for over six months from October to April, and as a result, agencies could not make new awards or publish solicitations. During this time, I heard from small business owners in my district about the impact of this funding lapse on the future and the stability of their businesses. What steps is SBA taking to understand the impact of this funding lapse on small businesses and communicate with them about changing program requirements?
Joshua Carter
Thank you for the question. We spoke a little bit about it earlier that obviously we heard from many, many small businesses and we were doing everything we could to help Congress reauthorize the SBIR program and we're thrilled that you did that. And we are focused on supporting them.
As you know, it's a joint effort with each of the, you know, 40 plus agencies. So, you know, the on-the-ground work that happens is done, you know, at the agency level with the topics, but our role is to advertise, to educate, and to inform. So we had our literally right after the reauthorization, we had in May our annual Innovation Summit that was virtual so the entire country could attend. We're having another one in July that will go through the whole month that will be partially virtual, partially in, you know, in location. And what's so crucial to these entrepreneurs is that they need the connectivity to the program managers of each agency.
Right? Like we're not the experts in the topics and what each agency wants, but we need to get the program managers and the subject matter experts out to meet with the entrepreneurs so they can actually understand what are the demand signals and how can they be successful in meeting the needs that our US government, federal government has with regard to innovation.
Roger Williams
Okay, Mr. Carter, thank you. Mr. Chair, I yield back.
The gentlelady yields back. I'd like to thank Associate Administrator Carter again for your testimony, 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 witnesses. And I ask the witnesses to please respond promptly if that happens. If there's no further business, without objection, the committee is adjourned.