Letters
Ranking Member Velázquez Demands SBA Release Congressionally Approved SCORE Funding
Washington,
January 27, 2026
January 26, 2026
The Honorable Kelly Loeffler
Administrator Small Business Administration 409 3rd Street, SW Washington, DC 20416
Director Russell Vought
Office of Management and Budget 725 17th Street, NW Washington, DC 20006 Dear Administrator Loeffler and Director Vought: We write to urge you to immediately release the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 and FY 2026 congressionally approved funds for SCORE, a resource partner of the Small Business Administration. It has come to our attention that SBA has failed to issue a Notice of Award for SCORE for the period of March 14, 2025 through September 30, 2025, which has resulted in the withholding of $9,742,156 in funding. At this time, the Notice of Award has not been issued and the funds have not been disbursed for FY 2026. The withholding of funds has caused undue hardship for a proven and time-tested entrepreneurial development program at SBA. In response, SCORE was forced to restructure its operations, resulting in numerous terminations and the reclassification of remaining positions. The reduction of staffing and financial resources has resulted in a negative impact on the ability to provide services, including the number of mentoring sessions and workshops held, as well as the number of clients served. SCORE is comprised of more than 10,000 volunteers who provide face-to-face counseling at more than 250 chapters across the country. SCORE volunteers provide a full range of business consultation services, such as business plan development, strategic marketing, and financial counseling, and it has been reported that veterans in particular favor its mentoring services. In FY 2024, SCORE volunteers served more than 237,000 unique clients, including 26,833 veterans, and helped start more than 13,000 new businesses. The withholding of congressionally approved allocations for these programs is an illegal impoundment that will harm thousands of entrepreneurs throughout the country. Small business owners have testified before our committee, sharing powerful firsthand accounts of how SCORE mentors have helped them to launch and scale their businesses. SCORE has received broad bipartisan support for decades as it assisted the small businesses that drive American innovation. We urge you to release the congressionally approved funding to SBA. Thank you for your attention to this request, and we look forward to your prompt reply. |
