Sponsors (9)
The bill expands private-capital deployment to targeted small businesses by increasing SBIC leverage exclusions and caps and clarifying rules, but it reduces the ability to count public funds as private capital—weakening public leverage—and limits both the scope and immediacy of benefits for some firms.
Small businesses in low-income, rural, covered-technology, or manufacturing sectors will have increased access to private SBIC investment because certain SBIC investments in these target sectors will not count toward leverage caps.
SBIC licensees (including commonly controlled groups) can pursue larger deals and scale across affiliated firms because the bill raises per-company and aggregate leverage-exclusion caps for compliant SBICs.
Clarifying that 'private capital' excludes government-sourced funds improves regulatory certainty and reduces opportunities for firms to understate leverage by counting public dollars as private.
Local governments and taxpayers may lose leveraging power and targeted borrowers could see less capital because government-provided funds will no longer count as 'private capital' for SBIC leverage calculations.
Existing portfolio companies will not receive immediate relief because the exclusion only applies prospectively to investments made after enactment, delaying benefits for firms with prior investments.
The aggregate exclusion is limited (the lesser of 50% of private capital or $125M), which may constrain support for larger SBICs and sizable portfolios, limiting how much leverage relief bigger funds can obtain.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Amends SBIC rules to narrow private capital, raise new per-company and commonly-controlled leverage caps, and allow a limited exclusion for investments in targeted small businesses.
Amends the Small Business Investment Act to change how small business investment companies (SBICs) count and use leverage. It narrows the definition of "private capital" to exclude most federal, state, or local government funds, raises new per-company and commonly-controlled leverage caps, and creates a limited, prospective exclusion from outstanding leverage for SBIC investments in targeted borrowers (low-income area or rural small businesses, covered technology businesses, or small manufacturers). The exclusion is capped at the lesser of 50% of private capital or $125,000,000 and applies only to investments made after enactment.
Introduced March 11, 2025 by Dan Meuser · Last progress April 15, 2026