Sponsors (17)
The bill expands and clarifies SBA loan and surety bond eligibility for many lawfully present and certain noncitizen small‑business owners—improving access to capital and contracting—while creating modestly higher taxpayer exposure, oversight challenges for foreign‑based principals, and additional verification/admin burdens, and excluding some foreign‑owned or foreign‑located businesses.
Lawfully present immigrant entrepreneurs and certain noncitizen categories (refugees, asylees, some nonimmigrants, LPRs, DACA‑like recipients) who own U.S.-based small businesses can access SBA 7(a), 7(m), Title V, and SBA surety bond guarantees, increasing their access to capital and government/private contracting opportunities.
Including SBA surety bond guarantees reduces bonding costs and barriers, helping small businesses—especially those bidding for government and private contracts—win work they otherwise might not.
Statutory clarifications (definitions of small business, covered loan, eligible individual) and an explicit limit preventing the SBA from raising the 51% ownership threshold provide regulatory stability and predictability for applicants, lenders, and administrators.
Taxpayers may face modestly higher exposure to loan losses because expanding explicit eligibility to additional noncitizen categories could increase demand for SBA guarantees.
Allowing individuals who primarily reside abroad to be eligible could enable foreign‑based principals to access U.S. SBA support, raising program risk, fraud/oversight challenges, and monitoring costs.
Requiring U.S. location and excluding businesses majority‑owned by non‑U.S. persons restricts access for exporters, foreign‑based affiliates, and foreign‑majority‑owned firms, potentially limiting investment and credit for those business models.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Allows certain lawfully present, work-authorized noncitizen owners to count toward the 51% U.S. ownership/control test for specified SBA loan and surety-bond programs and bars denial solely on that basis.
Introduced April 28, 2026 by Edward John Markey · Last progress April 28, 2026
Allows certain noncitizen entrepreneurs who are lawfully present and authorized to work in the U.S. to count as owners when meeting the Small Business Administration’s 51% U.S. ownership/control rule for specified SBA loan and surety-bond guarantee programs. It defines which SBA products are covered and which immigration statuses qualify, prevents denial of eligibility solely because owners are in those categories, and clarifies the SBA cannot raise the 51% ownership requirement.