SBA “Gutted its Civil Service Workforce Around the Country,” Writes Cantwell in Letter to Administrator Loeffler
Small Business Administration provides education and financial support to entrepreneurs, including disaster relief loans Sen. Cantwell joined all Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship in letter demanding that Administrator Loeffler end arbitrary firings & review their legality
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, joined the Democratic members of the Small Business Committee in sending a letter to Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Kelly Loeffler. The letter demands answers on the recent arbitrary mass firings by the Trump administration of SBA public servants, including loan and disaster assistance staff and veterans.
“Over the past week, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has taken unprecedented personnel actions that have gutted its civil service workforce around the country,” wrote the Senators in the letter. “This includes the firing of hundreds of SBA employees serving their probationary work period. Yet, SBA has provided us with no direct information about these terminations, including why they were undertaken, the number and identities of fired employees, or which SBA offices were impacted.”
The Senators continued, “In order to ensure small businesses continue to receive the SBA services they need to thrive, we request the following: First, put an immediate stop to the arbitrary firings of career civil servants and reinstate them immediately, with backpay. Second, have your Deputy Inspector General conduct a thorough review of the SBA’s actions to ensure that any termination was lawful. And third, promptly brief the Committee’s minority staff on SBA’s recent personnel actions and its plan to implement the President’s deferred resignations and RIF executive order.”
The SBA provides several key services to small business owners in Washington state, including educational programs, and financial support like disaster relief loans.
The Senators’ letter asks the Administrator to direct the Deputy Inspector General to undertake this thorough review because President Trump recently fired the SBA Inspector General when he illegally fired at least 17 Inspectors General (IGs) in a mass Friday night firing, leaving a vacancy in that position. Last week, Sen. Cantwell joined 26 Senate Democrats in filing an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit brought by eight of those fired IGs challenging their illegal firings by Trump. The former SBA IG is one of the plaintiffs in that suit challenging Trump’s unlawful action.
In a January meeting with former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), President Donald Trump’s then-nominee to lead the SBA, Sen. Cantwell emphasized the critical importance of aid to small businesses following disasters. Earlier that month, the SBA opened two Disaster Loan Outreach Centers in Washington specifically to help businesses and residents who incurred losses during the November 2024 bomb cyclone that struck Washington state.
In June 2024, Sen. Cantwell introduced the Small Business Artificial Intelligence Training and Toolkit Act, which would authorize the Department of Commerce to work with the SBA to create and distribute artificial intelligence resources and tools to help small business leverage AI in their operations.
The State of Washington is home to 672,472 small businesses, making up 99.5 percent of all WA businesses and employing 1.4 million workers, or 48.4% of all Washington employees. Between March 2022 and March 2023, small businesses created 61,763 new jobs, accounting for 80.5 percent of all net job creation in WA.
The full text of the letter is available HERE.
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