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James Rivera

Official · SBA

PPP · EIDL
Type
Person
Role
Official · SBA
Programs
PPP, EIDL
Updated
  • Pandemic-program role: Career head of the SBA office that ran the COVID-19 EIDL program; as Acting Administrator during the 2021 transition, signed the American Rescue Plan Act PPP interim final rule.
  • Institution · office: SBA · Office of Disaster Assistance (ODA) · Type: career
  • Tenure (relief-relevant): Associate Administrator, ODA (Nov 2009 – c. 2022); Acting Administrator briefly in early 2021 (signed an IFR dated March 18, 2021).

The job (role mechanics)

  • Level / appointment: Career SES; Associate Administrator, Office of Disaster Assistance (career civil servant, at SBA since 1989; named ODA AA in Nov. 2009). Signed one rule as Acting Administrator: the ARP PPP IFR, filed March 18, 2021.
  • Reports to: The SBA Administrator / Deputy Administrator (as ODA AA).
  • Core responsibility: Head of ODA, SBA's sole direct-lending arm, responsible for the disaster-loan program and the COVID-19 EIDL program and EIDL Advance grants, which approved more loans than SBA had made for all earlier disasters combined; as Acting Administrator, signed the ARP PPP interim final rule filed March 18, 2021.
  • Pay: Career SES; his exact pay is not in a first-party document.
  • Expectations / mandate: Run SBA disaster lending and COVID-EIDL (operations, processing, fraud-control concerns flagged by the OIG); testify to Congress on disaster response; as Acting Administrator, sign required relief rulemaking.
  • Tenure norm: Continuing (career civil servant); the Acting Administrator stint was a brief transition assignment. His actual service: at SBA 1989; ODA AA Nov. 2009 – c. 2022 (role folded into OCA July 2022); Acting Administrator briefly early 2021.

Who they are

James Rivera was a career Senior Executive Service official who led SBA's Office of Disaster Assistance for more than a decade, including the pandemic years, when ODA ran the COVID-19 EIDL program. In March 2021 Rivera signed the American Rescue Plan Act's PPP interim final rule as Acting Administrator. Tami Perriello was acting head of the agency for the post-inauguration gap that began January 20, 2021, before Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman took office.

Education

Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and Economics from Texas Tech University (per his official Senate-posted SBA biography). No graduate degree is listed.

Career before the pandemic

Rivera began his SBA career in 1989 as a disaster loan specialist in Ft. Worth, Texas, then joined the Office of Disaster Assistance team in Washington, D.C., in 1994. From 2002 to 2006 he served as an associate administrator in SBA's Office of Financial Assistance, and for one year as assistant administrator for Equal Employment Opportunity and Civil Rights Compliance. As ODA deputy associate administrator he led operational improvements after Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, including the online disaster-loan application. He was named ODA Associate Administrator in November 2009. He also has private-sector experience as a commercial loan officer. He testified before Congress on SBA's disaster response (House Small Business Committee, 2015; Senate Small Business Committee flood-response hearing).

Role in the pandemic relief programs

As ODA Associate Administrator, Rivera ran the office responsible for the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program and EIDL Advance grants. The program grew from roughly 20,000 loans and $1 billion in a typical year to a multi-hundred-billion-dollar program during the pandemic, and the SBA Inspector General flagged it for serious fraud-control concerns. Rivera signed, as Acting Administrator, the interim final rule implementing the American Rescue Plan Act's changes to the PPP (filed March 18, 2021). The acting head of SBA after Administrator Jovita Carranza left in January 2021 was Tami Perriello.

Documents written or signed

  • American Rescue Plan Act PPP interim final rule — "Business Loan Program Temporary Changes; Paycheck Protection Program as Amended by American Rescue Plan Act," 86 FR 15083 (FR Doc. 2021-05930), published March 22, 2021, effective March 18, 2021; signature block: "James Rivera, Acting Administrator, Small Business Administration." (Filed March 18, 2021, 4:15 pm.)
  • Multiple written congressional testimonies as ODA Associate Administrator (House Small Business Committee, July 8, 2015; Senate Small Business Committee on ODA flood response).

Career after / where they are now

On July 3, 2022, SBA transferred the disaster lending program from the Office of Disaster Assistance to the Office of Capital Access, whose deputy associate administrator was John Miller (SBA release, Feb. 1, 2023), ending the standalone ODA role Rivera had held.

Sources held in this archive

Original source documents and archived captures

Sources (first-party)

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