Stallings Testimony

Summary

The opening statement of James "Chris" Stallings, Associate Administrator for the SBA's Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience, for a Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship field hearing titled "SBA's Hurricane Helene Response: One Year Later," dated September 22, 2025. Stallings describes changes the agency says it has made since January 20th, 2025, including elevated regional recovery coordinators, Mobile Recovery Vehicles and Portable Loan Outreach Centers. The statement reports an average approval time of 14.83 days, down from 17.73 days the prior year. It states that for Hurricane Helene the SBA mobilized 381 staff across seven states supporting 115 disaster recovery centers and approved over 18,500 applications for $1.7 billion in long-term recovery funds.

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       James “Chris” Stallings, Associate Administrator, US Small Business Administration


Opening Statement for Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Field
Hearing “SBA’s Hurricane Helene Response: One Year Later”
Senator Budd:

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on behalf of the U.S. Small Business
Administration to discuss SBA’s recovery operations and response to Hurricane Helene.

My name is Chris Stallings, and I serve as the Associate Administrator for SBA’s Office of
Disaster Recovery and Resilience. I bring nearly two decades of emergency management and
public safety experience to this role.

Before joining the SBA, I served as the Director of the Georgia Emergency Management and
Homeland Security Agency, leading statewide responses to disasters including the COVID-19
pandemic and Hurricane Helene—the very storm that brings us here today.

As we gather in front of the Henderson County Historic Courthouse, I am reminded of the
incredible resolve Americans displayed during the challenges brought by Hurricane Helene,
which was one of the most destructive storms to impact North Carolina and the surrounding
region. These were challenges I witnessed firsthand in Georgia, where communities were
destroyed and where families and small businesses were devastated.

Under the leadership of Administrator Kelly Loeffler and at the direction of President Donald
J. Trump, the U.S. Small Business Administration has improved its readiness to serve disaster-
impacted communities like these – and we have committed to taking the lessons learned from
Hurricane Helene to ensure that the SBA is always ready to provide reliable and robust
disaster support.

We are ready when disaster strikes and are committed to serving as a trusted partner in
recovery. To that end, SBA continues to lean forward, supporting long-term recovery and
economic relief for all Americans affected by disasters.

Since January 20th, 2025, the SBA has restored our recovery mission to begin and end with the
survivor in mind. We have elevated our regional recovery coordinators for rapid information
sharing, and extended partnerships with local and state agencies to maximize outreach and
service delivery. We have prioritized cross-training with our Office of Field Operations to
deputize more SBA personnel to assist with disaster response.

Most importantly, we have improved funding readiness to prevent disruptions like those we
saw during the Biden Administration, which left thousands of Americans stranded without
vital relief.
SBA has expanded ground support to guarantee help is visible and accessible to everyone.
Through listening sessions with state emergency management leaders and SBA’s Office of
Rural Affairs, SBA has bolstered our recovery response to rural regions. Deploying Mobile
Recovery Vehicles and Portable Loan Outreach Centers brings our team and the disaster
assistance program to survivors, no matter how remote their location. And in July, we ended a
Biden-era regulation that banned the SBA from providing disaster relief to faith-based
organizations.

SBA has also extended the capacity of our Disaster Processing and Disbursement Center to
accelerate the release of funds after loan approval. Today, the average approval time after
submission is 14.83 days, down from 17.73 days last year.

During recovery operations for Hurricane Helene, SBA mobilized 381 staff across seven
states supporting 115 disaster recovery centers. These centers, which provide in-person
assistance to residents, businesses, and nonprofits seeking federal disaster assistance, were
visited by over 27,000 disaster survivors with SBA approving over 18,500 applications for a
total of $1.7 billion in long-term recovery funds, helping families rebuild homes, allowing
small businesses to replace equipment and inventory, and fueling the local economic
recovery.

In North Carolina, SBA led early economic stabilization efforts and developed the Recovery
Needs Assessment and Recovery Support Strategy, which identified specific needs of small
businesses. Utilizing available data, SBA provided targeted support through our resource
partners fueling local economic recovery.

SBA has remained a key contributor in recovery initiatives, which includes the Private Roads
and Bridges Taskforce, holding business recovery resource expos, and hosting mitigation
funding workshops, enabling survivors to use additional SBA funding assistance to reduce the
risk of future disaster damage.

Our agency remains focused on how we can continuously improve to help disaster survivors.
The lessons learned during Hurricane Helene were vast and have already been woven into
SBA's mission to deliver disaster loan assistance through extensive partnerships with local
leaders, our own field apparatus, and the small business community.

In closing, thank you for your continued support of SBA’s disaster recovery mission. Your
partnership ensures we can deliver timely and reliable assistance to families and small
businesses when they need it most. The SBA remains committed to helping disaster-impacted
communities rebuild stronger and more resilient for the future.

Thank you. I look forward to your questions.


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