Markey Letter on SBA Boston District Office (June 30, 2026)
- Issuer
- Congressional materials
- Document type
- 2026 07 01 Markey Fights To Sba Ranking Member Markey Fights To Restore Access To Essen
- Date
- 2026-07-01
- Case
- 2026 07 01 Markey Fights To Sba Ranking Member Markey Fights To Restore Access To Essen
Summary
A letter dated June 30, 2026 from Edward J. Markey, Ranking Member of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, to Administrator Kelly Loeffler of the U.S. Small Business Administration. The letter objects to the closure of the SBA's Springfield, Massachusetts branch office on June 1, 2025, plans to relocate the Boston District Office and Regional Office, and the suspension of the Massachusetts Women's Business Center program. It states that SBA plans to spend at least $2 million to relocate the Boston offices and asks SBA to restore federal resources to Massachusetts. The letter poses ten questions, including requests for office closure and relocation lists since January 20, 2025, relocation cost analyses and communications with GSA, and asks for written responses by July 14, 2026.
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Full text
June 30, 2026
The Honorable Kelly Loeffler
Administrator
U.S. Small Business Administration
409 3rd Street, SW
Washington, DC 20416
Dear Administrator Loeffler,
The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) decision to strip federal resources from
Massachusetts comes at the expense of entrepreneurs, workers, responsible governance, and
contradicts the SBA’s mission to serve all small businesses equitably and effectively. Since
taking office, you and President Trump have closed the SBA’s Springfield, Massachusetts branch
office, threatened to relocate the Boston District Office, and withheld funding from
Massachusetts’s Women’s Business Center (WBC) program. While doing so, the Administration
has failed to offer evidence for how these decisions serve small businesses. Under your
leadership, the SBA has become yet another vehicle for advancing a partisan political agenda.
Massachusetts small businesses, workers, and entrepreneurs deserve an SBA that works for
them. Therefore, I demand that SBA immediately end its political targeting of Massachusetts
small businesses and fully restore the federal resources that entrepreneurs and workers across the
Commonwealth deserve.
On June 1, 2025, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the
SBA closed the Springfield branch office, eliminating a critical point of access for entrepreneurs
and small businesses across western Massachusetts.1 When I wrote to you and asked for the basis
for this decision, you replied that “after internal deliberations, the agency has elected to relocate
the district office to a new location that will be more accessible for small business owners and
more cost-efficient for taxpayers.”2 This was not true. On May 1, 2026, during a briefing with
SBA and the General Services Administration (GSA), GSA confirmed that SBA never requested
the reopening of the Springfield office, despite SBA making many prior assurances to Congress
1
Julia O’Keefe & Kristina D’Amours, Springfield’s Small Business Administration Office to close Sunday, WWLP
(May 29, 2025), https://www.wwlp.com/news/local-news/hampden-county/springfields-
smallbusinessadministration-office-to-close-sunday/.
2
Letter from Kelly Loeffler, Admin., U.S. Small Bus. Admin., to author (June 3, 2025) (on file with author).
1
Page 2
that the process was well underway.3 In the same briefing, SBA changed its story and stated that
SBA did not feel that Massachusetts needed additional resources which should go to other
states.4
Similarly, on March 6, 2025, SBA announced plans to move District and Regional
Offices out of so-called “sanctuary city” jurisdictions.5 Since then, I have learned that SBA plans
to spend at least $2 million in taxpayer funds to relocate the Boston District Office and Regional
Office outside of Boston. These offices help provide counseling, training, and connections to
resources for small business owners. Moving core SBA functions out of Boston, the state’s
transit hub, would create new access barriers for local entrepreneurs who rely on these resources.
Spending millions of taxpayer dollars to move offices for no reason other than political
grandstanding is a wasteful and abusive use of government resources.
SBA’s treatment of Massachusetts’s WBC is equally troubling. After withholding funding
for the program for more than a year, SBA suspended Massachusetts’s WBC program,
threatening to terminate free counseling and training resources for almost 300,000 women-
owned small businesses in the Commonwealth.6 Since taking office, the Trump administration
has tried to systematically dismantle the WBC program by zeroing out its budget, firing support
staff, and withholding payments to centers. SBA now appears to be targeting the Massachusetts
WBC because of perceived deficiencies that could have been addressed had SBA provided
timely program funding or responded to numerous requests for support from the host
organization. Compounding the issue, SBA refuses to provide overdue funds for work already
performed, which could help resolve SBA’s grievances. Under your leadership, SBA has set up
this program and this center to fail and now blames individual centers for SBA’s
mismanagement.
The closure of the Springfield office, the proposed relocation of Boston-area SBA
operations, and the suspension of the Massachusetts WBC demonstrate a clear pattern: SBA puts
politics ahead of supporting small businesses. Rather than fulfilling the agency’s mission, SBA is
systematically reducing its footprint in the Commonwealth while refusing to provide
transparency, rationale, or timelines for these decisions. In fact, my office has been informed that
3
Briefing with U.S. Small Bus. Admin. and U.S. Gen. Serv. Admin., virtual (May 1, 2026); see also E-mail from
Robby Wehagen, Assoc. Admin. Off. of Cong. Affairs, U.S. Small Bus. Admin., to U.S. S. Comm. On Small Bus. &
Entrepreneurship (July 17, 2025) (on file with author); see also briefing with U.S. Small Bus. Admin., virtual (Dec.
11, 2025).
4
Briefing with U.S. Small Bus. Admin. and U.S. Gen. Serv. Admin., virtual (May 1, 2026).
5
Press Release, U.S. Small Bus. Admin., Administrator Loeffler Announced SBA Reforms to Put American Citizens
First (Mar. 6, 2025) https://www.sba.gov/article/2025/03/06/administrator-loeffler-announces-sba-reforms-put-
american-citizens-first.
6
U.S. Small Bus. Admin., Off. of Advocacy, 2025 Small Bus. Profile: Mass.,
https://advocacy.sba.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Massachusetts_2025-State-Profile.pdf.
Page 3
SBA employees have been instructed to avoid putting directives into writing, denying
transparency to Congress and the public. The Trump administration has made its priorities crystal
clear: billionaires get tax breaks, corporations get special treatment, and small businesses get left
behind.
During your confirmation hearing, you promised to “restore accountability and
transparency that taxpayers deserve.” Yet, during your time as Administrator, you have done
nothing but turn SBA into a mouthpiece for disinformation and propaganda while dismantling
resources that small businesses rely on. To help me and the public understand how and why SBA
is acting in this irresponsible manner, please provide written responses to the following questions
no later than July 14, 2026:
1. What analysis did SBA perform to determine that federal resources should be relocated to
locations outside of Massachusetts?
2. Does SBA believe that Massachusetts small businesses are receiving the same level of
access to SBA resources and programs today as they did on January 19, 2025? If so,
please provide related metrics.
3. Provide a complete list of office closures across the country since January 20, 2025,
including SBA’s branch offices, district offices, and regional offices.
4. Provide a complete list of office relocations or openings since January 20, 2025, across
the country, including SBA’s branch offices, district offices, and regional offices.
5. Did you instruct SBA staff to mislead Congress about the reopening or relocation status
of the Springfield branch office?
6. Provide the analysis performed to determine the new location of the Boston District
Office. Please include:
a. Cost assessments, including total costs to taxpayers,
b. Impact on staffing levels, and
c. A timeline of the relocation process from start to anticipated finish.
7. Under what legal authority is SBA relocating the Boston District Office?
8. What congressionally appropriated funding account is SBA utilizing to pay for the
relocation costs associated with the Boston District Office move?
Page 4
9. Provide a timeline for all payments made to WBCs located in Massachusetts, including
the amount of each payment, since January 20, 2025.
10. Provide all communications between SBA and GSA from January 20, 2025, to the
present regarding the closure of the Springfield branch office and the relocation of the
Boston District Office.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this request.
Sincerely,
Edward J. Markey
Ranking Member, Committee
on Small Business and
Entrepreneurship
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