Letter to The Honorable Kelly Loeffler and Director Russell Vought (January 26, 2026)
Summary
A letter dated January 26, 2026 to Kelly Loeffler, Administrator of the Small Business Administration, and Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, urges the immediate release of the FY 2025 and FY 2026 congressionally approved funds for SCORE, a resource partner of the SBA. It states that SBA has not issued a Notice of Award for SCORE for March 14, 2025 through September 30, 2025, resulting in the withholding of $9,742,156, and that FY 2026 funds have not been disbursed. The letter reports that SCORE volunteers served more than 237,000 unique clients in FY 2024, including 26,833 veterans. It calls the withholding an illegal impoundment. The signature block names Ranking Member Nydia M. Velázquez of the Committee on Small Business and other Members of Congress.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
Cite this document
“Letter to The Honorable Kelly Loeffler and Director Russell Vought (January 26, 2026).”
Original at democrats-smallbusiness.house.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/5155-2026-01-27-ranking-member-vel-zquez-demands-sba-release-congr-att-de58d57217/
, SHA-256 2a32516af5e5e434dae3be48218604e6cc3a6046898a3581859e3b64043c9a59.Full text
January 26, 2026
The Honorable Kelly Loeffler Director Russell Vought
Administrator Office of Management and Budget
Small Business Administration 725 17th Street, NW
409 3rd Street, SW Washington, DC 20006
Washington, DC 20416
Dear Administrator Loeffler and Director Vought:
We write to urge you to immediately release the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 and FY 2026
congressionally approved funds for SCORE, a resource partner of the Small Business
Administration.
It has come to our attention that SBA has failed to issue a Notice of Award for SCORE for the
period of March 14, 2025 through September 30, 2025, which has resulted in the withholding of
$9,742,156 in funding. At this time, the Notice of Award has not been issued and the funds have
not been disbursed for FY 2026. The withholding of funds has caused undue hardship for a
proven and time-tested entrepreneurial development program at SBA. In response, SCORE was
forced to restructure its operations, resulting in numerous terminations and the reclassification of
remaining positions. The reduction of staffing and financial resources has resulted in a negative
impact on the ability to provide services, including the number of mentoring sessions and
workshops held, as well as the number of clients served.
SCORE is comprised of more than 10,000 volunteers who provide face-to-face counseling at
more than 250 chapters across the country. SCORE volunteers provide a full range of business
consultation services, such as business plan development, strategic marketing, and financial
counseling, and it has been reported that veterans in particular favor its mentoring services. In
FY 2024, SCORE volunteers served more than 237,000 unique clients, including 26,833
veterans, and helped start more than 13,000 new businesses.
The withholding of congressionally approved allocations for these programs is an illegal
impoundment that will harm thousands of entrepreneurs throughout the country. Small business
owners have testified before our committee, sharing powerful firsthand accounts of how SCORE
mentors have helped them to launch and scale their businesses. SCORE has received broad
bipartisan support for decades as it assisted the small businesses that drive American innovation.
1
We urge you to release the congressionally approved funding to SBA. Thank you for your
attention to this request, and we look forward to your prompt reply.
Sincerely,
Nydia M. Velázquez Morgan McGarvey
Ranking Member Member of Congress
Committee on Small Business
Hillary J. Scholten LaMonica McIver
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Gilbert Ray Cisneros, Jr. Kelly Morrison
Member of Congress Member of Congress
George Latimer Derek T. Tran
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Lateefah Simon Johnny Olszewski, Jr.
Member of Congress Member of Congress
2
Herbert C. Conaway, Jr. Maggie Goodlander
Member of Congress Member of Congress
3
File and source
- File
- 5155_2026-01-27_ranking-member-vel-zquez-demands-sba-release-congr_att0.pdf
- Size
- 316,239 bytes
- SHA-256
- 2a32516af5e5e434dae3be48218604e6cc3a6046898a3581859e3b64043c9a59