The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced a new policy that would ban foreign nationals and non-citizens from accessing its loan services — a continuation of efforts to refocus federal resources to ventures that align with American prioritization.
“The Trump SBA is committed to driving economic growth and job creation for American citizens,” SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said in a statement on Friday.
The requirement will apply to its Surety Bond and Microloan programs and is an expansion of changes made in February to the SBA’s 504 and 7(a) programs — loans for small businesses looking to finance working capital, equipment or acquisitions. Those earlier reforms prohibited SBA loans from going to businesses that are partially or wholly owned by foreign nationals.
The Surety Bond helps new or inexperienced contractors bid for government jobs that require bonding. Similarly, The Microloan program looks to offer small businesses loans of up to $50,000 through approved third-party intermediaries.
“Last month, we made it clear that SBA would not allow foreign nationals to access our core small business loan programs – and today, we are expanding that policy to include all SBA-guaranteed loans,” Loeffler said.
