Concord, N.H. — Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander (NH-02), a member of the House Committee on Small Business, is demanding that the Trump Administration end its persistent stonewalling and unacceptable delays in federal funding to New Hampshire small businesses. Goodlander led a letter to Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Kelly Loeffler exposing the agency’s chronic failures to answer basic oversight questions about the funding streams, capital access, grants, and staffing that small businesses across New Hampshire depend upon. Ranking Member Nydia M. Velázquez and Representatives Morgan McGarvey and Gilbert Ray Cisneros Jr. joined Goodlander in the letter.
The stakes could not be higher. According to the SBA’s 2025 Small Business Profile, small businesses make up 99% of all businesses in the state and employ 309,420 Granite Staters – they are the backbone of our economy. Every day that SBA stalls is a day New Hampshire small businesses are left waiting in uncertainty. Responsive, accountable federal support is mission-critical to the economic vitality of a small business state like New Hampshire. The full letter is available HERE.
“New Hampshire is a small business state, full stop. When the federal agency responsible for helping those businesses access capital, grants, and technical assistance stonewalls our most basic questions, small businesses pay the price – in uncertainty, in delay, in lost opportunity,” said Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander. “The Small Business Administration must do its job: give us the facts, explain the holdups, and get mission-critical support moving. I won’t quit until New Hampshire’s small businesses get the answers and help they deserve.”
The numbers tell the story. To date, the SBA has failed to answer five sets of Committee questions following House Small Business Committee hearings stretching back to June 2025 – more than a year of silence. The unanswered questions touch nearly every part of the agency — from capital access and field operations to innovation grants and entrepreneurial support.
Among the questions the Trump Administration refuses to answer: when New Hampshire small businesses can expect refunds for the President’s unconstitutional tariffs; why it terminated a a New Hampshire-led Regional Innovation Cluster grant; whether future innovation awards will reach New Hampshire small businesses at all; how many tax-payer dollars remain in key programs; why the Trump Administration proposed zeroing out funding for the Federal and State Technology Partnership program; whether staffing cuts have gutted SBA’s New Hampshire office and hurt small buisnsses; and
SBA’s silence makes it harder for Congress to identify where federal support is stuck, solve delays, and ensure New Hampshire businesses get a fair shot at the resources they need to grow.
“Across our districts, small businesses make critical decisions every day without the luxury of delay,” the lawmakers wrote.
Goodlander and her colleagues are demanding SBA provide:
- A full list of unanswered Committee questions;
- Firm timelines for every outstanding response;
- An explanation for each delay; and
- A clear policy for responding to future congressional oversight questions.
Accountability is a hallmark of Goodlander’s work on the House Committee on Small Business, where she has fought to cut red tape for small businesses and deliver transparency, accountability, and stronger support for for rural entrepreneurs and expanded access to capital to small businesses.
###
