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Federal Market Intelligence for Small Business |
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SBA seeks big boost to govcon & entrepreneurship 2023 fundsPresident Joe Biden presented his fiscal 2023 budget request to Congress, which includes a generous increase for small business priorities, including government contracting and entrepreneurship. The president also outlined broader strategies of supporting economic growth and business development. In total, Biden proposed $1.6 trillion in discretionary funds for fiscal 2023, a 7% increase from the fiscal 2022 enacted level. The White House’s plan includes $813 billion for national defense, of which $773 billion is for the Defense Dept., a 4% increase. Civilian agencies would receive $769 billion, an 11% increase. There is nearly $45 billion for addressing climate change, up from $28 billion last year. To foster economic growth, the White House says the budget blueprint would reduce the national deficit by $1 trillion over the next 10 years by raising taxes on the wealthiest households. As with every presidential budget request, Congress has the final say on spending and is likely to make adjustments to the president’s blueprint. SBA funding Under the White House plan, the Small Business Administration’s salaries and expenses account would rise to $346 million in fiscal 2023, up from $278 million enacted in fiscal 2022. That is a 24% increase. The SBA’s Entrepreneurial Development programs account would go up to $318 million, from $290 million enacted last year, a 10% increase. The budget proposal also has details on the “Total Operating Budget” for each program within those categories. The total operating budget includes salaries and expenses such as rent and printing. The White House plan compares the 2023 request with the fiscal 2021 enacted amount and with a hypothetical fiscal 2022 year-long Continuing Resolution amount. The latter was used because Congress had not enacted the fiscal 2022 budget until mid-March, which was too late to include in the president’s budget plan. Government Contracting Programs While comparisons to the fiscal 2022 enacted level were not immediately available, the figures provided by the White House for fiscal 2023 still are noteworthy in indicating large increases proposed in several programs from the 2021 enacted level. For example, the SBA’s programs for women-owned small businesses would more than double their funding, to $11 million, under the president’s plan. The 8(a) Business Development Program also would receive a huge increase, to $84 million, up from $49 million two years ago. Nearly all the government contracting programs would get an increase, including HUBZones, Mentor-Protege and Subcontracting. Also, $22 million would be allocated to transfer veteran-owned verification from the Veterans Affairs Dept. to the SBA, and to establish the veterans’ verification and evaluation program. Here are the total proposed operating budgets, rounded off to the nearest million dollars.
Entrepeneurship Programs The same data limitations apply to the administration’s total operating budgets for its Entrepreneurship Programs. Nearly all such programs would get a large increase under Biden’s plan, including Regional Innovation Clusters, which would triple their 2021 funding, and Women-Owned programs, which would nearly double their 2021 funding.
*Hypothetical year-long CR estimate
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