Administration Budget Includes Devastating Cuts for Small Businesses

“President Trump’s FY 2026 discretionary budget request proposes drastic cuts to critical small business support programs at half a dozen federal agencies. These reductions include: 

U.S. Small Business Administration 

• $167 million cut from Entrepreneurial Development Programs. 

• Elimination of 15 programs, including the Women’s Business Centers and SCORE. 

U.S. Department of the Treasury 

• A $291 million cut to the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, leaving the fund with less than $30 million to serve millions of under-resourced entrepreneurs.

• A $2.5 billion cut from valuable IRS taxpayer support and necessary revenue-generating efforts. 

U.S. Department of Commerce 

• Elimination of the Economic Development Administration and the Minority Business Development Agency, removing at least $70 million in essential business support. 

U.S. Department of Agriculture

• $721 million slashed from rural development programs, including the elimination of vital business programs, Community Facilities Grants and new broadband funding. 

U.S. Department of Energy 

• Elimination of more than $15 billion in Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act clean energy funding that is vital to small business participation in a modern economy. 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 

• $674 million cut from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Program Management, including the elimination of health equity-focused activities and Inflation Reduction Act-related outreach and education activities that have been vital to recent small business growth and vitality.

These proposed cuts are staggering. They represent the potential reduction of billions and billions of dollars in support for American entrepreneurship, especially the smallest businesses in our most under-resourced communities. If these cuts come to pass, America’s entrepreneurs will find it infinitely harder to start or grow a business, access technical assistance, or receive a loan or grant. The timing of all this could not be worse, as small businesses are already reeling from tariffs, previous cuts and freezes to federal assistance and the mass deportation of immigrants who are a necessary part of the small business workforce. Lawmakers must stop gutting small business support programs simply because they cost money and accept that when the federal government invests in America’s entrepreneurs it is money well spent.”