Office of Advocacy

What this funds

FY 2027 Congressional Budget Justification and FY 2025 Annual Performance Report 68 The Office of Advocacy (Advocacy) has its own statutory charter, Title II of Public Law 94-305 as amended (15 U.S.C. ' 634a et seq.), originally enacted in 1976. It is headed by a Chief Counsel for Advocacy, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Advocacy works to reduce the burdens that federal regulations and other policies impose on small entities and provides vital small business research for the use of policymakers and other stakeholders. Advocacy's mission is to encourage policies that support the development and growth of American small ' Intervening early in federal agencies' regulatory development processes on proposals that affect small entities and providing Regulatory Flexibility Act1 compliance training to federal agency policymakers and regulatory development officials; ' Producing research to inform policymakers and other stakeholders on the impact of federal regulatory burdens on small businesses, documenting the vital role of small businesses in the economy, and exploring and explaining the wide variety of issues of concern to the small ' Fostering two-way communication between federal agencies and the small business Advocacy represents the interests of small entities within the federal government. It advances the views and concerns of small entities before Congress, the White House, federal agencies, the federal courts, and state and local policymakers as appropriate. Economic research, policy analyses, and outreach help identify issues of concern. Documentation of the contributions of, and challenges for, small entities in the U.S. economy provides policymakers with the information that they need to make informed decisions. In addition to those responsibilities included in Advocacy's basic charter, further duties and powers were conferred upon the Chief Counsel for Advocacy by the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) of 1980 as amended and Executive Order 13272. These duties include the monitoring of federal agency compliance with the RFA, providing RFA compliance training to regulatory officials, and assisting regulatory agencies during all stages of the rule development process to mitigate the potential impact of rules on Public Law 111-240, the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, further amended Advocacy's statutory authority to require that each budget submitted by the President shall include a separate statement of the amount of appropriations requested for Advocacy, and that these funds be designated in a separate Treasury account. The Act also requires SBA to provide Advocacy with office space, equipment, an operating budget, and communications support, including the maintenance of such equipment and facilities (15 of the office's status and newly separate appropriations account, Advocacy's FY 2013 Congressional Budget Justification and FY 2011 Annual Performance Report were for the first time presented in a separate appendix to SBA's submission. The budget request for FY 2027 continues to use this format, FY 2027 Congressional Budget Justification and FY 2025 Annual Performance Report 69 which is intended to improve the transparency of Advocacy's operations and costs, more clearly identify the resources available to Advocacy, and provide a basis for performance measurement. For FY 2027, the Office of Advocacy requests $14,109 million in new budget authority for its direct The largest portion of Advocacy's request is planned for the compensation and benefits of Advocacy's professional staff. Staffing accounts for almost all of Advocacy's total FY 2027 request and is planned at 50 full-time equivalent positions. The requested amount will enable Advoacy to fill critical vacancies, produce core small business data, and support cost sharing with the U.S. Census Bureau for the Statistics of U.S. Businesses (SUS-B) and Nonemployer Statistics by Demographic (NES-D) The remainder of the requestis planned for all other direct expenses, including subscriptions to legal and economic research resources, travel, training, office supplies, and other miscellaneous expenses directly attributable to Pursuant to Section 1602(b) of Public Law 111-240, SBA will provide additional support to Advocacy, including office space and equipment, communications and IT services, and maintenance of equipment and facilities. The costs for these services, as well as centralized indirect expenses shared with other SBA Small businesses are the engine of innovation, economic growth, and job creation in America. Advocacy's FY 2027 request will enable the office to continue its mission of supporting the startup, development, and growth of small businesses, and to focus on priority areas, including regulatory reform. Advocacy's activities have always required cross-agency collaboration with other federal agencies throughout government. This includes assisting agencies in achieving their regulatory goals without unnecessary adverse consequences for small entities, adding value to the data that they collect and making it more accessible to stakeholders, and providing RFA compliance training to policy and rule development officials in more than 100 agencies. Advocacy engages every day in cross-agency cooperation to remove barriers to small business innovation, economic growth and job creation, and to provide stakeholders with the information they need to make informed decisions, as described in the Planned Performance As part of the separation of Advocacy's annual budget justification and performance report from those of SBA, Advocacy adopted two strategic goals that are specific to the office, and it revised the performance FY 2027 Congressional Budget Justification and FY 2025 Annual Performance Report 70 indicators that are associated with these goals. The two goals align closely with Advocacy's two primary statutory responsibilities: regulatory advocacy and economic research. For each goal, a discussion follows on implementation strategies, performance objectives, FY 2025 accomplishments, and FY 2027 planned performance. Tables with performance metrics, including benchmarks and percent variations, follow Advocacy Strategic Goal 1: To be a voice for small businesses inside the government and to assist federal agencies in the development of regulations and policies that minimize burdens on small entities to support their start-up, development, and growth. Monitoring of federal regulatory activity. Advocacy's Office of Interagency Affairs monitors new federal regulatory proposals through publicly available sources such as the Federal Register and the agencies' periodic publication of their regulatory agendas. Many agencies also notify Advocacy directly in advance of planned regulations, particularly when these proposals have significant costs or would affect Pursuant to Executive Order 13272, Advocacy also consults on regulatory proposals with the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, with which the office has a strong working relationship. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have special statutory requirements for notifying Advocacy of planned regulatory activity with significant effects. Advocacy also subscribes to various publications and services that specialize in tracking legislation, regulations, and Solicitation of the views of stakeholders. Advocacy conducts a continuing program of outreach to its

Extracted from SBA, p. 9. Verbatim; nothing here is paraphrased.

Contracts funded by this line

18 linked contracts. These are obligations — lifetime awarded money — and they are not comparable to the request above and are never added to it. No total is shown: an award linked to several lines is counted in full on each, so the sum would not be a fact.

Showing 8 of 18 — most confidently matched first, largest within a confidence tier. These are not necessarily the largest 8.

Confidence mix · 18 certain

Linked contracts are a floor, not a census. Coverage is bounded by how distinctively a program is named and, for performer links, to RDT&E and Procurement — O&M and military construction publish no performers. Budget figures are FY2027 request dollars; contract figures are obligations. The two measure different things and must never be summed together.

Ask this budget line

Answers come from the figures on this page and nothing else. These dollars are parsed from Small Business Admin's Congressional Justification and are approximate — confirm anything that matters against the cited page.