Examination of the Mission of SBA


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An Assessment of the SBIR Program


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The SBIR program allocates 2.5 percent of 11 federal agencies' extramural R&D budgets to fund R&D projects by small businesses, providing approximately $2 billion annually in competitive awards. At the request of Congress, the National Academies conducted a comprehensive study of how the SBIR program has stimulated technological innovation and used small businesses to meet federal research and development needs. Drawing substantially on new data collection, this report provides a comprehensive overview of the SBIR program at the five agencies representing 96 percent of program expenditure-DOD, NIH, NSF, DOE, and NASA-and makes recommendations on improvements to the program. Separate books on each agency will also be issued.







SBA Reauthorization


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Small Business Administration


Book Description

The Small Business Administration (SBA) guarantees individual loans that lenders originate. The agency uses its Loan and Lender Monitoring System (L/LMS) to assess the individual risk of each loan, and SBA's contractor developed a lender risk rating system (LRRS) based on L/LMS data. However, questions have been raised about the extent to which SBA has used its LRRS to improve its oversight of lenders. This report examined: (1) how SBA's LRRS compares with those used by federal financial regulators and lenders and the system's usefulness for predicting lender performance; and (2) how SBA uses the LRRS in its lender oversight activities. The author interviewed officials from three federal financial regulators and 10 large SBA lenders. Illus.