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Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for Small Business Administration

GAO-23-105907 Published: Oct 04, 2022. Publicly Released: Oct 04, 2022.
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Fast Facts

As part of FY22 appropriations, Members of Congress could request to designate a certain amount of federal funding for specific projects in their communities.

While agencies often have discretion over how they award funds, Congress has directed them to distribute these funds to designated recipients. We're tracking the funds to help ensure transparency.

The Small Business Administration's FY22 appropriations included $83 million for 128 of these projects.

This report looks at when SBA plans to distribute the funds and how it plans to ensure they're spent properly.

We're also tracking these funds across government and at 17 other agencies.

SBA: Where did the FY 2022 funding go?

A U.S. map with states colored to show how much project funding went to each state

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Highlights

What GAO Found

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 appropriated $83 million to the Small Business Administration (SBA) for 128 projects at the request of Members of Congress. The act includes specific provisions that designate an amount of funds for a particular recipient to use for a specific project. These provisions are called "Congressionally Directed Spending" in the U.S. Senate and "Community Project Funding" in the House of Representatives.

GAO described, among other things, information about the intended uses for these funds, the recipients to whom they were designated, and when SBA expects recipients will have access to the funds:

The intended uses of these funds are to support small businesses through various projects, including business incubators and resource centers.

The designated recipients of these funds are mostly higher education organizations and other nonprofit organizations. The remaining recipients are tribal, territorial, state, and local governments. Funding ranged from $50,000 to $3 million, with most projects receiving less than $1 million.

SBA plans to obligate funds to all recipients by the end of September 2022 and recipients can request up to 5 years to spend the funds.

Why GAO Did This Study

The joint explanatory statement accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 includes a provision for GAO to review agencies' implementation of Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending.

For more information, contact William B. Shear at (202) 512-8678 or shearw@gao.gov.

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Topics

Appropriated fundsFederal spendingHigher educationGrant managementNonprofit organizationsSmall businessUse of fundsEntrepreneursGrant programsBusiness incubators