What the GAO found
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 appropriated $83 million for the Small Business Administration (SBA) for 128 projects requested by 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 US 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 the recipients to access the funds:
The intended uses of these funds are to support small businesses through various projects, including business incubators and resource centers.
Designated beneficiaries of these funds they are mainly higher education organizations and other non-profit 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 take up to 5 years to spend the funds.
Why did the GAO do this study?
The joint explanatory statement accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 includes a provision for GAO to review the implementation of community project funding agencies/Congressionally Directed Expenditures.
For more information, contact William B. Shear at (202) 512-8678 or shearw@gao.gov.
