I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4549 
To amend the Small Business Act to clarify the responsibilities of the Office 
of Rural Affairs of the Small Business Administration, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 21, 2025 
Ms. GOODLANDER (for herself, Mr. WIED, and Mr. GOLDEN of Maine) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Small 
Business 
A BILL 
To amend the Small Business Act to clarify the responsibil-
ities of the Office of Rural Affairs of the Small Business 
Administration, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Office of Rural Affairs 
Enhancement Act’’. 
SEC. 2. OFFICE OF RURAL AFFAIRS OF THE SMALL BUSI-
NESS ADMINISTRATION. 
Section 26 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 653) 
is amended— 
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(1) by amending subsection (b) to read as fol-
lows: 
‘‘(b) 
APPOINTMENT
OF
ASSISTANT
ADMINIS-
TRATOR.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Office shall be admin-
istered by an Assistant Administrator, who shall be 
an employee in the competitive service. 
‘‘(2) QUALIFICATIONS.—The Assistant Admin-
istrator shall— 
‘‘(A) have education or professional experi-
ence with, or knowledge of, rural affairs and 
issues relating to small business concerns; and 
‘‘(B) have experience providing develop-
ment assistance to rural small business con-
cerns.’’; 
(2) in subsection (c)— 
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘small 
business concerns located in rural areas’’ and 
inserting ‘‘rural small business concerns’’; 
(B) in paragraph (3)— 
(i) by striking ‘‘provide information’’ 
and inserting ‘‘promote’’; and 
(ii) by striking ‘‘concerning the’’ and 
all that follows through the semicolon at 
the end and inserting the following: ‘‘on 
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the policies and programs of the Adminis-
tration and of other Federal departments 
and agencies for assisting rural small busi-
ness concerns;’’; 
(C) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘; and’’ 
and inserting a semicolon; 
(D) in paragraph (5)— 
(i) by striking ‘‘the United States 
Tourism and Travel Administration’’ and 
inserting ‘‘the National Travel and Tour-
ism Office of the Department of Com-
merce’’; 
(ii) by striking ‘‘small businesses in 
rural areas’’ and inserting ‘‘rural small 
business concerns’’; and 
(iii) by striking the period at the end 
and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 
(E) by adding at the end the following new 
paragraph: 
‘‘(6) host webinars and outreach events for 
rural small business concerns as described in sub-
section (d).’’; and 
(3) by adding at the end the following new sub-
sections: 
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‘‘(d) 
OUTREACH.—The 
Assistant 
Administrator 
shall— 
‘‘(1) host webinars and outreach events in var-
ious regions of the United States for rural small 
business concerns; and 
‘‘(2) invite representatives from district offices 
of the Administration, resource partners, Federal 
and State agencies, and other interested persons to 
participate in such webinars and outreach events. 
‘‘(e) REPORT.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 
after the date of the enactment of this subsection, 
and annually thereafter, the Administrator shall sub-
mit to the Committee on Small Business of the 
House of Representatives and the Committee on 
Small Business and Entrepreneurship of the Senate, 
and make publicly available on a website of the Ad-
ministration, a report on the activities of the Office 
during the one-year period immediately preceding 
the date of submission of the report. 
‘‘(2) CONTENTS.—Each report required under 
paragraph (1) shall include the following: 
‘‘(A) The operational details of the Office, 
including the name of the Assistant Adminis-
trator, the budget of the Office, and the num-
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ber of full-time employees employed by or de-
tailed to the Office. 
‘‘(B) A summary of the activities con-
ducted under subsection (c). 
‘‘(C) The number of webinars and out-
reach events conducted by the Administration 
to promote policies and programs described in 
paragraph (3) of subsection (c) and to provide 
information described in paragraph (4) of such 
subsection. 
‘‘(D) An analysis of the lending programs 
of the Administration in serving the needs of 
rural small business concerns. 
‘‘(E) Information gathered from any 
webinars and outreach events conducted by the 
Administration during the period covered by the 
report. 
‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) ASSISTANT
ADMINISTRATOR.—The term 
‘Assistant Administrator’ means the Assistant Ad-
ministrator of the Office of Rural Affairs appointed 
under subsection (b). 
‘‘(2) RESOURCE
PARTNERS.—The term ‘re-
source partners’ means— 
‘‘(A) small business development centers; 
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‘‘(B) women’s business centers (described 
under section 29); 
‘‘(C) chapters of the Service Corps of Re-
tired Executives (established under section 
8(b)(1)(B)); and 
‘‘(D) Veteran Business Outreach Centers 
(described under section 32). 
‘‘(3) RURAL SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN.—The 
term ‘rural small business concern’ means a small 
business concern located in a rural area (as defined 
in section 7(b)(16) of this Act).’’. 
Æ 
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