H.R. 5130 would require federal agencies to use 24 months of employment data, instead of 12 months, to determine whether a manufacturing business could be classified as a small business on the basis of the number of its employees.
Implementing H.R. 5130 could affect the number of businesses eligible for assistance or loan programs of the Small Business Administration (SBA) and thus change the number of participants in and the costs for those programs. However, CBO has no basis for estimating the number of manufacturing businesses that would either newly qualify or no longer qualify for those programs under H.R. 5130 or for estimating whether the costs of making loans or loan guarantees to those businesses would be higher or lower.
Using information from the SBA on the costs of similar activities, CBO estimates that meeting the act’s requirements would cost less than $500,000; any spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
