H.R. 4549 would require the Small Business Administration (SBA) to use a competitive hiring process to select an assistant administrator to lead the Office of Rural Affairs. Under current law, the Administrator of the SBA appoints a director to head that office. The bill also would require the agency to host webinars and regional outreach events to assist rural businesses and report annually about the office’s activities.
Based on information from the Office of Personnel Management, CBO expects that the federal pay for an assistant administrator selected through competitive hiring would be similar to that of an appointed director. Additionally, the SBA already collects the data necessary for the required webinars and reports, including statistics on gaps in lending programs to rural businesses and the number of outreach events. On that basis, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost less than $500,000. Any related spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is David Rafferty. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
