S. 1703, Rural Small Business Resilience Act

S. 1703 would require the Small Business Administration (SBA) to provide more targeted outreach to people and businesses seeking disaster loans in rural areas. Following major disasters, the SBA’s Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience conducts outreach to affected communities and administers disaster loans to borrowers.

Based on the costs of similar activities and using information provided by the SBA, CBO expects that, on average, the agency would need the full-time equivalent (FTE) of 10 customer service representatives—who typically work as term employees after disasters occur—at a cost of $110,000 per FTE in 2026. That estimate incorporates the assumption that such term employees would be employed only when disasters occur, and work for an average of six months in affected areas.

CBO also expects that the agency would need two public information officers to bolster outreach and marketing efforts in rural areas. CBO estimates that salary and benefits per officer would total $170,000 in 2026. To support the work of those employees, CBO expects that the agency would need one mobile response vehicle at a cost of less than $500,000 over the 2025-2030 period.

On that basis and accounting for anticipated inflation, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost $8 million over the 2025-2030 period. Any related spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds. If natural disasters are more or less frequent than in the recent past, costs could be higher or lower than CBO estimated.

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Jon Sperl. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.