H.R. 5778 would require the Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA), or designee, to attend any working groups or interagency meetings on employee-owned businesses that the SBA is invited to or previously attended. The bill would direct the agency to provide outreach and educational materials on employee-owned businesses to the partners of certain companies that invest in small businesses. H.R. 5778 also would direct the SBA to implement a program to provide technical assistance to promote employee ownership of small businesses within 180 days of enactment.
Because the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 already required the SBA to provide technical assistance to promote employee ownership of small businesses, CBO estimates that any costs to implement this provision would not be significant. Based on the cost of similar activities and using information provided by the SBA, CBO estimates that implementing the other provisions in H.R. 5778 would cost less than $500,000 over the 2026-2031 period.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Sean Christensen. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
