SBA stops lending to many immigrant business owners.
H.R. 2966 — American Entrepreneurs First Act · Filed by Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Apr 17, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
The bill tells the SBA to check if loan seekers are U.S. nationals or have green cards. It bars loans to people with other visas, DACA status, or no legal status. Even small owners can make a whole business ineligible. The SBA must record the status of all owners.
Who it affects
Small business owners lose access to some SBA loans based on status. Businesses with mixed owners—like a U.S. national and a spouse with a green card—become ineligible. SBA staff must now verify and record status for all seekers.
One thing to notice
DACA people are barred even though they can work and pay taxes. Businesses with even one owner of ineligible status lose SBA loans.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Apr 17, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Apr 17, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Small Business and Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Small Business”
- Apr 30, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Apr 30, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 15 - 11”
- Jun 6, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 217 - 190 (Roll no. 156). (text: CR H2510-2511)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- DACA — A program that lets some people brought to the U.S. as kids work legally.
- national — A person who owes loyalty to a country but may not be a full national.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,524 characters) on Jul 10, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,522 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-21.
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