SBA loans now require proof of U.S. citizenship or permanent residency.
H.R. 2966 — American Entrepreneurs First Act of 2025 · 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 Small Business Administration to check applicants. Loan applicants must be U.S. citizens, nationals, or permanent residents. The bill bars loans to asylees, refugees, visa holders, DACA recipients, and undocumented immigrants. It also bars loans to any business with even one owner in those groups.
Who it affects
The bill affects immigrants and people with mixed immigration status. It affects families where some members are citizens and others are not. It affects visa holders who work legally in the U.S.
One thing to notice
A business loses access to these loans if even one owner is not a citizen or permanent resident.
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
- Small Business Administration — A government agency that helps people start and grow small businesses.
- permanent residents — People who are not citizens but have legal permission to live and work in the U.S. forever.
- DACA recipients — People brought to the U.S. as children who got permission to stay and work legally.
- visa holders — People from other countries who have legal permission to be in the U.S. for work or other reasons.
- asylees — People who fled their home country and got permission to stay in the U.S. for safety.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,640 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 16,938 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 2026-11-05.
“SBA loans now require proof of U.S. citizenship or permanent residency.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr2966/simple Report an error
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