Northern Mariana Islands can get small business loans
H.R. 3496 — Northern Mariana Islands Small Business Access Act · Filed by Kimberlyn King-Hinds (R-MP) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced May 19, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
The bill lets the Small Business Administration give small loans to companies in the Northern Mariana Islands. Before, only Guam and some other U.S. areas could get these loans. The bill changes how the money is split among areas.
Who it affects
Company owners in the Northern Mariana Islands can now borrow money they could not before. The money comes from the same pool that serves other areas, so each area gets a smaller share.
One thing to notice
The bill adds one more area to the loan program. Each area gets less money than before.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 3 Democrats.
- May 19, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- May 19, 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”
- Nov 18, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Nov 18, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 27 - 0”
- Jan 20, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H929)”
- Jan 20, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Williams (TX) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (686 characters) on Jun 10, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 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 2026-09-23.
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