Small Business Office Gets International Trade Voice
H.R. 832 — Small Business Advocacy Improvements Act of 2025 · Filed by Roger Williams (R-TX) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 31, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
This bill expands the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy to explicitly include international trade and regulatory matters in its mandate. It corrects three technical errors in existing law (a misspelling of 'service-disabled' and a word choice error), and adds a new duty requiring the office to represent small-business interests before foreign governments and international bodies on trade and regulatory issues that may affect them.
Why we flagged it
The bill straightforwardly expands the Office of Advocacy's mandate to include international trade and regulatory representation, with three technical corrections to existing statute. It is a routine clarification and scope-broadening measure with no hidden mechanisms.
What the text implies
- The new international advocacy duty may increase the Office of Advocacy's budget and staffing needs, though the bill does not appropriate funds — implementation depends on future appropriations.
- By explicitly naming 'foreign governments and international entities,' the bill may position the SBA's Office of Advocacy to participate in trade negotiations and regulatory harmonization discussions, potentially giving small businesses a voice in bilateral and multilateral trade agreements.
- The correction of 'serviced-disabled' to 'service-disabled' aligns the statute with standard terminology for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, clarifying eligibility for federal contracting preferences.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Small businesses gain explicit federal representation in international trade and regulatory matters, which may help level the playing field in negotiations that affect their competitiveness. The corrections to existing law are technical fixes that clarify intent without changing substance.
Named in the bill
Small Business Administration (SBA), Office of Advocacy, Public Law 94–305, Small businesses, Foreign governments, International entities
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Jan 31, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 31, 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”
- Feb 24, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection”
- Feb 24, 2025 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Williams (TX) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Sep 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $760,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 30 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Roger Williams, the sponsor, reported $529,851 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Specialty Equipment Market Association — $760,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 14, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,033 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 16,222 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Sep 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 14, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Small Business Office Gets International Trade Voice” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr832 Report an error
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