House GOP Questions Necessity of SBA's Trade Office
House Republicans on Jan. 11 questioned the head of the Small Business Administration’s Office of International Trade (OIT) over whether the unit is necessary, saying the division duplicates functions of other agencies amid a constrained budgetary environment (here). OIT Associate Administrator Eileen Sanchez said during a hearing of the Small Business Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy and Trade that OIT is needed to help ensure that U.S. small businesses have sound access to international markets (here). “We know that the issues that small businesses are facing are related to information, to financing and to market access, and we need one entity that ensures that on all horizontal levels across the federal agencies what every federal agency is doing is ensuring that they are including small business in the everyday of what they do,” she said. The hearing was convened to focus on the utility of OIT utility for small businesses.
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Subcommittee Chairman Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., and subcommittee Vice Chairman Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., grilled Sanchez on why OIT employs 21 field staff even though the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 calls for 30. Sanchez said OIT is conducting a “gap analysis” to determine holes in employment, and is shifting and realigning staff to meet those gaps.