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President Donald Trump’s Small Business Administration (SBA)’s nominee for administrator, Kelly Loeffler, was voted in 52-46 by the Senate on Feb. 20, making her the head of an administration that sees over $50 billion in loans, disaster relief, surety bonds and other forms of funding for small businesses.
Loeffler has a large task ahead of her as SBA administrator. She carries sentiments around supporting small businesses through reduced regulations, tackling fraud and lowering the cost of operations through reduced inflation. She has also promised to reduce or eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs along the lines of Trump’s executive order targeting such initiatives in the federal government, though the specifics of how this will apply to loan administration have yet to be seen.
Here’s what you should know about Trump’s SBA appointee.
Loeffler’s business background
Loeffler holds an MBA from DePaul University and is currently a CFA charter holder. After graduating, she worked in investor relations for several financial institutions including Citibank and Crossroads Group, eventually landing at Intercontinental Exchange as senior vice president of investor relations and corporate communications. In 2018, she served as the CEO of Bakkt, a subsidiary of Intercontinental that deals in cryptocurrency.
Loeffler served as a Republican Senator for Georgia from 2020 to 2021, after being appointed to serve out the remaining term of resigning Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson and leaving her role at Intercontinental to do so. During this time, she was considered the wealthiest member of Senate due to her net worth of at least $800 million.
Promises to tackle fraud
During her confirmation hearing before the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, Loeffler promised to “leverage my business experience to champion America’s entrepreneurs” as SBA administrator.
“We will cut red tape while restoring the accountability and transparency that taxpayers deserve. I will crack down on fraud with a zero tolerance policy while shifting SBA’s focus from Washington, D.C., back to Main Street across America,” Loeffler said in her opening speech.
She tagged inflation as “the number one problem” small businesses are facing, and has claimed she will work with Trump to reduce inflation in order to better support small businesses.
Loeffler’s “North Star” of focus, as she called it during her confirmation hearing, will be to tackle what she alleges are “massive fraud” and waste in the SBA that took place with COVID relief and disaster funds, which have led to a high number of defaults and deficits within the administration.
“The fact that this agency has not been able to pass an audit for four years is a disgrace,” Loeffler said.
The SBA has weathered layoffs over the past month as Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) reduced the department’s workforce in the name of efficiency and lowering costs.
DOGE has also gained access to SBA’s systems for auditing, though the impact of this – and what DOGE will do with the information in the SBA’s payment systems, contracts and otherwise – remains to be seen.
Plans for disaster relief and DEI
Loeffler also promised to focus on SBA disaster relief during her tenure. The disaster relief loan program ran out of funds in October 2024 when North Carolina was still recovering from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, requiring stopgap funding from Congress in order to continue the program.
She also stated that the disaster relief program needs to react more swiftly to diasters such as the wildfires in California and Hawaii and Helene in North Carolina.
Loeffler said she plans to take a “metrics-driven” approach to handling the SBA, and increasing efficiency in order to reduce wait times and increase the caseload processing rate.
Echoing Trump’s sentiments and executive order that eliminates DEI initiatives and policies from federal operations, Loeffler implied that SBA lending will take a similar route, though did not emphasize exactly which DEI policies within the SBA she plans to target.
“I think the best way we can serve small businesses is making SBA lending available to all who qualify, as opposed to picking winners and losers and pitting Americans against one another,” Loeffler said.
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