Why It Matters

The Congressional Research Service’s report, “The Small Business Administration’s (SBA’s) Women’s Business Centers Program,” dated September 14, examines a federal program whose future funding is at issue for Congress and the Trump administration. The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget request proposed no funding for the program, while Congress provided $27 million for fiscal year 2026. That divergence leaves lawmakers weighing a program that the report says supports business counseling and management services without giving direct financial assistance to small businesses.

The policy tension is whether Congress should preserve and revise that infrastructure or accept the administration’s proposed elimination of its dedicated funding.

The Big Picture

The Small Business Administration funds the centers through grants and cooperative agreements, while third-party entities operate them. Eligible award applicants must be nonprofit organizations with active Internal Revenue Service 501(c)(3) status. Congress first authorized a version of the program as a pilot in the Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988, P.L. 100-533, and permanently authorized its current form through P.L. 110-28 in 2007. Initial WBC grants are typically awarded for up to five years, and WBCs that successfully complete the initial five-year grant period are usually offered the opportunity to apply for unlimited three-year continuation grants. Continuation awards are capped at $150,000 annually, while initial grants have no specific cap.

According to a 2025 SBA-commissioned evaluation, 168 Women's Business Centers operated in 2024 and served 94,593 total clients; the evaluation associated participation with increased new-business formation and a higher average number of employees among clients, but it also found smaller average loans and slower business growth than among small businesses that did not receive the services.

The Bottom Line

The evidence points to a program with measurable reach but mixed findings across business outcomes, rather than a single performance verdict. The evaluation found that WBC clients were more likely to start a business than SBDC clients, while median gross revenue for WBC clients rose moderately and median gross revenue for SBDC clients declined during the study period. It could not conclusively determine what accounted for some differences between the centers and other resource partners. The evaluation suggested that SBA collect additional WBC-related data and metrics, including gross profits and new-market revenue, and conduct or commission further study.

H.R. 9818, the Women’s Business Centers Improvement Act of 2026, would broaden eligible entities to include state, regional, or local economic development organizations. H.R. 9818 would raise the continuation-grant maximum from $150,000 to $300,000 and extend the continuation-grant funding interval from three years to five years.

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