SBA hit with more layoffs

Small Business Administration employees at the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan Servicing Center (CESC) received an email Friday following a brief staff meeting notifying them they would be laid off effective May 16.

“As discussed in the meeting today, CESC must reduce its staff,” the email read. “We are exercising the intermittent provision of your employment agreement. As such, your last working day on this assignment will be May 16, 2025.”

The office is comprised of more than 1,200 people, though it’s unclear whether every staff member received the email. Some will be terminated May 2, and others May 16.

The email, shared with Government Executive, added that human resources and information technology personnel would work with fired employees to properly offboard them and answer questions.

“Thank you for your service to the agency and all that you have done to assist the SBA in fulfilling its mission,” the email concluded.

SBA’s CESC was established as a centralized office to help small businesses recover from economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler signaled massive changes at SBA in a reorg plan announced March 21, which called for the elimination of 2,700 active positions of a total workforce of around 6,500.

In late March, the agency reoffered employees the option to accept deferred resignation. Staff who accepted the DRP were bid farewell in Friday’s staff meeting before the firings were announced.  

“They are firing us just to fire us,” said one SBA employee. “We literally made money for the government by taking loan payments and recovering money in bankruptcy.”

The reduction continues despite SBA taking on the Education Department’s $1.7 trillion student loan portfolio.

“I don’t understand why they are getting rid of us if we are also supposed to be handling student loans,” the employee added.

SBA did not respond to a request for comment.