Comment on FR Doc # 2026-11765

Docket No. SBA-2026-0133 / RIN 3245-AI75 To Whom It May Concern, My name is Keyara Hadley, and I am a community leader in Charlotte, NC. I am not a business owner, but I am writing because this rule affects my community, and the public was invited to comment. The small businesses this program supports are part of what holds my community together. They hire locally and give young people their first jobs, which is critical in Charlotte’s employment market, They provide services our area would otherwise lack, and Their owners are role models for what's possible. When these firms win contracts and grow, that money circulates right here — in paychecks, in local storefronts, and in our tax base. These businesses hire from within our own neighborhoods, which is exactly why this matters to people like me: when access to the program is cut, the jobs leave with it. SBA's own analysis calls the impact of this rule “de minimis” and states that it has “no quantifiable costs.” That may look correct on paper, but it does not account for the people on the other end — the workers these firms employ and the neighborhoods where that contract money is spent. When fewer local firms can qualify, the loss is not “de minimis” to us. I ask SBA to weigh those real community effects, not only the time it takes to fill out a form. This program was created to open federal contracting to businesses that had been shut out of it. I am concerned that, by replacing the existing path with a harder one, this rule moves the program away from that purpose without studying how the change will affect the communities that have relied on it. I respectfully ask SBA to preserve meaningful access so the businesses that strengthen neighborhoods like mine can keep growing. Thank you,
Keyara Hadley Charlotte, NC