As you are aware from previous NAGGL announcements, SBA has invited public comments on two Proposed Rules: 1) Affiliation and Lending Criteria for the SBA Business Loan Programs, 87 FR 64724, comment period closing December 27, 2022 (“Affiliation Proposed Rule”); and, 2) Small Business Lending Company (SBLC) Moratorium Rescission and Removal of the Requirement for a Loan Authorization, 87 FR 66963, comment period closing January 6, 2022 (“SBLC Proposed Rule”). NAGGL alerted members to the publication of the Proposed Rules and provided summaries of each shortly after they were published in the Federal Register. But because of the substantive nature of the regulatory proposals, and the looming deadlines for submitting comments, we want to remind members how important it is for you to review each of these Proposed Rules and to offer your individual comments to SBA – separate comments for each regulatory proposal – by the specified deadlines.
You can read about the regulatory comment process in the Brookings Institute publication, How to effectively comment on regulations. As noted in that document, providing comments on proposed regulatory amendments “is an important way to have your voice heard on regulations that can have a large impact on your and other people’s lives”.
In addition to the background information provided in that document, it is important to understand that when considering public comments, a federal agency pays special attention to the number of comments that it receives on a particular proposed change, seeing that as an indication of the degree of interest in the particular issue and the change that the agency is proposing to make. It also pays attention to the individual nature of the comments, including any recommendations made by the commenter – for example, whether the change should be adopted as proposed, should be amended in the way suggested by the commenter, or should not be adopted at all – as well as the rationale for each position taken.
As noted in the provided publication, the agency proposing the rule-change is required to review and, in its Final Rule, to respond to, every comment that it receives. But the agency is likely to give far less weight to comments that appear to be form letters, and likely will not give any weight to comments that appear to be bot-generated. So, in the case of SBA’s currently outstanding Proposed Rules, we urge NAGGL members to provide comments that clearly explain specifically how the proposed changes will impact their individual institutions, and especially the impact that adoption of the proposals may have on the ability of lenders to provide 7(a) loans to support America’s small businesses.
To make you aware of the positions that NAGGL is taking on each of the regulatory proposals, we are sharing the association’s draft comment letter on the Affiliation Proposed Rule, and, as soon as it is completed, also will share our draft comment letter on the SBLC Proposed Rule. But, whether you agree with NAGGL’s comments, or have different opinions, we urge you to make your comment letters reflect the nuances of your individual points of view. As a last resort, if you agree with our positions on the proposals, you can submit a comment letter that indicates your concurrence with the NAGGL positions. But, as already noted, that type of submission likely will have far less impact on how SBA drafts its Final Rules than a comment letter that is more personalized.
Finally, once the hard work of drafting your comments is completed, you will need to submit your comment letter by the specified due date using the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
