After weeks of negotiations and under a looming deadline to avoid another government shutdown, legislation to fund the government through the end of FY19 was passed by Congress and signed by the President.
Below is a summary of appropriations levels approved for small business development programs:
U.S. Department of Agriculture
| Program | FY2019 Enacted | CAMEO FY2019 Requests |
| Rural Business Development Grants (RBDGs) | $35M | $35M |
| Intermediary Relending Program | $18.889M | $19M |
| Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program (RMAP) | $3M | $3M |
| Value-Added Agricultural Product Market Development | $17.5M | $11M |
Directives for Rural Business Development Grants: Of the $65.040M provided for Rural Business Program, which includes the $35M provided for Rural Business Development Grants:
- $4M shall be for business grants to benefit Federally Recognized Native American Tribes, including $250K for a grant to a qualified national organization to provide technical assistance for rural transportation
- $500K shall be made available for one grant to a qualified national organization to provide technical assistance for rural transportation
Directives for Intermediary Relending Program Fund: Agreement authorizes $18.889M in direct loans
- Provides for $4.157M in direct loan subsidies, of which $557K should be available through 6/30/19 for Federally Recognized Native American Tribes and of which $1.072M should be available through 6/30/19 for Mississippi Delta Region counties
- Provides for $4.468M in administrative expenses to carry out direct loans
Directive for Value-Added Agricultural Product Market Development Grants: Of the $17.5M provided:
- $2.5M may be used for Agriculture Innovation Centers
U.S. Department of Treasury
| Program | FY2019 Enacted | CAMEO FY2019 Requests |
| Treasury CDFI Fund | $250M | $300M |
| Treasury CDFI BGP | $500M | $1B |
Directives for CDFI Fund: Of the $250M the agreement provides for:
- Not less than $160M is for financial and technical assistance grants, available until 9/30/20
- Of which up to $2.527M may be used for the cost of direct loans
- Of which up to $3M may be used for technical/financial assistance to CDFIs that fund projects helping individuals with disabilities
- Not less than $16M is for technical assistance and other purposes for Native American, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native communities, available until 9/30/20
- Not less than $25M is for the Bank Enterprise Award program, available until 9/30/20
- Not less than $22M is for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, available until 9/30/20
- Up to $27M is for administrative expenses, including administration of CDFI fund programs and the New Markets Tax Credit Program, available until 9/30/19
- Of which $1M is for the development of IT tools to better measure/assess CDFI investment performance, improve data quality, and enable more efficient allocation
Capacity Building: Agreement provides funds for CDFIs and other organizations dedicated to serving distressed/underserved communities, to increase their expertise and capacity.
- By the end of calendar year 2019, CDFI Fund must submit a report to Congress, to include expenditures on capacity building initiatives, parameters of these initiatives, metrics to track outcomes/trainings, and measures to assess any increased impact on distressed/underserved communities
Program Integration for Individuals with Disabilities: CDFI Fund is directed to summarize progress made toward developing a competitive application pool for CDFIs to compete for funds for individuals with disabilities
- Additionally, CDFI Fund should report to Congress every six months on # of awards, amount of each award, types of programs, and impact funding has made on a number of CDFIs serving the disability community
Directive for CDFI BGP: Agreement limits the total loan principal for the Bond Guarantee Program to $500M
Small Business Administration
| Program | FY2019 Enacted | CAMEO FY2019 Requests |
| Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) | $131M | $140M |
| Women’s Business Centers (WBCs) | $18.5M | $21.75M |
| Microloan Technical Assistance (TA) | $31M | $31M |
| Microloan Lending | $42M | $44M |
| PRIME | $5M | $10M |
Directives for SBA Entrepreneurial Development Programs: The agreement provides for $247.7M for the SBA Entrepreneurial Development Programs, and says SBA shall not reduce these amounts nor merge any programs without prior approval from the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.
Veteran Entrepreneurs: SBA is directed, no later than six months after passage of the legislation, to conduct a study on whether matchmaking services linking veteran entrepreneurs to business leads (using data from outside sources like local chambers) would enhance existing veterans entrepreneurship programs of the SBA.
Directives for Business Loans Program Account: Agreement provides for $159.15M for the Business Loans Program Account, of which $4M is for the cost of direct loans in the microloan program.
- The other $115.15M is for administrative expenses to carry out direct and guaranteed loan programs, with caps of $30B for SBA 7(a) loans and $7.5B for 504 refinance authority