To require the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to require an applicant for certain loans of the Administration to provide certain citizenship status documentation, and for other purposes.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The American Entrepreneurs First Act of 2025 changes eligibility documentation for Small Business Administration 7(a) loans and title V/504 development-company loans. The SBA Administrator must ensure applications collect the date of birth for each individual applicant and each individual owner of an applicant concern. Applicants must certify that an individual applicant is a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or lawful permanent resident, or that an applicant concern and any guarantor are 100 percent beneficially owned by individuals in those categories. Applicant concerns must certify that no direct or indirect owner is an ineligible person, and lawful permanent residents must provide alien registration numbers. A loan is barred if the application lacks the required information, if an applicant concern has any direct or indirect owner who is ineligible, or if an individual applicant is ineligible. Ineligible persons include asylees, refugees, visa holders, nonimmigrants, DACA recipients, and people present without lawful immigration status.
Who Benefits and How
U.S. citizen entrepreneurs, U.S. national entrepreneurs, lawful permanent resident entrepreneurs, SBA lenders seeking clearer eligibility screens, SBA loan-review staff, competing small businesses owned by eligible individuals, and policymakers prioritizing citizen or permanent-resident access benefit because the bill creates a bright-line ownership and guarantor test for SBA-backed financing and reserves those loan programs for specified immigration statuses.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Asylee entrepreneurs, refugee entrepreneurs, nonimmigrant visa-holder business owners, DACA recipient entrepreneurs, undocumented small-business owners, mixed-ownership small businesses, lawful permanent residents who must provide alien registration numbers, SBA loan applicants, SBA lenders, and the Small Business Administration bear burdens because applications must collect additional data, verify ownership and guarantor status, document alien registration numbers, reject incomplete filings, and deny loans to firms with any direct or indirect ineligible owner.
Key Provisions
- Requires SBA 7(a) and 504 loan applications to collect dates of birth for individual applicants and individual owners.
- Requires citizenship or lawful-permanent-resident certification for individual applicants, applicant concerns, and guarantors.
- Requires lawful permanent resident applicants and owners to provide alien registration numbers.
- Prohibits loans when applications lack required information or when a concern has any direct or indirect ineligible owner.
- Defines ineligible persons to include asylees, refugees, visa holders, nonimmigrants, DACA recipients, and people without lawful status.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires SBA 7(a) and 504 loan applications to collect citizenship-status documentation, limits eligible individual applicants, owners, and guarantors to U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or lawful permanent residents, and makes asylees, refugees, nonimmigrant visa holders, DACA recipients, and people without lawful status ineligible.
Key Policy Areas
Small Business, Immigration, Federal Benefits
Primary Purpose
Requires SBA 7(a) and 504 loan applications to collect citizenship-status documentation, limits eligible individual applicants, owners, and guarantors to U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or lawful permanent residents, and makes asylees, refugees, nonimmigrant visa holders, DACA recipients, and people without lawful status ineligible.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- U.S. citizen entrepreneurs
- U.S. national entrepreneurs
- Lawful permanent resident entrepreneurs
- SBA lenders seeking clearer eligibility screens
- SBA loan-review staff
- Competing small businesses owned by eligible individuals
- Policymakers prioritizing citizen access
Identified Costs
- Asylee entrepreneurs
- Refugee entrepreneurs
- Nonimmigrant visa-holder business owners
- DACA recipient entrepreneurs
- Undocumented small-business owners
- Mixed-ownership small businesses
- Lawful permanent residents
- SBA loan applicants
- SBA lenders
- Small Business Administration
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
Passed HouseReceived; read twice and referred to the Committee on Small …
Passed House (inferred from eh version)
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the …
Ms. Van Duyne (for herself and Mr. Cloud) introduced the …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Asylee entrepreneurs, DACA recipient entrepreneurs, Lawful permanent resident entrepreneurs
Positive-direction: Lawful permanent resident entrepreneurs, U.S. citizen entrepreneurs, U.S. national entrepreneurs
Negative-direction: Asylee entrepreneurs, DACA recipient entrepreneurs, Mixed-ownership small businesses, Nonimmigrant visa-holder business owners, Refugee entrepreneurs, Undocumented small-business owners
On Passage
American Entrepreneurs First Act
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "administrator"
- → Administrator of the Small Business Administration
- "ineligible_person"
- → asylee, refugee, visa holder, nonimmigrant, DACA recipient, or person without lawful status
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology