President Obama announced that he is elevating the head of the Small Business Administration (SBA) to a Cabinet-level position, as he urged Congress to also grant him permission to consolidate that and other federal agencies in an attempt to make government more efficient.
The decision to bring SBA Administrator Karen Mills into Obama’s Cabinet does not need congressional approval. However, Obama’s much broader proposal to merge overlapping agencies does. Obama appealed to Congress on Friday to help make that happen.
“This is the same sort of authority that every business owner has to be sure that his or her company keeps pace with the times,” Obama said. “Let me be clear, I will only use this authority for reforms that result in more efficiency, better service and leaner government.”
“Having Karen Mills among the President’s key decision makers is great news for lenders committed to the SBA lending programs,” commented David Glanville, a regional loan originator for ValueXpress. “There is concern about where the SBA is going to find itself under the President’s proposal to merge six major trade and commerce agencies to create efficiency. The appointment of Mills to the Cabinet implies the SBA will have a major role in the merger of the agencies.”