The bill
Small Business Technological Act of 2025
S. 305, 119th Congress — read as touching AI & Cloud Infrastructure.
Sponsored by
Sen. Young, Todd [R-IN]
ID: Y000064
Follow the money
The bill
S. 305, 119th Congress — read as touching AI & Cloud Infrastructure.
The sponsor
Every bill has someone who introduced it. That name is where the paper trail starts.
The money
20 itemised contributions to this sponsor, pulled from FEC filings.
The alignment
This bill's text tracks the "Introduction" section, p. 789-791 of the Mandate for Leadership.
Track this bill's progress through the legislative process
Latest Action
Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Hearings held.
May 20, 2025
📍 Current Status
Next: The bill moves to the floor for full chamber debate and voting.
1. Introduction: A member of Congress introduces a bill in either the House or Senate.
2. Committee Review: The bill is sent to relevant committees for study, hearings, and revisions.
3. Floor Action: If approved by committee, the bill goes to the full chamber for debate and voting.
4. Other Chamber: If passed, the bill moves to the other chamber (House or Senate) for the same process.
5. Conference: If both chambers pass different versions, a conference committee reconciles the differences.
6. Presidential Action: The President can sign the bill into law, veto it, or take no action.
7. Became Law: If signed (or if Congress overrides a veto), the bill becomes law!
Another masterpiece of legislative theater, brought to you by the esteemed members of Congress. Let's dissect this farce and expose the underlying disease.
**Main Purpose & Objectives:** The Small Business Technological Act of 2025 is a cleverly crafted bill that claims to help small businesses access modern business software through loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA). How noble. In reality, it's just another excuse for politicians to grandstand and pretend they care about small businesses while lining their own pockets.
**Key Provisions & Changes to Existing Law:** The bill amends Section 7(a) of the Small Business Act to allow SBA loans to finance business software or cloud computing services. Wow, what a groundbreaking innovation. It's not like this is something that could've been done through existing programs or private sector initiatives. The "rule of construction" section is particularly amusing, as it attempts to retroactively justify previous loans made for similar purposes and ensure that the new provision doesn't limit the definition of working capital. Because, you know, Congress needs to cover its own behind.
**Affected Parties & Stakeholders:** Small businesses, software companies, cloud computing providers, and the SBA will all be affected by this bill. But let's not forget the real stakeholders: the politicians who sponsored this bill (Young, Rosen, Budd, Shaheen, and Hickenlooper) and their buddies in the tech industry who'll reap the benefits of these loans.
**Potential Impact & Implications:** This bill is a classic case of "solution in search of a problem." It's a thinly veiled attempt to funnel taxpayer money into the pockets of tech companies and their lobbyists. The real impact will be on small businesses, which will be saddled with debt and forced to adopt software solutions they may not need or want. Meanwhile, the politicians will tout this bill as a success, claiming they've "helped" small businesses, while actually perpetuating a cycle of dependency and crony capitalism.
Diagnosis: This bill is suffering from a severe case of " Politician-itis," characterized by symptoms such as:
* Grandstanding and self-aggrandizement * Misdirection and obfuscation * Cronyism and favoritism towards special interest groups * A complete disregard for the actual needs and well-being of small businesses
Treatment: A healthy dose of skepticism, a strong stomach, and a willingness to call out the politicians on their nonsense. Unfortunately, this bill will likely pass with flying colors, as our esteemed lawmakers are more concerned with appearances than actual substance.
Sen. Young, Todd [R-IN]
Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle
No PAC contributions found
No organization contributions found
No committee contributions found
This bill has 4 cosponsors. Below are their top campaign contributors.
ID: R000608
Top Contributors
10
ID: B001305
Top Contributors
10
ID: S001181
Top Contributors
10
ID: H000273
Top Contributors
10
Hub layout: Politicians in center, donors arranged by type in rings around them.
Showing 64 nodes and 32 connections (48 secondary connections hidden)
Total contributions: $177,918
Showing top 20 donors by contribution amount
Which industries are materially affected by specific provisions in this bill. 3 helped.
Section 2(a) adds a new use for SBA 7(a) loans to finance business software or cloud computing services, including tools that utilize artificial intelligence, directly benefiting AI & cloud infrastructure providers.
Section 2(a) authorizes SBA loans for business software that facilitates sales and billing functions, which benefits e-commerce and online retail platforms that rely on such software.
Section 2(a) includes cloud computing services and AI tools as eligible loan uses, which advantages large tech platforms that provide these services (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud).
For each industry this bill affects, here's what the sponsor (Sen. Young, Todd [R-IN])received from donors associated with that industry during the 2022–present cycles. Donations are not proof of intent — they are a record of who funds the people writing the law.
This bill shows semantic similarity to the following sections of the Project 2025 policy document.
— 757 — Small Business Administration largely duplicates private-sector venture capital to the extent that the sector receiving much of its support is software and information technology, which already receive the lion’s share of venture capital investment.65 In addition, Congress should reform the SBIC program to make its financing more favorable to capital-intense investments and small manufacturers. The Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection, and Schools (HEALS) Act, introduced in 2020,66 and American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, introduced in 2021,67 would allow SBIC to offer longer-term financing to manufacturers and make the program more fiscally sustainable. Small-Business Size Standard Modernization. Many small-business pro- grams both inside and outside the SBA use the SBA’s definition of “small business.” Under the Small Business Act, the SBA is tasked with defining what counts as a small business and ensuring that the definition varies from industry to industry to reflect differences in regular size by industry. However, the SBA’s small-business size standards reflect a one-size-fits-all approach under which all businesses within its size standard are considered small businesses for all eligible purposes, from gov- ernment contracting preferences to eligibility for SBA loans through private banks. At the same time, the SBA is an outlier among competing economies in not considering medium-sized enterprises along with small businesses, often referred to collectively as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Medium-sized and regional businesses are increasingly critical to maintaining competition. The next Administration should: l Encourage Congress to create a “medium-sized business” classification with its eligibility for programs confined to access to capital programs from projects for which credit elsewhere does not exist. SBA POLICY PRIORITIES FOR 2025 AND BEYOND Legislation. The new Administration can support SBA reform legislation pro- posed in Congress that aligns with key measures outlined in this chapter. It also can support legislative initiatives that would help SBA to focus on its core statutory activities such as capital access, federal contracting opportunities, and regulatory advocacy. For example: l The IMPROVE the SBA Act68 would strengthen accountability, transparency, and oversight of the SBA and aligns with many of the reforms outlined in this chapter. — 758 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise l The Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act69 would require federal agencies to perform more thorough RFA economic analysis and provide a rationale for proposed regulations. It also would waive fines for certain first-time paperwork violations. l The Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act70 (SBREFA) panel process allows small businesses to provide input on agency rulemakings, gives participating small businesses greater procedural rights, and allows for judicial review of agency violations of the SBREFA panel process. SBREFA panel requirements should be extended to all federal agencies. l The Fair and Open Competition Act71 would disallow the use of project labor agreements (PLAs) in federal contracting as required in President Biden’s Executive Order 14063,72 which puts small businesses at a competitive disadvantage and works against the SBA’s governmentwide contracting goal for small businesses. l The JOBS Act 4.073 would advance regulatory improvements and modernization of various Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules to enhance capital formation and access. ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES AND BUDGET Administrator and Key Staff. The position of Administrator should not be considered a symbolic or messaging-related position as some past Administrations have viewed it. Rather, the Administrator should have the requisite experience, skills, and knowledge to ensure that the SBA fulfills its statutory authorities. Because much of the SBA’s statutory authority relates to financing and reg- ulatory policy, and in order to make the SBA a more effective agency within the Administration, the Administrator and his or her key staff should have experience in small-business finance and investment and/or administrative law. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the SBA was often forced to outsource key deci- sions and administrative follow-through to the Department of the Treasury. The SBA Administrator and leadership team must share the President’s mission and vision and execute the Administration’s policies effectively. Budget The next Administration should undertake a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of its various loan and grant programs and provide a report to Congress within six months. The report should rank programs by cost-effective- ness. In the interim, the roughly $1 billion overall agency budget should be held constant until the report is considered, after which Congress should terminate
Policy matches are calculated using semantic similarity between bill summaries and Project 2025 policy text. A score of 60% or higher indicates meaningful thematic overlap. This does not imply direct causation or intent, but highlights areas where legislation aligns with Project 2025 policy objectives.