I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2027
To require the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to relocate
30 percent of the employees assigned to headquarters to duty stations
outside the Washington metropolitan area, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH11, 2025
Mr. A
LFORDintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Small Business
A BILL
To require the Administrator of the Small Business Adminis-
tration to relocate 30 percent of the employees assigned
to headquarters to duty stations outside the Washington
metropolitan area, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Returning SBA to 4
Main Street Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
In this Act: 7
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(1) ADMINISTRATION; ADMINISTRATOR.—The 1
terms ‘‘Administration’’ and ‘‘Administrator’’ mean 2
the Small Business Administration and the Adminis-3
trator thereof, respectively. 4
(2) B
UDGET JUSTIFICATION MATERIALS .—The 5
term ‘‘budget justification materials’’ has the mean-6
ing given that term in section 3(b)(2)(A) of the Fed-7
eral Funding Accountability and Transparency Act 8
of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note). 9
(3) E
MPLOYEE.—The term ‘‘employee’’ has the 10
meaning given that term in section 2105 of title 5, 11
United States Code. 12
(4) H
EADQUARTERS EMPLOYEE OF THE ADMIN -13
ISTRATION.—The term ‘‘headquarters employee of 14
the Administration’’ means— 15
(A) an employee of the Administration 16
whose permanent duty station is at the head-17
quarters of the Administration; or 18
(B) an employee of the Administration— 19
(i) who teleworks on a full-time basis; 20
and 21
(ii) whose rate of pay is calculated 22
based on the Washington metropolitan 23
area rate of pay. 24
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(5) HEADQUARTERS OF THE ADMINISTRA -1
TION.—The term ‘‘headquarters of the Administra-2
tion’’ means the building serving as the principal 3
managerial and administrative center of the Admin-4
istration, in accordance with section 4(a) of the 5
Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 633(a)). 6
(6) P
AY LOCALITY.—The term ‘‘pay locality’’ 7
has the meaning given that term in section 5302 of 8
title 5, United States Code. 9
(7) R
URAL.—The term ‘‘rural’’ means any area 10
that is not designated as an urban area, based on 11
the most recent data available from the Bureau of 12
the Census. 13
(8) T
ELEWORK.—The term ‘‘telework’’ has the 14
meaning given that term in section 6501 of title 5, 15
United States Code. 16
(9) T
ELEWORK ON A FULL -TIME BASIS.—The 17
term ‘‘telework on a full-time basis’’ means that an 18
employee is authorized to telework for 100 percent 19
of the work days of the employee per pay period. 20
(10) W
ASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AREA .—The 21
term ‘‘Washington metropolitan area’’ means the ge-22
ographic area to which the Washington metropolitan 23
area rate of pay applies. 24
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(11) WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AREA RATE 1
OF PAY.—The term ‘‘Washington metropolitan area 2
rate of pay’’ means the rate of pay in effect for the 3
pay locality designated as ‘‘Washington-Baltimore- 4
Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA’’. 5
SEC. 3. RELOCATION OF EMPLOYEE. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-7
sions of law, and not later than 1 year after the date of 8
enactment of this Act, if the Administrator determines 9
that implementing the requirements under paragraphs (1) 10
and (2) of this subsection will reduce the cost to the Fed-11
eral Government (which determination the Administrator 12
shall explain in detail in the report required under sub-13
section (d) of this section) the Administrator shall— 14
(1) change the permanent duty station of not 15
less than 30 percent of the headquarters employees 16
of the Administration, as of the date of enactment 17
of this Act, to be at an office of the Administration 18
at a location outside the Washington metropolitan 19
area, which shall be at locations throughout the re-20
gions of the Administration; and 21
(2) for each employee of the Administration 22
whose permanent duty station is changed under 23
paragraph (1), ensure that— 24
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(A) the rate of pay of the employee is cal-1
culated based on the pay locality for the perma-2
nent duty station of the employee; and 3
(B) the employee is not authorized to 4
telework on a full-time basis. 5
(b) D
ETERMINATION OF NEWDUTYSTATIONS.—In 6
determining the permanent duty stations of headquarters 7
employees of the Administration under subsection (a)(1), 8
the Administrator shall— 9
(1) promote geographic diversity, including con-10
sideration of rural markets; and 11
(2) ensure adequate staffing throughout the re-12
gions of the Administration, to promote in-person 13
customer service. 14
(c) D
ETERMINATION OF EMPLOYEESELIGIBLE FOR 15
ACHANGE INDUTYSTATION.— 16
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-17
graph (2), the Administrator shall include each 18
headquarters employee of the Administration as eli-19
gible for a change in permanent duty station under 20
subsection (a). 21
(2) E
XCEPTION.—A headquarters employee of 22
the Administration who is a qualified individual who 23
receives an accommodation to telework on a full-time 24
basis as a reasonable accommodation under title I of 25
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the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 1
U.S.C. 12111 et seq.)— 2
(A) shall not be determined to be eligible 3
for a change in permanent duty station under 4
subsection (a); and 5
(B) shall be counted as a headquarters em-6
ployee of the Administration for purposes of 7
complying with subsection (a)(1). 8
(3) N
OTICE OF DETERMINATION OF ELIGI -9
BILITY.—Not later than the day before the date on 10
which the Administrator submits the report required 11
under subsection (d), the Administrator shall notify 12
each headquarters employee of the Administration 13
who the Administrator determines is eligible for a 14
change in permanent duty station under subsection 15
(a) of that determination. 16
(d) R
EPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the date 17
of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall submit 18
to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneur-19
ship of the Senate and the Committee on Small Business 20
of the House of Representatives a report that provides— 21
(1) the number of headquarters employees of 22
the Administration, as of the date of enactment of 23
this Act; 24
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(2) the number of headquarters employees of 1
the Administration identified as eligible for a change 2
in permanent duty station, in accordance with sub-3
section (c); 4
(3) the number of headquarters employees of 5
the Administration whose permanent duty station 6
will be changed to be at an office of the Administra-7
tion at a location outside the Washington metropoli-8
tan area under subsection (a); 9
(4) the number of headquarters employees of 10
the Administration subject to an exception under 11
subsection (c)(2); and 12
(5) the plan of the Administrator to implement 13
subsection (a). 14
(e) I
MPLEMENTATION.— 15
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not earlier than 60 days, 16
and not later than 90 days, after the date on which 17
the Administrator submits the report required under 18
subsection (d), the Administrator shall notify each 19
headquarters employee of the Administration whose 20
permanent duty station will be changed to be at an 21
office of the Administration located outside the 22
Washington metropolitan area under subsection 23
(a)— 24
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(A) that, effective 90 days after the date 1
of the notification— 2
(i) the permanent duty station of the 3
employee shall be changed; 4
(ii) the rate of pay of the employee 5
shall be calculated based on the pay local-6
ity for such permanent duty station; and 7
(iii) the employee shall not be author-8
ized to telework on a full-time basis; and 9
(B) of the location of such permanent duty 10
station. 11
(2) F
ULL-TIME TELEWORKERS REMAINING IN 12
THE WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AREA .— 13
(A) I
N GENERAL.—For any employee de-14
scribed in subparagraph (B), effective on the 15
date that is 180 days after the date on which 16
the Administrator submits the report required 17
under subsection (d), the employee shall not be 18
authorized to telework on a full-time basis. 19
(B) E
MPLOYEES COVERED .—An employee 20
described in this subparagraph is a head-21
quarters employee of the Administration— 22
(i) who teleworks on a full-time basis, 23
as of the date of enactment of this Act; 24
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(ii) who is not subject to an exception 1
under subsection (c)(2); and 2
(iii) whose permanent duty station is 3
not changed to be an office of the Adminis-4
tration at a location outside the Wash-5
ington metropolitan area under subsection 6
(a). 7
(3) N
O RELOCATION INCENTIVES .—If, pursuant 8
to this Act, the official worksite (as defined in sec-9
tion 531.602 of title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, 10
or any successor regulation) of an employee changes 11
from the residence of the employee to the head-12
quarters of the Administration, notwithstanding any 13
other provision of law, the employee shall not be 14
paid any relocation incentive. 15
SEC. 4. REDUCTION IN HEADQUARTERS OFFICE SPACE. 16
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Administrator shall reduce 17
the amount of office space for the headquarters of the Ad-18
ministration by not less than 30 percent. 19
(b) I
MPLEMENTATION.—The Administrator shall— 20
(1) begin reducing office space under subsection 21
(a) not later than 180 days after the date of enact-22
ment of this Act; and 23
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(2) complete the reduction of office space re-1
quired under subsection (a) not later than 2 years 2
after the date of enactment of this Act. 3
SEC. 5. INFORMATION INCLUDED IN BUDGET JUSTIFICA-4
TION MATERIALS PROVIDED TO CONGRESS. 5
The Administrator shall include in the first budget 6
justification materials of the Administration submitted 7
after the date of enactment of this Act, and the budget 8
justification materials of the Administration for each fiscal 9
year thereafter— 10
(1) the number of headquarters employees of 11
the Administration; 12
(2) the number of employees of the Administra-13
tion assigned to a permanent duty station in— 14
(A) a field office of the Administration; 15
(B) a district office of the Administration; 16
or 17
(C) a regional office of the Administration; 18
(3) the number of employees of the Administra-19
tion who telework on a full-time basis; and 20
(4) the number of employees of the Administra-21
tion who are a qualified individual who receives an 22
accommodation to telework on a full-time basis as a 23
reasonable accommodation under title I of the Amer-24
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icans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 1
12111 et seq.). 2
SEC. 6. SEVERABILITY. 3
If any provision of this Act or the application of such 4
provision to any person or circumstance is held to be un-5
constitutional, the remainder of this Act and the applica-6
tion of the provision to any other person or circumstance 7
shall not be affected thereby. 8
SEC. 7. SUPERSESSION. 9
This Act shall supersede any other provision of law 10
and any provision of a collective bargaining agreement or 11
master labor agreement. 12
SEC. 8. NO PRIVATE CAUSE OF ACTION. 13
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to establish 14
a private cause of action, equitable or otherwise, to chal-15
lenge any selection, change, or decision made, or action 16
taken, under this Act. 17
Æ
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