SBA is moving field offices away from major cities, union says

Updated at 4:10 p.m. ET Oct. 26 

The American Federation of Government Employees last week said the Small Business Administration provided notice that the agency intends to relocate certain field offices outside of city centers, which union officials warn could lead to further reductions in SBA’s workforce. 

“Longer and more difficult commutes, particularly when proposed locations are not readily accessible by public transportation, can make it substantially harder for SBA to retain experienced employees,” said AFGE Local 228 President Niklas Gustafsson in a statement. “The result could be a significant loss of institutional knowledge and expertise as employees with years or decades of experience choose to leave rather than accept substantially more burdensome commutes.” 

AFGE, which represents more than 700 SBA employees, said that beginning next year the agency would move the following field offices: Boston to Southborough, Mass., Washington, D.C., to Herndon, Va., Atlanta to Marietta, Ga. and Denver to Englewood, Colo. Union officials also said that SBA is “reportedly considering” relocating offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, San Francisco and Seattle. 

In an Oct. 20 letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Small Business committees, Gustafsson urged Congress to pause the field office moves until SBA conducts and publishes an impact assessment, studies the effects on civil servants and has “meaningful consultation” with the union. 

“Relocation decisions that risk losing experienced employees and reducing public access must be supported by clear evidence that they will improve, rather than undermine, the agency’s ability to fulfill [its] mission,” Gustafsson wrote.

Like many agencies, SBA has been impacted by the Trump administration’s downsizing of the civil service. According to federal workforce data, SBA has shed about 35% of its headcount since 2024, dropping to a little more than 5,000 employees. 

This is not the first time that SBA said it was going to relocate offices from urban areas. In 2025, Administrator Kelly Loeffler said that the agency was planning to move regional offices out of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York City and Seattle because of the cities’ apparent noncompliance with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

SBA similarly cited immigration enforcement, as well as cost savings, as a justification for the moves in a statement to Government Executive.

“The SBA is relocating a handful of field offices into less costly, more accessible communities that comply with federal immigration law,” an agency spokesperson said. “Not only will these new locations come at a lower annual cost to taxpayers; they were specifically chosen to increase accessibility for the vast majority of small business owners that are not located in dense urban centers, empowering the agency to better serve customers in the rural communities that were left behind by the Biden administration.”

Likewise, the House last year passed, largely along party lines, a bill that would require SBA to relocate regional, district and local offices that are in “sanctuary jurisdictions.” The Save SBA from Sanctuary Cities Act (H.R. 2931) would define a sanctuary jurisdiction as any state or city that has a policy that restricts officials from communicating with another governmental entity information about an individual’s citizenship or immigration status or from complying with a request by the Homeland Security Department to detain, or notify about the release of, a migrant.

The measure has not received any legislative action in the Senate. 

This story has been updated with a statement from SBA.