REGULATORY RUNDOWN | March 17-31

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Regulatory Rundown: March 17-31, 2025

SBA announces restoration of lender fees to 7(a) loan program. On Mar. 27, the Small Business Administration (SBA) announced the restoration of lender fees to the 7(a) loan program, arguing that the Biden-era waiver of lender fees “reduced the financial integrity of SBA lending programs at the expense of small businesses and taxpayers.”

Lender fees went back into effect on Mar. 24 for Fiscal Year 2025.

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SBA announces agency-wide reorg. On Mar. 21, SBA announced its plans for an agency-wide reorganization and a 43% agency workforce reduction. According to SBA’s announcement, “[c]ore services to the public, including the agency’s loan guarantee and disaster assistance programs, as well as its field and veteran operations, will not be impacted.”

NSBA is monitoring these developments closely.

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Trump imposes 25% tariff on imports of automobiles, certain auto parts. On Mar. 26, President Trump signed a proclamation imposing a 25% tariff on imports of automobiles and certain automobile parts. The tariff will be applied to imported passenger vehicles and light trucks, as well as key auto parts.

According to the White House, importers of automobiles under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) “will be given the opportunity to certify their U.S. content and systems,” whereby the 25% tariff “will only apply to the value of their non-U.S. content.”

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Trump consolidates procurement under GSA. On Mar. 20, President Trump signed an executive order (EO) consolidating domestic federal procurement under the General Services Administration (GSA).

Several days after the issuance of the EO, GSA announced a new initiative “to improve the effectiveness of the Multiple Award Schedule Program by,” among other things, “allowing contracts that fail to meet sales thresholds to expire, addressing contractor non-compliance, [and] reducing redundancies with other procurement channels.”

GSA also announced “FedRAMP 20x,” under which the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) “will focus on working with industry to develop a new, cloud-native approach to authorizations.”

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DOL accepting apps for ’25 HIRE Vets Medallion Award. On Mar. 20, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it is accepting employers’ applications for the 2025 HIRE Vets Medallion Award through Apr. 30, 2025. The annual program recognizes employers “for excellence in the recruitment, hiring, and retention of America’s military veterans.”

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Trump makes pick for NLRB general counsel. President Trump nominated Crystal Carey, a partner at law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, to be National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) general counsel, which was made public in the Congressional Record on Mar. 25.

Carey has been a critic of the Biden-era NLRB, telling board members in Nov. 2024 that she believes they’ve attempted to “completely eliminate the rights of employers” to have conversations with workers about decisions to unionize.

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USPTO reinstates patent-owner friendly precedent. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued new guidance reinstating precedent that eases administrative judges’ ability to reject validity for challenges for patents in parallel infringement suits.

In a Mar. 24 memo accompanying the guidance, acting USPTO director Coke Morgan Stewart described a new interim process splitting decisions on whether to take up validity challenges and other proceedings under the America Invents Act into (1) discretionary considerations and (2) the merits.

The announcement follows the withdrawal of Biden-era guidance curbing discretionary denials.

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Lutnick previews potential trade agreement with UK. On Mar. 19, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with senior UK officials to discuss a potential bilateral trade agreement.

According to a Commerce Department readout of the meeting, Lutnick “laid out his desire, the Trump Administration’s view, that any future agreement will lower barriers for American companies, while creating jobs in both countries and supporting the growth of critical sectors of the economy.”

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