The Collateral Consequences Resources Center submitted a statement for the record ahead of tomorrow’s hearing before the Subcommittee on Diversity & Inclusion of the House Committee on Financial Services: “Access Denied: Eliminating Barriers and Increasing Economic Opportunity for Justice-Involved Individuals.” The CCRC statement recommends that Congress conduct oversight on criminal history restrictions in federally sponsored small business lending policies, and facilitate access to these resources for small businesses owned by justice-impacted individuals.

CCRC’s statement describes some of its research about the the U.S. Small Business Association’s (SBA) criminal history policies and identifies the following concerns:

• The SBA’s extensive criminal history restrictions are not provided by statute.
• Many of the SBA’s criminal history restrictions are also not included in its published regulations.
• The SBA’s criminal history restrictions are overbroad and lack specific justification.
• The SBA’s criminal history restrictions have racially disparate impacts.

You can read the statement here.