By the Office of U.S. Representative for Kansas Tracey Mann
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, in celebration of National Religious Freedom Day, U.S. Representative Tracey Mann (KS-01) reintroduced the Fair Assistance and Impartial Treatment of Help (FAITH) in Small Business Act. The FAITH in Small Business Act protects the First Amendment rights of small business owners by ensuring that faith-based small businesses have the same access to business loans and programs offered by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) as every other American business regardless of religious status, as the U.S. Constitution requires.
“The very first amendment the Founding Fathers made to the Constitution protected the right of every American to have a faith, live that faith, and change their faith as they please,” said Rep. Mann. “Small business owners should not be forced to choose between expressing their faith in their entrepreneurial efforts or receiving assistance from SBA. It is un-American, unconstitutional, and contrary to our DNA as Americans to limit access to federal resources because of religious beliefs. The FAITH in Small Business Act defends the rights of small business owners to freely practice their religion without fear of persecution or exclusion and ensures they are treated equally by the federal government. I am proud to increase protections for our nation’s faith-based small businesses.”
Faith-based businesses are “businesses principally engaged in teaching, instructing, counseling or indoctrinating religion or religious beliefs, whether in a religious or secular setting.”
Under previous federal regulations, faith-based organizations were not eligible for seven business loan and disaster assistance programs including the Intermediary Lending Program (ILP), Business Loan programs (7(a), Microloan and 504 programs), Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, Military Reservist Economic Injury Disaster Loan (MREIDL) program and Immediate Disaster Assistance Program (IDAP). In January 2021, the Trump Administration’s SBA proposed a rule to eliminate these restrictions consistent with the President’s Executive Order Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty. Rep. Mann’s legislation would codify this rule, protecting the religious freedom of America’s small business owners and creating an equal playing field for religious and non-religious small businesses alike.
