WASHINGTON — The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) plans to extend the public comment period on its proposed overhaul of small-business size standards. The proposal would raise the threshold for drycleaning and laundry services from $35 million to $47 million in average annual receipts.
Comments were originally due Sept. 21 and will now be accepted until Nov. 20. The SBA announced the extension shortly after 13 U.S. senators sent a letter to SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler asking the agency to rescind the proposal.
Senators Seek Withdrawal
Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) led the Sept. 21 letter, and 12 other Democratic senators signed it. The letter objects to the scope of the proposal, which would revise size standards for 338 industry groups, and to the time allowed for public input. The senators wrote that “the SBA is providing only 30 days for public comments, instead of the usual 60 days.”
The letter compares the proposal with the SBA’s current approach. “The 2024 revised size standard methodology capped receipts-based standards at $47 million in annual revenue and employee-based standards at 1,500 employees,” the senators wrote. According to the letter, the highest receipts-based standard under the new proposal would exceed $1 billion, and the highest employee-based standard would reach 3,600 employees.
The SBA has estimated that its changes would newly classify 110,000 to 114,500 firms as “small businesses.” The senators argue that those larger firms would compete with existing small businesses for federal contracts set aside for that classification. According to the letter, more than 37,000 of the businesses that would be reclassified won more than 100,000 federal contracts in fiscal year 2025 without a small-business designation. Those contracts were worth about $71 billion.
“We urge SBA to rescind these proposals, meet in earnest with small businesses across the country, and discuss the proposal and methodology with congressional committees of jurisdiction,” the senators wrote. They called on the agency to develop “measured increases to the size standards that do not reward large, billion-dollar companies.”
SBA’s Position
“Small businesses create the vast majority of new jobs,” Loeffler said in an earlier statement on the proposal. “This proposal ensures that these job creators have the regulatory certainty to scale.”
How to Comment
Drycleaning and laundry businesses fall under NAICS code 8123. Firms that meet the size standard remain eligible for SBA loan programs, federal contracting set-asides and other small-business benefits.
Interested dry cleaners can submit comments through regulations.gov, referencing Federal Register document number 2026-17042. Business owners can check their current industry classification at www.sba.gov/size-standards.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].
