1. United States
2. Mass.
3. Letter

The Trump administration just proposed rewriting "small business" so a $744 million casino qualifies — and gets all the benefits. Engineering services would jump from $25.5 million in yearly revenue to $252 million. Computer systems design goes from $34 million to $531 million. Casinos go from $34 million to $744 million. The proposal also throws out the maximums entirely and hands every single industry a floor of at least 500 employees. About 115,000 companies get newly stamped "small." Roughly 37,000 of them are already federal contractors, holding contracts worth more than $71 billion last fiscal year. By law, 23% of federal contracting dollars are supposed to go to small businesses. Last year that was nearly $273 billion. Nearly 90% of American businesses have fewer than 20 employees. Sam Le, who ran policy and planning at the SBA from 2020 to 2025, called these the biggest size standard changes in history. Smaller firms, he said, would face more competition for contracts and fewer subcontracts, because the larger companies that once had to share the work could now qualify as small and take all of it. Adam Hay runs Valley High Logistics, a freight brokerage in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, that brings in about $3 million a year. The veteran-owned company has never won a federal contract. The threshold in his industry would blow out from $20 million to $259 million, adding 835 companies to his pool. "It's going to make the problem worse," he said. This will decimate opportunities for actual small businesses. Please stop it.