Hi Ryan!
Always double check the specific Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), but in general references do not count against your page limit and will be uploaded separately on the online submission platform at time of submission. For NIH, some general page limit information can be found here, and equally for NSF SBIR’s, there is no established page limitation for the references, but you must only include bibliographic citations, and no additional information outside of the 15-page Project Description.
If you are writing for another agency or FOA, let us know and we can help out!
-Wout