WASHINGTON-The Small Business Administration's draft strategic plan for 2003-2008 recognizes the role credit unions can play in helping SBA continue to meet small business needs "in an era of declining resources and increasing expectations." "New ways must be found to use limited resources to serve more small businesses, and to serve them better," the draft of the strategic plan reads. New partners in meeting SBA's goal are credit unions, which were granted broader access to SBA's 7(a) lending program February 14 of this year. Part of SBA's strategic plan is to search for new opportunities to expand small businesses' access to capital by increasing cooperation with the private sector. Under the goal Increase opportunities for starting as successful small business, it reads, "This includes liquidity mechanisms (such as pooling) to broaden the available credit for small businesses, and utilizing credit unions as lending partners."