WASHINGTON — The House Small Business Committee has started its work on reauthorizing some of the Small Business Administration's programs.
With the passage of H.R. 1361, the Relief for Entrepreneurs: Coordination of Objectives and Values for Effective Recovery Act of 2007 and H.R. 1332, the Small Business Capital Improvements Act of 2007, the committee said the legislation addresses two of the most pressing problems facing entrepreneurs today–access to disaster assistance and affordable capital.
The Small Business Capital Improvements Act of 2007 aims to make the 7(a) and 504 programs more affordable to borrowers and lenders. It also creates initiatives specially designed to meet the needs of medical providers in underserved areas, as well as Iraq war veterans who have recently returned from deployment.
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The Recovery bill requires SBA to have a comprehensive plan in place for future large-scale disasters that includes hiring staff and coordinating with other agencies, such as FEMA. This legislation also allows private lenders to help process loans when there is heightened need for disaster assistance and creates an SBA grant program for small businesses affected by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Two months into the 110th Congress, the committee said it is working to reauthorize the SBA, which it says has not been fully reauthorized in six years. The proposed legislation could be improved, however, if the bill's initiatives were more accessible and supportive of smaller lenders, CUNA President/CEO Dan Mica wrote in a March 14 letter to the bill's co-sponsors. The CUNA letter reiterated the group's full support of H.R. 1332, a position first stated in CUNA testimony before the committee March 8, as well as for the SBA's 7(a) program.
"As you may recall, our testimony highlighted not only CUNA's strong prior support for the 7(a) Guaranty Loan Program, but also major factors that have prevented larger numbers of credit unions from participating in the program," Mica wrote, referring to problems with the SBA lender qualifying process, as well as for underwriting and servicing individual loans.
He said CUNA strongly supports the bill's provisions that would require SBA to offset fees for both borrowers and lender, to the extent permitted by annual appropriations; provide reauthorization of a rural low documentation loan program, create a permanent Community Express program, and provide a new Increased Veteran Participation Program; and require the SBA to assist its regional offices in providing greater assistance to small lenders who are not regular SBA 7(a) loan participants.
CUNA said the legislation would be improved giving first priority in offsetting 7(a) lender fees to smaller lenders and extending the low documentation program beyond rural areas so that similar assistance from smaller loans by local lenders could be available to small business borrowers in all parts of the nation. –[email protected]
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