|
SBC Omnibus small biz
(U.S. Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) BC-SBC-Omnibus-small-biz
To: POLITICAL EDITORS
Contact: Vicki Ekstrom, +1-202-224-9431, Victoria_Ekstrom@sbc.senate.gov;
or Richard Carbo, +1-202-224-3655, Richard_Carbo@sbc.senate.gov, both of the
Office of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Funding increase shows importance of small businesses in creating jobs and
growing America's economy
WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- U.S. Senate Committee on
Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair and Appropriations Committee member
Mary Landrieu, D-La., today praised the Senate's passage of the FY2010 Omnibus
Appropriations Bill, which contains significant increases - that she fought
for - for small business resources. The bill increases funding for the Small
Business Administration (SBA) to $824 million - up $211.7 million in
non-Recovery Act funding from FY2009.
"With small businesses creating 64 percent of all new jobs in the last 15
years, it is clear they are a key part of our country's economic recovery,"
Chair Landrieu said. "Now that we have saved Wall Street, it is time to
jumpstart Main Street. This increase in funding for vital small business
programs will give small firms the tools they need to save and create jobs and
help our economy return to fiscal prosperity."
The bill includes $76.5 million to administer the SBA Disaster Loan
Program, which has sufficient carry-over funds to allow the Agency to make
more than $1 billion in disaster loans in FY2010. Sen. Landrieu championed
disaster reforms as part of the 2008 Farm Bill, including one of Sen.
Landrieu's pilot programs for which this bill includes funding - the Expedited
Disaster Assistance Program. This bridge loan program provides short-term
financing to Pioneer businesses to help them start the recovery process as
soon as possible after a disaster until longer-term financing is disbursed.
The program also expedites loan processing to speed up recovery efforts for
businesses vital to recovery such as hardware stores, gas stations, and debris
removal services. This pilot program, along with another disaster pilot
program, received $1.69 million in funding in this bill.
Additionally, the FY2010 Omnibus provides:
Capital Programs
-- SBA the authority to back $17.5 billion in 7(a) loans, $7.5 billion in
504 loans, and contains $80 million in appropriations to prevent an
increase in 7(a) participant fees--a key component to keeping SBA
lenders in the program making loans to businesses, and key to making
the capital affordable for businesses. The 7(a) and 504 loan programs
are the largest sources of long-term capital for small businesses and
helped to create nearly $525,000 jobs this fiscal year, according to
the Small Business Administration;
-- $3 million in funding (an increase from $2.5 million in FY09) to
leverage more than $25 million in microloans. Because of an increased
counseling demand from micro-borrowers, the bill also increases the
grant to loan ratio to microloan intermediaries and supports $22
million in technical assistance (an increase from last year's $20
million); and
-- SBA the authority to back $3 billion for the Small Business Investment
Company Program (SBIC), an initiative that helped powerful job
creators like FedEx and Intel when traditional investors turned them
away.
Counseling and Contracting Programs
-- For the first time since 2004, the bill provides funding for the
Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership Program, which
increases small businesses' participation in the Small Business
Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer
(STTR) programs. The bill provides $2 million for FAST;
-- $2.5 million for the Veterans' Programs, and the bill encourages the
SBA to consider funding certain successful veterans' business outreach
centers. This is an increase from $1.2 million for FY09 and is
critical for returning veterans;
-- $113 million (up from $110 million) for Small Business Development
Centers (SBDCs). The funding is necessary to address an increased
demand for counseling services;
-- $14 million (up from $13.75 million) for Women's Business Centers and
$1 million (up from 775,000) for the Women's Business Council. In
2008, 7.2 million firms were owned by women. These firms employed 7.3
million workers and created $1.1 trillion in revenue;
-- $8 million (up from $5 million) for the Program for the Investment in
Microentrepreneurs (PRIME), which provides training and business
assistance to low-income entrepreneurs with very small businesses;
-- $3.4 million (up from $2.38 million) for the 7(j) technical assistance
program, which provides small disadvantaged businesses with training
in financing, business development, management, accounting and
marketing;
-- $7 million (up from $5 million) for SCORE program, which provides
one-on-one counseling to small business owners through the use of
experienced volunteers;
-- $1.25 million for Native American Outreach (up from $1.033 million);
-- $2.2 million (up from $2.15 million) for the Historically
Underutilized Business Zones program (HUBZones), which creates
incentives for contracting with small firms to create jobs in
underserved communities; and
-- $10 million for the Administrator's new Entrepreneurial Development
Initiative, which will align SBA's resources and expertise with its
counseling partners to target intensive counseling in areas with high
concentrations of job loss or areas poised to grow, such as the auto,
manufacturing and clean energy industries.
SOURCE U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship
-0-
(c) 2009 U.S. Newswire Corp.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
TMCnet LOGIN
Webinars
