Appropriations Committee Increases Budget for Small Business Programs

WASHINGTON, July 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United States Senate
Appropriations Committee yesterday passed the Financial Services
Appropriations Bill, which includes $697 million in funding for the Small
Business Administration (SBA) and its core finance and counseling programs for
small businesses. It is a more than $150 million increase from last year.
Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair Mary Landrieu, D-La.,
who is also a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's Financial
Services Subcommittee, and Ranking Member Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, worked
with the Appropriations Committee to raise these funding levels.

"The SBA is the only agency dedicated to helping our entrepreneurs, and in
this tough economy small businesses need the SBA's programs more than ever,"
Sen. Landrieu said. "Yet, the agency's funding has been cut more than any
other agency in the last eight years. We can't reverse this trend overnight,
but this bill goes a long way in rebuilding core programs. The funding will
allow the agency to back additional loans to entrepreneurs, provide technical
assistance to struggling businesses and help ensure that small businesses have
the resources needed to create jobs and help America get back on its feet."

"During these challenging economic times, it is critical that the SBA receives
the resources necessary to adequately support America's entrepreneurs, who
will lead our economy's recovery," said Ranking Member Snowe. "We are
extremely grateful the Appropriations Committee provided a $22 million
increase for the SBA over the President's request, and I look forward to
working with the Committee to bolster this amount to ensure that programs like
SBDCs, Women's Business Centers, SCORE, veteran entrepreneurs, HUBZones and
Procurement Center Representatives receive appropriate support to effectively
assist our nation's innovative small businesses."

In addition to the $697 million, the bill also includes $104 million for the
SBA Disaster Loan Program to leverage more than $1 billion in loans. Sens.
Landrieu and Snowe championed disaster reforms as part of the 2008 Farm Bill,
including one of Sen. Landrieu's pilot programs for which this budget includes
funding - the Expedited Disaster Assistance Program. Sen. Landrieu advocated
for this program following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This bridge loan
program provides short-term financing of up to $150,000 to businesses to help
them make repairs, pay their employees and purchase inventory after being hit
by catastrophic disasters. Additionally, the program expedites loan processing
to speed up recovery efforts. This pilot program, along with another disaster
pilot program, received $1.69 million in funding in this bill.

The bill also directs the SBA to fill vacant positions in local SBA district
offices and the Department of Commerce's export assistance centers -
specifically positions in offices that survived severe staff cuts over the
last eight years and are now seeing a rise in need because of the recession.
Out of the 109 Commerce export assistance centers nationwide, there are
currently 17 International Finance Specialists - down from 22 in 2003.
Although short staffed, these centers facilitated more than $10 billion in
exports in the last 10 years, helping to create 140,000 new and higher-paying
jobs.

The bill also provides:

Capital Programs
-- $80 million for the 7(a) loan program - the SBA's largest loan
program - to back $17.5 billion in loans and keep fees low;

-- $3 million to back $25 million in microloans, which allows
intermediaries to provide small loans to entrepreneurs and start-ups,
helping to create or retain close to 10,000 jobs last year (a
$500,000,
or 20 percent, increase from last year);

Contracting and Counseling Programs
-- $2 million in funding for the Federal and State Technology Partnership
(FAST) program. This program provides matching funds for states to
increase the awareness and success in applying for and winning Small
Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology
Transfer (STTR) awards. This would help spur small business
technological innovation for firms working with the Louisiana Business
& Technology Center at Louisiana State University (LSU) and the
Technology Business Development Center at Louisiana Tech University,
as
well as the Maine Technology Institute (MTI) (First time to receive
funding since FY2004);
-- $114.4 million for Small Business Development Centers (SBDC),
necessary
to address an increased demand for counseling services (a $4.4
million,
or 4 percent, increase from last year);
-- $5.5 million for the PRIME program, which provides training and
business
assistance to low-income entrepreneurs with very small businesses (a
$500,000, or 10 percent, increase from last year);
-- $7 million for the SCORE program, which provides one-on-one counseling
to small business owners through the use of experienced volunteers (a
$2
million, or 40 percent, increase from last year);
-- $3.4 million for the 7(j) technical assistance program, which provides
small disadvantaged businesses with training in financing, business
development, management, accounting and marketing (a $1.02 million, or
43 percent, increase from last year);
-- $14.3 million for Women's Business Centers. Women-owned firms
employ 7.3 million workers and create $1.1 trillion in revenue (a
$550,000, or 4 percent, increase from last year);
-- $2.5 million for Veterans programs (a $1.3 million, or 108 percent,
increase from last year);
-- $1.5 million for the Native American Outreach program (a $467,000, or
45
percent, increase from last year); and

-- $3 million for the Historically Underutilized Business Zones program
(HUBZones), which creates incentives for contracting with small firms
to
create jobs in underserved communities (an $850,000, or 40 percent,
increase from last year).

SOURCE U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship

Vicki Ekstrom, +1-202-224-9431, Victoria_Ekstrom@sbc.senate.gov, or Matthew
Berger, +1-202-224-8493, Matthew_Berger@sbc.senate.gov, both of U.S. Senate
Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship