[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 144 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 144

To waive certain requirement under the Small Business Act for disaster 
                           relief assistance.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

             January 21 (legislative day, January 5), 1993

  Mr. Inouye introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
              referred to the Committee on Small Business

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To waive certain requirement under the Small Business Act for disaster 
                           relief assistance.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. WAIVER OF REQUIREMENTS.

    Notwithstanding any provision of the Small Business Act, a 
qualifying business that has suffered economic injury as a result of 
Hurricane Andrew, Hurricane Iniki, or Typhoon Omar, shall be eligible 
to apply for and to receive loan assistance in accordance with section 
7(b)(2) of the Small Business Act, without regard to--
            (1) the size of the qualifying business;
            (2) the availability to that business of non-Federal 
        sources of credit; or
            (3) the maximum amount of assistance established under that 
        section or regulations issued thereunder.

SEC. 2. QUALIFYING BUSINESSES.

    For purposes of this Act, a qualifying business is--
            (1) a regulated public utility company, if--
                    (A) the disaster area is more than 1,000 miles from 
                the major sources of materials and supplies necessary 
                to restore the public utility to full operating 
                service;
                    (B) the public utility is not physically connected 
                to any other public utility service that can provide 
                the same type of services to customers of the affected 
                public utility company;
                    (C) the cost to repair, reconstruct, and restore 
                the facilities of the public utility company is equal 
                to not less than 20 percent of the dollar value of its 
                facilities prior to the occurrence of the disaster; and
                    (D) the regulated public utility had not more than 
                500,000 customers at the time of the disaster;
            (2) an interstate transportation service provider operating 
        in the disaster area, if--
                    (A) such provider is the only transportation link 
                to the areas affected by the disaster, other than by 
                carriage over water; and
                    (B) assistance provided in accordance with this Act 
                and section 7(b)(2) of the Small Business Act will be 
                used to finance repair, reconstruction, and restoration 
                of the provider's facilities as they existed prior to 
                the occurrence of the disaster; and
            (3) any communications media business, the facilities of 
        which were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Andrew, Hurricane 
        Iniki, or Typhoon Omar (including all such facilities related 
        to the gathering, printing, or dissemination of information).

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    For purposes of this Act--
            (1) the term ``regulated public utility'' means a 
        corporation engaged in the furnishing of telephone service or 
        in the sale of electrical energy, gas, or water, if the rates 
        for such furnishing or sale, as the case may be, have been 
        established or approved by a State or political subdivision 
        thereof or by an agency or instrumentality of the United States 
        or by a public utility or public service commission or other 
        similar body of the District of Columbia, Guam, or of any State 
        or political subdivision thereof; and
            (2) the term ``disaster area'' means any area affected by a 
        major disaster, as declared by the President in accordance with 
        section 401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 
        Emergency Assistance Act, as a result of the occurrences of 
        Hurricane Andrew, Hurricane Iniki, or Typhoon Omar.

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