[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1412 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1412

 To establish a temporary program under which emergency loans are made 
     to small businesses that are nonprofit child care businesses.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 8, 2007

 Mr. Jefferson (for himself, Mr. Taylor, Ms. Norton, Mr. Ellison, and 
Ms. Corrine Brown of Florida) introduced the following bill; which was 
              referred to the Committee on Small Business

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To establish a temporary program under which emergency loans are made 
     to small businesses that are nonprofit child care businesses.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Emergency Child Care Lending for the 
Gulf Coast Act of 2007''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Census reported pre-Katrina that there were--
                    (A) 25,000 two-parent families in New Orleans with 
                children under 18;
                    (B) 26,000 female householders with children under 
                18, and no husband present; and
                    (C) more than 18,000 householders who were more 
                than 65 years old and living alone.
            (2) Studies have stated that reopening child care 
        facilities was crucial for helping parents get back to work and 
        businesses to recover.
            (3) Studies have shown that without available and 
        affordable child care economic recovery will be greatly impeded 
        and lead to a reduction in worker productivity.
            (4) In New Orleans before the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 
        the city had 1,912 day-care slots at 266 licensed centers, but 
        now 80 percent of those centers and 75 percent of those slots 
        are gone.
            (5) The National Association of Child Care Resource and 
        Referral Agencies reported in a study published by the 
        Mississippi State University Early Childhood Institute that 
        between 62 percent to 94 percent of the licensed child care 
        slots in the three coastal counties hardest hit by Hurricanes 
        Katrina and Rita in Mississippi were lost.
            (6) In Jackson County, Mississippi, initial assessment 
        found that one-fourth of the county's licensed centers were 
        damaged beyond repair, representing 11 percent of the county's 
        licensed child care capacity and another 39 percent of centers 
        needed repairs.
            (7) Studies have stated the most effective way to rebuild 
        the child care infrastructure is to--
                    (A) help child care programs in the disaster area 
                reopen as rapidly as was safe by giving priority to 
                licensed early childhood facilities; and
                    (B) recruit, train, and retain child-care 
                professionals.

SEC. 3. EMERGENCY CHILD CARE LENDING PILOT PROGRAM.

    (a) Loans Authorized.--Notwithstanding section 502(1) of the Small 
Business Investment Act of 1958, the proceeds of any loan described in 
section 502 of such Act may be used by the certified development 
company to provide loans to small, nonprofit child care businesses, 
provided that--
            (1) the loan will be used for a sound business purpose that 
        has been approved by the Administrator of the Small Business 
        Administration (hereafter in this section referred to as the 
        Administrator);
            (2) each such business meets the eligibility requirements 
        applicable to for-profit businesses receiving a similar loan, 
        except for status as a for-profit business;
            (3) 1 or more individuals have personally guaranteed the 
        loan;
            (4) the small, non-profit child care business has clear and 
        singular title to the collateral for the loan;
            (5) the small, non-profit child care business has supplied 
        sufficient information supporting the ability to obtain future 
        cash flow from its operations to meet its obligations on the 
        loan and its normal and reasonable operating expenses; and
            (6) have a track record of providing child care services in 
        the presidentially declared disaster areas in the Gulf Coast 
        region.
    (b) Limitation on Volume.--Not more than 3 percent of the total 
number of loans guaranteed in fiscal year 2008 and 2009 under title V 
of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 may be awarded under the 
program described in this section.
    (c) Small, Non-Profit Child Care Business.--For purposes of this 
section, the term ``small, non-profit child care business'' means an 
organization that--
            (1) is described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal 
        Revenue Code of 1986 and exempt from tax under section 501(a) 
        of such Code;
            (2) is primarily engaged in providing child care for 
        infants, toddlers, pre-school, or pre-kindergarten children (or 
        any combination thereof), may provide care for older children 
        when they are not in school, and may offer pre-kindergarten 
        educational programs;
            (3) including its affiliates, has tangible net worth that 
        does not exceed $7,000,000, and has average net income 
        (excluding any carryover losses) for the preceding 2 completed 
        fiscal years that does not exceed $2,500,000; and
            (4) is licensed as a child care provider by the District of 
        Columbia, the insular area, or the State, in which it is 
        located.
    (d) Termination.--No loan shall be made under this section after 
December 30, 2008.
    (e) Reports.--
            (1) Small business administration.--Not later than 3 months 
        after the date of the enactment of this Act, and every 3 months 
        thereafter until September 30, 2008, the Administrator shall 
        submit a report to the Committee on Small Business and 
        Entrepreneurship of the Senate and the Committee on Small 
        Business of the House of Representatives regarding the 
        implementation of the loan program described in this section. 
        Each such report shall include--
                    (A) the date on which the loan program is 
                implemented;
                    (B) the date on which the rules are issued pursuant 
                to subsection (f);
                    (C) the number and dollar amount of loans under the 
                program applied for, approved, and disbursed during the 
                previous 3 months; and
                    (D) the number of loans made to minority-owned 
                firms and to woman-owned firms.
            (2) General accounting office.--Not later than March 31, 
        2009, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit 
        a report to the Committee on Small Business and 
        Entrepreneurship of the Senate and the Committee on Small 
        Business of the House of Representatives regarding the 
        assistance provided under the loan program established by this 
        section. Such report shall include information regarding the 
        first 2 years of the loan program, including--
                    (A) an evaluation of the timeliness of the 
                implementation of the loan program;
                    (B) a description of the effectiveness and ease 
                with which certified development companies, lenders, 
                and small businesses have participated in the loan 
                program;
                    (C) a description and assessment of how the loan 
                program was marketed;
                    (D) by location in total, the number of small, 
                nonprofit child care businesses that--
                            (i) applied for loans under the program 
                        (stated separately for new and expanding child 
                        care providers); and
                            (ii) received loan disbursements under the 
                        program (stated separately for new and 
                        expanding child care providers);
                    (E) the total amount loaned to such businesses 
                under the program;
                    (F) the total number of loans made to such 
                businesses under the program;
                    (G) the average loan amount and term of loans made 
                under the program;
                    (H) the currency rate, delinquencies, defaults, and 
                losses of the loans made under the program;
                    (I) the number and percent of children served 
                through the program who receive subsidized assistance; 
                and
                    (J) the number and percent of children served 
                through the program who are minority or low-income.
            (3) Access to information.--
                    (A) Collection.--The Administrator shall collect 
                and maintain such information as may be necessary to 
                carry out paragraph (2) from certified development 
                centers and child care providers, and such centers and 
                providers shall comply with a request for information 
                from the Administrator for that purpose.
                    (B) Provision of information to gao.--The 
                Administrator shall provide information collected under 
                subparagraph (A) to the Comptroller General of the 
                United States for purposes of the report required by 
                paragraph (2).
    (f) Rulemaking Authority.--Not later than 60 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall issue final rules to 
carry out the loan program authorized by this section.
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