[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2281 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2281

 To establish a temporary program in the Small Business Administration 
 to assist small business concerns by decreasing interest payments for 
                 certain loans, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 6, 2009

    Mr. Kagen (for himself and Mr. Edwards of Texas) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Small Business, 
and in addition to the Committee on Financial Services, for a period to 
      be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
                          committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To establish a temporary program in the Small Business Administration 
 to assist small business concerns by decreasing interest payments for 
                 certain loans, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Small Business Opportunity Act of 
2009''.

SEC. 2. INTEREST PAYMENT ASSISTANCE FOR SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS WITH 
              ELIGIBLE LOANS.

    (a) In General.--To the extent of the funding made available under 
subsection (g), the Administrator of the Small Business Administration 
shall establish and implement a program under which the Administrator 
shall make, for each eligible loan of a small business concern--
            (1) 100 percent of the payment of interest due each billing 
        cycle with respect to such loan, during the period beginning on 
        the effective date of this Act and ending at the conclusion of 
        the first full fiscal year following such date;
            (2) 75 percent of the payment of interest due each billing 
        cycle with respect to such loan, during the second full fiscal 
        year following such date; and
            (3) 50 percent of the payment of interest due each billing 
        cycle with respect to such loan, during the third full fiscal 
        year following such date.
    (b) Termination of Program.--The authority of the Administrator to 
make payments under subsection (a) terminates at the conclusion of the 
third full fiscal year following the effective date of this Act.
    (c) Payments Made to Lender.--The Administrator shall make the 
payments under subsection (a) directly to the financial institution to 
which such payments are due.
    (d) No Forced Reimbursement.--The Administrator may not require a 
small business concern to reimburse a payment appropriately made for 
such concern under subsection (a).
    (e) Interest Rates During Program.--If the interest rate for an 
eligible loan is negotiated subject to a maximum allowable rate imposed 
by the Small Business Administration, the financial institution making 
such loan may treat the interest rate of such loan as the maximum 
allowable rate during the period that the Administrator makes payments 
under subsection (a) with respect to such loan. On the date that the 
Administrator makes the final payment under subsection (a) with respect 
to such loan, the interest rate of such loan shall return to the rate 
originally negotiated.
    (f) Definitions.--In this section, the following definitions apply:
            (1) Eligible loan.--The term ``eligible loan'' means a loan 
        guaranteed by the Small Business Administration and entered 
        into after the effective date of this Act.
            (2) Small business concern.--The term ``small business 
        concern'' has the meaning given such term in section 3 of the 
        Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632).
    (g) Funding.--Of the amounts made available under title I of the 
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-343; 12 
U.S.C. 5201 et seq.), the Secretary of the Treasury shall make 
available to the Administrator of the Small Business Administration the 
amount requested by the Administrator to carry out this section, but 
not to exceed $3,375,000,000, and such amount shall be treated as 
having been made available for activities authorized by such Act.
    (h) Effective Date.--This Act takes effect on the date that is 60 
days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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