[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 112 (Wednesday, July 28, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6387-S6388]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    SMALL BUSINESS LENDING FUND ACT

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I am still hopeful we can find a way 
forward. Many things in life are worth fighting for and this bill is 
one of them. I did not know if we would have to fight 12 hours and a 
few days or 12 hours and a month. But we are going to continue to fight 
for a strong small business bill for America.
  It is extremely important that we focus our attention on small 
business and that is what this bill does. We have a bipartisan bill. We 
have had a bipartisan amendment offered by the Republican from Florida, 
Republican George LeMieux, that got on this bill after 12 hours of 
debate. It is a stronger bill because of it.
  Because of a request by Senator Lincoln from Arkansas and, I 
understand, Senator Saxby Chambliss from Georgia, the leader, our 
leader, included at the request of both of them--not one, but both the 
Senator from Georgia and the Senator from Arkansas asked for the farm 
disaster relief to be included. It costs $1.2 billion. The wonderful 
thing about it is it is paid for.
  The status now is we have a very strong bill--$12 billion in tax 
cuts, a small business lending program and credit and collateral 
programs, a strengthening of all the SBA programs, the entire bill is 
paid for, and we have bipartisan support. What could go wrong?
  Something has. I am not sure that I know all the details of it, but I 
do know this bill is worth fighting for. I have been joined by the U.S. 
Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business--I 
am going to submit again the long list of associations supporting this 
bill. I wish I could tell all these organizations that we could get 
this done tonight or in the morning. We have a vote in the morning.
  If we cannot get it done in the morning, and we may, I want the 
leader to know we are going to work hard over the August break because 
small business in America is desperate for a bill such as this, with a 
menu of choices, things that could work for them. We have spent a lot 
of time focused on Main Street.
  We have given a lot of tax credits for big business. We bailed out 
the auto industry. We bailed out Wall Street. Yet when it comes to 
supporting and coming to closure on an extraordinarily good bill for 
small business, we cannot seem to do it because one side wants eight 
amendments and one side wants three? We can't figure that out? Any 
three? Any eight? Even if they are not paid for, people can vote them 
up or down.
  I hope these organizations that have a lot at stake in this bill, our 
community bankers, our realtors, homebuilders--manufacturers have 
worked so hard. Because of the Senator from Montana, something that the 
self-employed wanted--and Senator Durbin has worked on this, actually 
worked for 8 years to put a $2 billion tax break in for the self-
employed so they can get a write-down for their health insurance. They 
worked on that. We tried to get it done on the health care bill and 
could not. Senator Baucus promised the minute we had an opportunity we 
would do that. That is in this bill. So we have a $2 billion tax cut 
for the self-employed, to help them fund insurance for this year.
  We have $10 billion in other targeted tax cuts for small business as 
well as strengthened programs that raise the loan limits, et cetera.
  I think the bill is in great shape. We just need to get it over the 
finish line, and I hope the Senator will continue to fight for it 
because he has and I hope he will continue.
  Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Ms. LANDRIEU. I will yield for a question.
  Mr. DURBIN. She made reference to the fact that the Senator from 
Arkansas, Senator Lincoln, had asked for some agricultural disaster 
assistance which is now included in this bill, and she has represented 
in the Senate that this has bipartisan support?
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Yes.
  Mr. DURBIN. I don't know if the Senator has heard from others that 
they object to her adding this in the bill, but if I am not mistaken, 
we are prepared to take a vote on that on the floor on the agricultural 
disaster assistance, if that is what is being asked of us.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. I thank the Senator for raising that. Although it was 
not said publicly, I have been told privately that there is some strong 
objection on the Republican side for including that. I said I thought 
it was a bipartisan amendment, but if it is not, perhaps something 
could be worked out where we could have a straight up-or-down vote on 
that on the floor. That did not seem to satisfy the critics. Let's wait 
and see. I don't know how to respond other than I have heard that. I 
have said I think there are enough votes on the floor of the Senate, 
Republicans and Democrats, to vote to move that provision with this 
bill. If there is any doubt about it, then let's have a straight up-or-
down vote on it, but we will see.
  Right now, in conclusion, the bill, the package that came to the 
floor, has one amendment offered by Republican LeMieux and Landrieu, 
and the agricultural disaster. That is it. That is what is in this bill 
and it is worthy of a positive vote.
  If there are three or four or other things that need to be amended, 
we should figure that out, but I am prepared to vote to move this bill 
to final passage because it is in excellent shape with bipartisan 
support--although not everybody supports every provision. We most 
certainly have had a very rigorous debate and hopefully we can continue 
to keep this bill in its current form, with maybe a few additions, but 
if not, it is in very good form now, and I yield the floor.
  I will suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Whitehouse). The Senator from Alaska is 
recognized.
  Mr. BEGICH. I appreciate the Senator coming up for a couple of 
minutes while I echo the concerns of the Senator from Louisiana. I 
listened to this debate that was going on for hour after hour and, as a 
new Member, I have to echo what the Senator said.
  The committee worked on it. They worked very hard, and not just the 
last few weeks. For the last year and a half it seems like she has been 
working on this--a good small business package that ensures that the 
small business communities of this country in my State and your State 
and the State of the Presiding Officer can move forward, can advance. 
The Senator did not come to agreement on some, so she came to the 
floor. She worked an amendment and 60 people supported it. That is part 
of the bill now. That is part of the process.
  I don't know about this idea of going behind closed doors and trying 
to work it out when you have done that. You have done the people's 
business in front of the people. That is exactly how, I thought, as a 
new Member of this body, it works. You fight your fight in the 
committee, you win or lose, and then you get a chance down here 
hopefully to offer an amendment. It might pass, it might not pass.
  I think what we have tried to do--and I commend the Senator for it--
in this bill, to echo what the Senator said, is about $12 billion that 
the small business community will not have to pay to the IRS. It will 
save them money. It will get the IRS out of their pockets. This is good 
for small business.
  When they made the comment on their side this might be killing time, 
they are killing small business. Every day we wait to not allow them an 
opportunity to reduce their taxes, to save them money, to give them a 
chance to expand their businesses, is outrageous.
  The second piece, on the loan package, is a great loan package. No 
one is forcing the community banks to do it; it is an option. If they 
do it, they get a lower rate that the small businesses then benefit 
from and create new jobs and more jobs. They are the creators of the 
new economy and long-term economy of this country. Fifty-six percent of 
the employment in my State is from small business. This is a good plan.
  Why they want to go into all these other amendments that have no 
relationship to small business--it is appalling. That is why the 
American people are so mad at Congress, why we have

[[Page S6388]]

an 11-percent popularity rating, because people want to put on their 
special deals so they can say some statements in a campaign, when we 
should be focused on small business. We can all say then we helped save 
this country from another economic collapse because we actually 
invested in the people who build jobs, who work every single day. As we 
sit here and wrangle over a couple of amendments, they are trying to 
make their businesses survive.
  I was not planning to speak. I just got a little agitated. Again, as 
a new Member I get so frustrated with all these political gimmicks they 
want to add on the bills when we should be focused on one thing. Small 
business is what we need to protect. I have been in the small business 
world. I have taken out these 7(a) loans that SBA does. I have dealt 
with the 504 loans. I have seen the impact in my State, tripling the 
amount of small business loans because we made adjustments in the 
Recovery Act that you are now trying to extend. It works. It actually 
creates real jobs.
  For us to sit down here and have the other side come down and say we 
are killing time--they are killing small business every day.
  I got a little agitated. I wanted to come down and say my piece. As a 
person who had my first business license at the age of 16 and still 
continue to have business licenses today--my wife is a small business 
owner--we understand what businesses go through.
  When the chairman of the Finance Committee talked about the 179 
depreciation, accelerate it, that is a huge benefit. If you can write 
off $250,000 in the first year and put in the 30-percent tax bracket, 
that is a $75,000-plus savings, hard cash now that small businesses can 
generate and put into their businesses. I don't know how many people on 
the other side have been in small businesses and have had to struggle 
and deal with their bankers and deal with tax returns and all that. I 
have. These provisions will make a difference and create jobs, not only 
today but in the future.
  I commend the chairwoman for what she is doing. I agree, it is a 
simple solution. Let's move on, save our businesses, save our country, 
and protect the jobs we need to have in this country.
  I will stop there before I go on.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. I wish to speak for 2 minutes to close this out.
  I thank the Senator from Alaska who has been very forceful in his 
advocacy for this bill and for lending the experience he has had, 
before he was a Senator, as a small business owner to help strengthen 
this bill.
  I want to be very clear. As this bill stands right now, this was a 
bipartisan bill when it came out of the Small Business Committee and 
the Finance Committee and it still is a bipartisan bill. The only two 
changes that have been made to this bill we are going to vote on 
tomorrow--the only two that were made to this bill--No. 1 was a 
LeMieux-Landrieu amendment that added a $30 billion small business 
lending fund that was voted on on the floor of this Senate by 60 
Senators, a voluntary small business lending fund that goes only to 
small community banks so they can turn around and lend money to Main 
Street. That is it.
  In addition, the Senator was smart enough to also ask for, and it was 
in that amendment, an antifraud provision to save the taxpayers money 
from people trying to defraud the Federal Government by not using their 
credit cards in the right way when they pay for Medicaid and Medicare 
services. That is an added benefit to the taxpayer.
  The third piece of this amendment, to be very clear, was an expansion 
of an export provision that Senator Snowe and I jointly put on the bill 
that the Senator did with Senator Klobuchar. So all three aspects of 
the LeMieux-Landrieu amendment were jointly supported by Republicans 
and Democrats and debated for 12 hours on this floor, voted on with 60 
votes.
  The other amendment that was added to this bill in late night 
negotiations, which was in public view and public record because it was 
done at about midnight in public view, was that the leader said--at the 
request of both Senator from Arkansas, Senator Lincoln, and the Senator 
from Georgia, Senator Saxby Chambliss--he was going to put in a $1.2 
billion disaster loan provision for farmers, not all but many of whom 
are small businesses.
  I know you might say why is that on this bill. This is a small 
business bill and that is a farming issue. It is an issue important to 
Members on both sides. There are not going to be that many bills passed 
between now and the next few days.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. The farmers are an important constituency. They have 
broad-based support. So that is on this bill. That is it; the bill as 
it came out of Finance, the bill as it came out of Small Business with 
those two amendments--one put in by the leader on the request of 
Democrats and Republicans, another one added by a public vote, by the 
Members of this body. This is a very good bill.
  I do not understand why we cannot have eight or five or three. But I 
want the small business community out there to know, they need to fight 
for this bill in its current form. We can have a debate on nuclear 
policy on an energy bill. We can have a debate on tax extenders on the 
extenders bill. We can have a debate on Tax Code changes on a finance 
bill. But this is a very bipartisan, strongly supported, broad-based 
small business bill that is going to affect every Member in a positive 
way.
  I see my friend from Rhode Island. I do not want to take any more 
time, so I will yield the floor.
  I thank my colleague from Washington State who may speak on this and 
other subjects.
  She has been extraordinary. And she knows. She has built a small 
business that turned out to be quite a big business--very successful. 
So she has been there before, and she understands what businesses need, 
the kind of capital they need to grow.
  I thank both Senators, particularly the Senator from Rhode Island for 
his tremendous support.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Begich.) The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, shortly I will be going into the 
closing script for the evening. But before I do that I wanted to first 
commend the Senator from Louisiana for her tenacity on the subject, 
Senator Cantwell of Washington State, Senator Merkley of Oregon, and 
others who have been equally determined. But Senator Landrieu has been 
the front and center voice, and it has been impressive to watch her in 
action. I wish her success and pledge her my complete support.

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