[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 35 (Tuesday, March 12, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1711-S1713]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. BAUCUS (for himself and Mr. Hatch):
  S. 526. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make 
permanent the special rule for contributions of qualified conservation 
contributions, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Rural 
Heritage Conservation Extension Act of 2013.
  As we continue to find ways to tackle the important issues of this 
nation's long-term future, we begin this new congress with an 
opportunity to take responsibility. This includes the ways we look to 
safeguard our land. Today, I am introducing the Rural Heritage 
Conservation Extension Act as part of our collective mission to ensure 
a prosperous nation for future generations.
  We all know our land has a deeper worth than the goods we have 
cultivated or extracted from beneath the earth. It is our heritage. And 
when a piece of our heritage is lost, we do not simply lose its future 
value in dollars. We also lose the wildlife habitat and the open areas 
that may be enjoyed by people from around the world, on top of the very 
personal value it has held for generations of landowners. It is our job 
in government, as stewards of the land, to safeguard this precious gift 
for our grandchildren and to provide support to the farmers, ranchers 
and other hard-working landowners who rely on it to make a living.
  For this reason we have decided to provide targeted income tax relief 
to small farmers and ranchers who donate their land under a qualified 
conservation easement. The provision increases the deduction amount 
eligible farmers and ranchers may receive for charitable contributions 
of qualified conservation easements by raising the adjusted gross 
income limitation from 50 percent to 100 percent and extending the 
carryover period from 5 years to 15 years. For all other landowners, 
the AGI limitation was raised from 30 percent to 50 percent. This 
provision was included in the fiscal cliff package and will expire at 
the end of this year. The bill before you, the Rural Heritage 
Conservation Extension Act of 2013, will make this valuable incentive 
permanent.
  Conversation easements have been established as an effective land 
preservation method across the country. In Montana, we currently have 
over 2.1 million acres covered by conservation easements. To some, that 
may seem like a large amount, but this is Montana, and those easements 
are only 2.2 percent of the total state land area. But we leverage far 
more value out of these easements because they are often located within 
or next to large tracts of public lands. In Montana, we fully recognize 
the importance of using these easements to protect our lands. Now is 
the time to help my country and my State to do all they can.

[[Page S1712]]

  This legislative body, the individual States, and the Nation together 
should stand up for future generations and declare that the time for 
land preservation is now. I believe that we should do all we can to 
help landowners afford to choose conservation and preservation, and 
this bill is a step in the right direction. Let us get rid of the 
uncertainty that comes with temporary provisions and build on the 
success of what we have already begun to do. Let us pass the Rural 
Heritage Conservation Extension Act.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. REED (for himself, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Cardin, Ms. 
        Klobuchar, Mr. Franken, Ms. Warren, and Mr. Cowan):
  S. 527. A bill to provide for the adjustment of status of certain 
nationals of Liberia to that of lawful permanent residents; to the 
Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, today I introduce the Liberian Refugee 
Immigration Fairness Act along with Senators Whitehouse, Cardin, 
Klobuchar, Franken, Warren, and Cowan.
  In December 1989, Liberia became engulfed in a devastating 7-year 
civil war, which killed over 150,000 people, displaced more than half 
the population, and destroyed the country's infrastructure. Thousands 
of Liberians who were forced from their homes sought refuge in the 
United States and in 1991, were granted Temporary Protected Status, 
TPS. Since that time, the status of many of these refugees, as well as 
many of those who fled to the United States during Liberia's second 
civil war, 1999-2003, has been extended through renewals of both TPS 
and Deferred Enforced Departure, DED.
  America is now home to these law-abiding and tax-paying Liberians. 
They came here to escape violence and are strengthening our 
communities. Many now have children of their own who are U.S. citizens, 
some of whom serve in the U.S. military. They are here legally, and 
they continue to work hard and play by the rules.
  We are currently less than 20 days away from the expiration of DED on 
March 31, 2013. In the short term, I have been joined by several 
colleagues in urging the Administration to extend DED so Liberians who 
have lived here legally do not face deportation.
  The Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act, which I have 
introduced every Congress since 1999, offers a more long-term solution. 
It seeks to provide a path to citizenship for qualifying Liberian 
refugees. After decades of perennial uncertainty about whether they 
will be able to stay in their communities or whether their families 
will be split up, this bill would give eligible Liberians the 
opportunity to apply for legal permanent residency, and begin the 
process of finally becoming citizens.
  Currently, a bipartisan group of my Senate colleagues is working 
towards a comprehensive immigration reform bill. I look forward to 
working with them and others to include the Liberian Refugee 
Immigration Fairness Act in immigration reform. I thank Senators 
Whitehouse, Cardin, Klobuchar, Franken, Warren, and Cowan for 
cosponsoring this bill and urge our colleagues to join us in taking the 
next steps to finally provide a path to citizenship for qualifying 
Liberians.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Ms. LANDRIEU:
  S. 537. A bill to require the Small Business Administration to make 
information relating to lenders making covered loans publicly 
available, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Small Business 
and Entrepreneurship.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, as Chair of the Senate Committee on 
Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I remain focused on the needs of 
small businesses. Much of what we do on the committee involves 
overseeing the Small Business Administration's contracting, counseling, 
and capital programs, and we are always looking for ways to improve 
them. As our country slowly recovers the economic downturn, one of the 
most pressing issues facing small business owners is access to capital.
  In the past two fiscal years alone, the Small Business 
Administration, SBA, supported over $30 billion in loans to 
approximately 60,000 small businesses each year through its 7(a) and 
504/CDC lending programs. As of September 2012, there were over 2,400 
SBA lenders nationwide. While the SBA currently releases some 
information publicly about SBA lending activity, it is extremely 
difficult to find and comprehend if you are not an SBA lending 
professional. If a small business, mayor, or governor wants to 
determine SBA lending activity in their area, they lack the ability to 
do so easily.
  I come to the floor today to introduce a bill that would increase 
accountability at the SBA in its lending reporting activity. The 
Communicating Lender Activity Reports from the Small Business 
Administration, CLEAR SBA, Act would require the SBA to establish an 
online database to provide consumers with more transparent, user-
friendly data about their local SBA lenders.
  More specifically, the CLEAR SBA Act would require the SBA to post a 
user friendly Lender Activity Index on the SBA website. Users will be 
able to access the following data for any given bank: name of bank or 
Certified Development Company, CDC, number of SBA loans each lender 
made, total dollar amount of SBA loans of each bank or CDC, zip code of 
lender activity, not where every single loan was made, but a list of 
every zip code where the bank has made an SBA loan, industries lent to, 
hospitality, manufacturing, service, software, etc., stage of business 
cycle, new, or existing business, and business specific information, 
i.e. Women Owned Businesses, Minority Owned Businesses, or Veteran 
Owned Businesses. Data will be available for the year to date and users 
will be able to compare to 3 previous fiscal years. Both quarterly and 
annual data will be included.
  I would like to emphasize that this proposal has already received 
bipartisan support. In the 112th Congress, the SBA Lender Activity 
Index was included as a provision in Title II of the SUCCESS Act. On 
July 12, 2012, the Senate voted on the SUCCESS Act. On July 12, 2012, 
the Senate voted on the SUCCESS Act as part of Senate Amendment 2521 to 
S. 2237, the Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act of 2012. Although 
the amendment came up short of the 60 votes needed to end debate, the 
SUCCESS Act received a strong 57 bipartisan votes, including five of my 
Republican colleagues. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle 
to come together in support of this common sense proposal to increase 
transparency and accountability at the SBA.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record as follows:

                                 S. 537

       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 ``Communicating Lender 
     Activity Reports from the Small Business Administration Act'' 
     or the ``CLEAR SBA Act''.

     SEC. 2. SBA LENDER ACTIVITY INDEX.

       Section 4 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 633) is 
     amended by adding at the end the following:
       ``(g) SBA Lender Activity Index.--
       ``(1) Definition.--In this subsection, the term `covered 
     loan' means a loan made or debenture issued under this Act or 
     the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 (15 U.S.C. 661 et 
     seq.) by a private individual or entity.
       ``(2) Requirement.--Not later than 6 months after the date 
     of enactment of this subsection, the Administrator shall make 
     publicly available on the website of the Administration a 
     user-friendly database of information relating to lenders 
     making covered loans (to be known as the `Lender Activity 
     Index').
       ``(3) Data included.--
       ``(A) In general.--The database made available under 
     paragraph (2) shall include, for each lender making a covered 
     loan--
       ``(i) the name of the lender;
       ``(ii) the number of covered loans made by the lender;
       ``(iii) the total dollar amount of covered loans made by 
     the lender;
       ``(iv) a list of each ZIP Code in which a recipient of a 
     covered loan made by the lender is located;
       ``(v) a list of the industries of the recipients to which 
     the lender made a covered loan;
       ``(vi) whether the covered loan is for an existing business 
     or a new business;
       ``(vii) the number and total dollar amount of covered loans 
     made by the lender to--

       ``(I) small business concerns owned and controlled by 
     women;
       ``(II) socially and economically disadvantaged small 
     business concerns (as defined in section 8(a)(4)(A)); and

[[Page S1713]]

       ``(III) small business concerns owned and controlled by 
     veterans; and

       ``(viii) whether the covered loan was made under section 
     7(a) or under the program to provide financing to small 
     business concerns through guarantees of loans under title V 
     of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 (15 U.S.C. 695 
     et seq.).
       ``(B) Incorporation of data.--The Administrator shall--
       ``(i) include in the database made available under 
     paragraph (2) information relating to covered loans made 
     during fiscal years 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013; and
       ``(ii) incorporate information relating to covered loans on 
     an ongoing basis.
       ``(C) Period of data availability.--The Administrator shall 
     retain information relating to a covered loan in the database 
     made available under paragraph (2) until not earlier than the 
     end of the third fiscal year beginning after the fiscal year 
     during which the covered loan was made.''.

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