[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9878-9879]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      THE PATRIOT LOAN ACT OF 2006

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I rise to comment on legislation introduced 
yesterday, S. 3122, the Patriot Loan Act of 2006. It is called the 
Patriot Loan Act for that is who the legislation is intended to 
benefit, patriot citizen-soldiers who are called from their employment 
at America's small businesses to serve our country in uniform. I am 
proud to join with Senator Olympia Snowe, who serves as the chair of 
the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, as an 
original cosponsor of this important bill.
  All of us in the Senate come from States affected by the mobilization 
of our Guard and Reserve personnel. In my home State, the Idaho 
National Guard's 116th Brigade Combat Team turned last fall from its 
18-month deployment to Iraq. I visited members of the 116th while they 
were in Iraq and discovered that a good number of them left jobs at 
small businesses across Idaho. I also held a hearing in Idaho last 
August regarding the reemployment rights of returning Guard and Reserve 
members, with particular focus on how those rights would impact members 
of the 116th. At that hearing it was emphasized that, while legal 
rights to reemployment are critical, they do little good for those who 
have no employer, or no small business, to return to. I resolved then 
to find some way to assist small businesses to cope with the financial 
hardships of frequent and lengthy mobilizations of its employees or 
owners during the war on terrorism. I believe S. 3122 will provide some 
of that needed assistance.
  The legislation would enhance the U.S. Small Business 
Administration's Military Reservist Economic Injury Disaster Loan, or 
``MREIDL,'' Program. That program provides loan assistance to small 
businesses to help them meet ordinary and necessary operating expenses 
after essential employees are called to active duty in their roles as 
citizen soldiers.
  S. 3122 would raise the maximum military reservist loan amount from 
$1.5 million to $2 million. It would also allow the Small Business 
Administration's administrator, by direct loan or through banks, to 
offer unsecure loans of up to $25,000, an increase from the current 
$5,000 loan limit: So that there are no processing delays, S. 3122 
would require the SBA administrator to give these loan applications 
priority, and would require that loan applicants be adequately assisted 
during the application process by utilizing existing support networks, 
such as Small Business Development Centers.
  Finally, S. 3122 would ensure proactive outreach about the MREIDL 
Program for Guard and Reserve members by requiring SBA and the 
Department of Defense to develop a joint Web site and printed materials 
with information about the program, and it would require a joint SBA 
and DD feasibility study on other methods of possible assistance.
  Just as the Guard and Reserve are serving us now, we must do what we 
can to ensure that their sacrifices do not place them in financial 
harm's way on their return home. I strongly urge my colleagues to 
support this measure,

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and I, again, thank Senator Snowe for her leadership in introducing it.

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