[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6375]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             SBA EXTENSIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. Larsen) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong 
support of this legislation to extend the important programs of the 
Small Business Administration.
  Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, having created 65 
percent of all new jobs in the last decade. However, over the course of 
the last 18 months, small business owners have had trouble accessing 
the capital they need to grow their business and to create jobs. The 
SBA's lending programs are a critical piece of helping small businesses 
access this credit and create jobs, and I urge my colleagues to support 
this bill.
  Now, according to the Northwest Business Development Agency in 
Washington State, for every $1 lent under the SBA 504 program, $94 is 
generated in tax revenue for our communities. Congress has made 
important steps to encourage increased lending for small businesses, 
including allowing SBA 504 loans to be used for debt relief, reducing 
fees in the SBA's 7(a) and 504 loan guaranty programs, and increasing 
the maximum percentage of the loan guaranty for 7(a) loans to 90 
percent.
  And credit is starting to move. In my district alone, between October 
2009 and the end of February 2010, 58 SBA 7(a) loans worth nearly $18 
million and 15 504 loans worth nearly $6 million were provided to small 
businesses in the Second Congressional District of Washington State, 
allowing them to expand and to modernize. However, at the end of this 
month, authorization for these important SBA programs will expire.
  As Congress stays laser-focused on creating jobs, extending these 
important programs and ensuring small businesses can access credit is 
critical. So I strongly urge a ``yes'' vote on this bill.

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