|
It is certainly true that our nation’s small
businesses are our engine of economic growth. Most
large Fortune 500 companies started off as a small
business. We must continue to foster and harness
that quintessential American spirit of
entrepreneurship to keep our nation’s economic
recovery on track not just now, but well into the
future.
That is precisely why I take my job as Chair of
the Senate Committee on Small Business and
Entrepreneurship so seriously, because I recognize
the role our small business play in fostering a
bright economic future for our nation. There are
ways by which the federal government can help our
small business through constructive assistance
programs to start countless men and women on the
path of the American dream to start and own their
own business. With Congressional passage of the
Small Business Administration (SBA) Reauthorization
Bill, after more than a year of stalled
negotiations, small businesses will have the tools
they need to succeed.
Without question, the SBA is the largest single
supporter of small businesses in the country. Since
1953, the SBA has served as a vital resource not
only for the 25 million small businesses owners
across the country and in Maine where over 90
percent of businesses are considered small, but for
the millions of Americans who view starting their
own business as an alternative to the traditional
workplace of corporate America. The agency serves as
one of the government's most cost-effective
instruments for economic development, and currently
maintains a loan portfolio of more than 200,000
loans worth more than $45 billion.
The Reauthorization bill strengthens the SBA and
its many programs, including raising the maximum
7(a) loan guarantee from $1 million to $1.5 million
with the maximum loan size remains at $2 million;
boosting the maximum size of 7(a) Express loans from
$250,000 to $350,000; and, increasing the maximum
504 Loan guarantee, currently set at $1 million, to
$1.5 million for a general 504 guarantee or $4
million for a guarantee that supports a
manufacturing project.
Also included in this legislation are components
of my "Small Manufacturers Assistance, Recovery, and
Trade (SMART) Act," which I introduced in November
2003 with Senator George Voinovich (R-OH). We will
now have a Small Business Manufacturing Task Force,
charged with ensuring that the SBA is properly
addressing the particular needs of small
manufacturers who have particularly hurt by the
economic downturn of the past few years. We clearly
must make sure that small manufacturers have access
to every possible resource at the SBA to help them
continue to play an essential role at the core of
our economy.
Our manufacturers will also stand to benefit from
$109 million in funding to the Manufacturing
Extension Partnership (MEP). The MEP is a nationwide
network of not-for-profit centers in over 400
locations that is a cost-effective, public-private
partnership helping small and medium-sized American
manufacturers to implement the most advanced
manufacturing technologies to compete in the
demanding global marketplace. As Co-Chair of the
Senate Task Force on Manufacturing with Senator
Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), we led the bipartisan
effort of 56 Senators to restore funding to the
program to fiscal year 2003 levels after a drastic
cut in funding of $39.6 million in fiscal year 2004.
Our nation’s economic recovery depends on the
health of our small businesses. With this two-year
SBA reauthorization, entrepreneurs and small
businesses owners across the nation will have access
to critical loan and venture capital to stay in the
market, and for countless other Americans start a
small business for the first time.
### |
