Investing in Main Street Act of 2025

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the bill before us today, H.R. 754, the Investing in Main Street Act of 2025.

SBA's Small Business Investment Company program is a multibillion- dollar investment program designed to bridge the gap between a small business owner's need for capital and traditional sources of financing. It achieves this purpose by partnering private and public investments in early-stage startup businesses. It also gives America's small, high- growth companies an opportunity to fund and grow their innovative ideas and create jobs.

The success of this program can be seen with companies like Apple, Intel, and FedEx, which all receive early-stage financing from SBICs. Today, there are 319 SBIC-licensed funds participating in an array of private investment and private credit strategies.

In 2023 alone, SBIC-licensed funds financed approximately $7.2 billion to 1,142 small businesses and startups across the country, creating or sustaining more than 130,000 jobs. Importantly, financing provided by SBIC-licensed funds to women-owned, minority-owned, and veteran-owned small businesses totaled almost $670 million in 2023, a 25.7 percent increase from 2022.

Yet, we must do more to ensure the program continues to meet demand. The Investing in Main Street Act of 2025 introduced by my colleagues, Representatives Chu, Finstad, and McIver, will strengthen and grow the SBIC program by allowing banks and Federal savings associations to invest up to 15 percent of their capital and surplus into SBICs.

This change will correct a discrepancy caused by a historical drafting oversight and bring the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 in line with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's national bank charter percentage requirements.

No bank laws or regulations will be changed or affected by this bill. It will increase investment capital available to SBICs and allow them to invest more in small businesses.

Mr. Speaker, I applaud Ms. Chu, Mr. Finstad, and Mrs. McIver's work on this issue and this bill. I ask my colleagues to support it, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Chu).
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Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I applaud Representatives Chu, Finstad, and McIver for their bipartisan work on this bill. I encourage all my colleagues to vote ``yes,'' and I yield back the balance of my time.

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