Titus Applauds Obama Administration's Plans to Help Small Businesses

Press Release

Congresswoman Dina Titus of Nevada's Third District applauded the Obama Administration's plans to take immediate action to help our nation's small businesses. The latest step in the President's plan to stabilize financial markets will help get credit flowing again and expand access to capital for small businesses.

"Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and the engines of growth. With small businesses accounting for 70 percent of all new jobs in the past decade, providing a strong economic environment for them to grow and flourish will be critical to putting people back to work and getting our economy back on track," Congresswoman Titus said. "President Obama's plan will reduce the cost of small business loans while providing tax incentives to encourage investments in small businesses. The Consumer and Business Lending Initiative will help unfreeze credit markets so that responsible business owners receive the financing they need to stay in business and jumpstart our economy."

Specifically, the Obama Administration announced the following steps to unlock credit for small businesses:

• Jumpstart credit markets for small businesses by purchasing up to $15 billion in securities;
• Temporarily raise guarantees up to 90 percent in SBA's 7(a) loan program;
• Temporarily eliminate certain SBA loan fees to reduce the cost of capital;
• New reporting requirements on bank lending to small businesses and greater efforts to extend small business loans; and
• Issue guidance for an expanded carryback provision on part of the Recovery Act's comprehensive tax cut package for small businesses.

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