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Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2010

Date: July 16, 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Business and Consumers Taxes Finance and Banking

FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010 -- (House of Representatives - July 16, 2009)

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, this is a strong bill, a bill that aims to bring much needed stability and confidence to our financial system and assistance to our small businesses.

The bill provides critical funding to the Securities and Exchange Commission to help it strengthen the regulation of our financial markets and to the Federal Trade Commission to enhance its ability to protect consumers. It ensures further oversight of TARP. It requires Treasury reports that will notify Congress of steps taken to implement oversight recommendations. To help small businesses weather the current economic storm, the bill supports $848 million for the SBA, including $25 million in new microlending and $10 million in microloan technical assistance.

In 2008 alone, SBA's intermediary microlenders made more than 5,000 loans, totaling more than $60 million, to entrepreneurs who were unable to secure the credit that they needed from conventional lenders. This bill also includes significant funding for IRS tax enforcement to support the administration's efforts to combat tax haven abuse.

I have worked to ensure that the bill includes a provision which prevents Federal contracts from going to domestic corporations that incorporate in tax havens to avoid meeting their tax obligations.

The bill also eliminates Bush-era restrictions that hamper the ability of U.S. companies to export agriculture goods to Cuba. In this economic climate, we should be opening and not irrationally closing markets for American products.

In recent years, many of our regulatory agencies have neglected their responsibilities to protect consumers, taxpayers and investors. This bill takes strong steps to reverse that disregard while making critical investments in programs that help small businesses, the lifeblood of our economy, succeed.

I urge my colleagues to support the passage of this important piece of legislation.

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