Small Business Financing And Investment Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

Small Business Financing And Investment Act Of 2009

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Mr. GRAVES. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 3854, the Small Business Financing and Investment Act of 2009. Before we even get started, I want to thank the chairwoman, the gentlelady from New York, and Subcommittee Chairman SCHRADER for working in a very bipartisan manner to craft this important legislation. This bill includes bills introduced by Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Luetkemeyer of the committee, and I think it is a good piece of legislation.

The bill before us today will significantly strengthen the ability of small businesses to obtain needed capital for retaining and creating new jobs. The committee has heard time and time and time again that small businesses want to expand but can't find funds necessary to do so. I am sure most of the Members of this Chamber have heard the same thing from their small business constituents back home.

If small businesses create most of the new jobs in this country and can't obtain capital, economic recovery is going to be a faint light at the end of a very long and dark tunnel. Enactment of H.R. 3854 isn't going to magically correct the flaws in the credit markets for small businesses, nor will the programs in these bills increase the confidence of small businesses while the President continues to push initiatives such as capital-and-trade and health care reform that are going to raise costs on small businesses. Nevertheless, the provisions of this bill to improve the financing programs operated by the Small Business Administration can play a vital role in relieving the existing stress on the capital and credit markets for small businesses until those markets return to more normal operations.

Title I of the bill reduces the barriers to utilization of the 7(a) guaranteed loan program by community banks, particularly those in rural areas.

Mr. Buchanan's bill, incorporated as title II, overhauls the operation of the Certified Development Company loan program and will make long-term fixed rate debt available to many small businesses, particularly manufacturers seeking to retool and expand their operations.

Title III makes modest, but important, changes to the microloan program, which will give America's smallest entrepreneurs a greater chance of success.

Title IV adopts Mr. Luetkemeyer's bill to enhance the Small Business Investment Company program by enabling successful managers of such companies to more easily expand their operations.

Title V's most significant change is to correct a flaw in the New Market Venture Capital Company program that would spur greater investment in poor rural areas of the country.

Title VI establishes a loan program which will enable physicians and other providers of health care to make the necessary investment in the efficiency of electronic health records.

Title VII provides the SBA with the opportunity to leverage Federal funds with the best venture operators to promote investment in early stage businesses, like the next Microsoft, Dell, Google or Federal Express.

Title VIII makes additional modifications to the SBA's disaster loan program in order to ensure that small businesses will quickly have needed funds to help recover from a disaster.

In addition to amending key financing programs, this bill, including title IX, makes concerted efforts at increasing the transparency of the SBA's decision-making process. It would be foolish to make significant improvements in these vital financial programs, yet have small businesses' access to them curtailed by inefficient and opaque administration by the SBA.

I would like to add one final point to my comments, Mr. Chairman. Some may question the cost of this bill in a time of fiscal constraints. However, I believe that it represents a vital investment in a better future for our economy. For the past decade, this country's biggest export has been risk. However, America was not built on derivatives or credit default swaps. It was built by individuals creating new products in new ways that the entire world demanded. This bill will help us return to that America, one based on the hard work of creating real and tangible products that are the envy of the entire world.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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