All of this talk about small business being important!

They all love sound bytes in Washington..... Then, when we need them look at their inaction; Below is a posting from an email generated by NAGGL, the National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders alerting the membership that congress -

LET THE 90% GUARANTEE AND FEE WAIVER EXPIRE! KUDOS TO OUR LEGISLATORS WHO STAB SMALL BUSINESS IN THE BACK WHILE TOUTING IT'S ACCOLADES!


Senate Effort to Pass 30-Day Extension of Expiring SBA Provisions Fails
Single Senator Stymies Success
Late last night, we received word that Senate Majority Leader Reid had been rebuffed in his attempts to secure quick passage of a bill that would have provided an immediate 30-day extension of the Recovery Act provisions related to SBA loan programs. Unfortunately, based on Senator Bunning's (R-KY) objection to the proposed payment method for the extension of various expiring program provisions (including unemployment insurance, COBRA, etc.), the effort failed. There will be no votes in the Senate today (Friday) or Monday. It will be next Tuesday at the earliest--and more than likely later--before any extension can be passed.

That means that the authority for the 90 percent guaranty now definitely expires on February 28.

If you have any loans in the Recovery Act Loan Queue for which receiving the 90% guarantee is a critical condition, we urge you to remove them from the queue ASAP. It is extremely unfortunate that this will hurt many small businesses relying on access to this credit, as well as our members who work diligently to responsibly provide assistance to the job-creating small businesses we are all convinced are leading the way out of a troubled economy.

REMINDER:
Unless and until Congress enacts legislation to extend the increase guarantee authority, after February 28 any loan funded with recycled Recovery Act funds will be eligible only for the fee relief, not for the higher guarantee. If a lender wants to wait to see whether Congress will reauthorize the 90 percent guarantee, it must withdraw its pending loan request from the Recovery Act queue before March 1. The lender may then hold the loan for resubmission to SBA when (if) the Congress reauthorizes the higher guarantee.

However, if the lender is satisfied with getting the standard lower guarantee, and wants to assure that its borrower gets fee relief if recycled funds become available, it should leave the loan in the queue. If a lender does not withdraw a pending application, and that loan gets funded with recycled Recovery Act funds after expiration of the 90 percent guarantee authority; the lender will be prohibited from later withdrawing and resubmitting the application in order to get the increased guarantee IF that authority is reinstated. SBA's website provides instructions for lenders wishing to withdraw and resubmit Recovery Act loan applications

Write your congressperson, better yet, call them on the phone and tell them that small business is what they should be fixing right now, if they want job creation!