NEWS FROM NAGGL -More Bumps in the Road for SBA Lending

Last week the Senate attempted to pass HR 4213, commonly known as the Tax Extenders Bill. The bill included $505 million for the extension of the SBA loan programs stimulus provisions through the balance of the calendar year. Three cloture motions (efforts to limit debate and bring the bill up for an up or down vote) were attempted and all failed. The Democratic leadership then pulled HR 4213 from further consideration at this time. HR 4213 could still be brought back up at a later date.

That is the bad news. The good news is that the Senate plans to move soon to the consideration of HR 5297, commonly known as the small business jobs bill. The House has passed their version which includes the $30 billion lending fund and several small business tax items. The Senate Democrats have been busy putting together their version of the bill. It is expected that this version will be available for review sometime this week. We believe that the Senate version will include provisions that have been advocated by the Administration and both Senators Landrieu and Snowe. This would include larger loan sizes ($5 million for 7(a) and $5.5 million for 504, the alternative size standard made permanent in 7(a), etc.) We have not yet heard if the extension of the stimulus provisions will be included in this bill.

However, the timing for consideration and passage of this bill is NOT good. The Congress is scheduled to be out of session all of next week for the 4th of July recess. So, if HR 5297 is not considered in the Senate this week, and it is highly unlikely that it will be, it would be delayed until the week of July 12th...at the earliest. When passed, the Senate version would then have to be reconciled with the House version via a conference so final passage could be several weeks away.

There is one more bit of additional good news and that is that there is bipartisan support to extend the stimulus provisions for the SBA loan programs. The question remains how and when it will get done. As it is our top priority, NAGGL will continue to push at every opportunity for extension of the stimulus provisions. Since the stimulus provisions have expired, loan volume has plummeted. Congress is aware of the situation with SBA loans. When do they choose to remedy the situation remains the question.

The timeliness of Senate action on HR 5297 may offer some clues to the answer to that question.