H.Res. 130 supports the goals and ideals of National Indoor Comfort Week, set for April 17 through 23, 2005 and also honors the small businesses that work in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration industry.

H.R. 230 would allow certain Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) to provide regulatory assistance to small businesses to order to help them comply with federal regulatory and statutory mandates. These centers would also refer small businesses to experts. The bill would select SBDCs from two states from each one of the 10 SBA regions to implement this initiative. The minimum grant to any State is $200,000. No matching grant from the state would be required. Total authorization level for this program is $5 million for each year. This initiative is conditional upon receiving a specific appropriation.

During the bill's mark-up, the committee adopted the Velázquez amendment that would establish an Internet web site at the Small Business Administration (SBA) so that small businesses would have access to regulatory compliance information. The amendment would also require that the SBA Administrator share the list of regulations (as gathered by SBDCs engaged in regulatory compliance counseling) for review with the Office of Advocacy so that the Chief Counsel may take appropriate action with the affected federal agencies to review and hopefully change these regulations to the liking of small business.

H.R. 3207 would create a four-year pilot program to identify and assist second-stage small businesses, which have the capacity for significant growth and job creation, with peer learning opportunities facilitated by the SBDC network.  Peer learning opportunities are formally organized peer groups of owners, presidents, and CEO’s of non-competing second-stage small businesses who would meet regularly with a professionally trained facilitator to learn how to advance to the next level in business growth.

The bill would select SBDCs from two states from each one of the 10 SBA regions to implement this initiative.  The minimum grant to any State is $50,000.  Total authorization level for this program is $1.5 million for each year and will terminate on September 30, 2009.  This initiative is conditional upon receiving a specific appropriation.

During the bill’s mark-up, the Committee adopted the Bean/Velázquez amendment that:

1. allows community colleges, historically Black colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, or other minority institutions to find matching funds from other sources to equal just 50 percent (not 100 percent in the case of most other SBDCs) of the federal grant;
2. makes sure this program has a special priority for minority, women, and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses; and
3. makes only those small businesses that meet the SBA size standard definition eligible to participate in the peer learning opportunities.

H.R. 3429 would create the new Participating Debenture debt security program to replace the underperforming Small Business Investment Companies (SBIC) Participating Securities program.  The change is necessary because the user fees currently collected no longer cover the cost of the program, and operating at a zero subsidy rate would require inflated fees that would be cost prohibitive for private investors.
The new Participating Debenture program would create provisions that currently do not apply to the Participating Securities program, dramatically improving the SBA’s financial position in the following ways:

• Interest will be payable irrespective of the SBIC’s profitability and will be chargeable against the SBIC’s private capital.
• Distributions must be made to SBA from any defined net receipts whether or not there are realized earnings for accounting or tax purposes.
• After SBA-guaranteed interest is brought current with any SBIC distribution, additional distributions are made to SBA and private investors according to their interests in the SBIC until unpaid leverage is paid in full.
• SBA’s share of the profits in a Participating Debenture SBIC will be greatly increased compared to SBA’s share in the Participating Securities program.  This is accomplished by a two-tier profit sharing formula that increases SBA’s base share from about 10 percent to about 27 percent in any fund that has a gross internal rate of return greater than approximately 17 percent.  At the current 10-Year Treasury rate, SBA’s share of all profits in a Participating Securities fund is just 7.5 percent.