News from U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe
Chair, Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
For Immediate Release: July 26, 2006
Contact:  Chris Chichester, 202-228-5843

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Senator Snowe To Chair July 27 Mark-Up To Reauthorize SBA Programs

Includes Legislation Debarring Large Corporations From Obtaining Federal Contracts As Small Businesses

Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME), Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, today announced that she will hold a public mark-up on legislation to reauthorize Small Business Administration programs on Thursday, July 27, 2006 at 10:00 a.m. in room 428A Russell Senate Office Building.     

“The SBA and its programs have generated a tremendous return on investment, helping to create or retain over 5.3 million jobs since 1999,” said Senator Snowe.   “As Chair of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I firmly believe that the reauthorization process will lead to a renewed SBA that is wholly dedicated to fostering small business ownership across America.”       

“Given recent discoveries of small businesses losing prime contracting opportunities to large businesses due to misrepresentations and poor implementation of the President’s Contract Bundling Initiative, it is absolutely essential for the SBA to guarantee that 23 percent of Federal contracts go to small businesses, which is required by Federal law,” stated Senator Snowe.   “I intend to continue to raise this critical issue at tomorrow’s markup, and also urge the Administrator of the SBA to do everything possible to implement Federal contracting laws for small businesses.”         

Senator Snowe noted the mark-up will include legislation that achieves the following:       

* Increase Federal authority to prosecute, suspend, and debar large corporations which obtain government contracts by misrepresenting themselves as small businesses.      

* Reform the SBA's largest small business financing program, the Section 7(a) loan program, which provided almost $15 billion in loans to small businesses last year, by increasing the maximum size of a loan from $2 million to $3 million.

* Require the SBA to implement a more efficient test for loan eligibility that measures businesses’ revenues, rather than merely its number of employees.   

* Establish a National Preferred Lender program to increase small businesses’ access to capital by reducing duplicative administrative burdens on small business loans; Sen. Snowe first proposed this last year and the SBA has begun implementing it already on an administrative basis.   

* Re-structure the Small Business Investment Company program, an innovative public-private venture capital partnership that has provided more than $25 billion in financing to small businesses.  The changes allow the program to continue to provide long-term financing to small businesses in areas in which private venture capital is difficult to obtain.   

* Expand the SBA’s capability to assist disaster victims by allowing private lenders to make loans at lower interest rates.

* Create a stronger system of small business size and status protests to ensure that other Federal agencies respect SBA decisions on whether companies are actually eligible to receive a government contract reserved for small businesses.

* Modify the definition of contract bundling in line with the President’s 2002 policy against contract bundling.  Reviews by the GAO and the SBA Inspector General found that Federal agencies are continuing to bundle government contracts without effective review. 

* Double the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program and its companies, the Small Business Technology Transfer Program. For 24 years, the SBIR program directed over $21 billion in Federal research and development grants and contracts to small hi-tech businesses. Senator Snowe was the original co-sponsor of the original SBIR legislation adopted in 1982.       

* Close loopholes in the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) to clarify existing Federal requirements that agencies produce quality compliance assistance guides to help small business understand how to deal with complex regulations. 

* Address the small business health insurance crisis by creating a competitive, pilot grant program for Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) to provide counseling and resources to small businesses about health insurance options in their geographic areas.

“The SBA must be reauthorized to improve and strengthen the core SBA programs because they have proven invaluable in aiding the efforts and dreams of America’s entrepreneurs,” said Senator Snowe. 

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