CONCORD, NC - Tuesday, the House passed H.R. 6191, cosponsored by Congressman Larry Kissell (NC-08), to modify the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010 to allow healthy lending institutions to extend credit for residential construction and land development to U.S. homebuilders. Kissell joined Representatives Brad Miller, David Price, and Joe Baca in cosponsoring the bill in response to concerns from the North Carolina Home Builders Association.

"In North Carolina, the construction industry has been our state's hardest hit sector,” said Kissell. “Our construction industry suffered an 18 percent job loss during the recession. I'm proud to be sponsoring this bill to help them recover, which will help our entire economy recover."

The bill is designed to remove barriers to lending where housing demand is strong and land development would create new jobs. Currently, home construction loans are excluded from the eligible pool of lending in the new lending fund created by the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010.  But, there are many markets around the country where there is a real demand for new housing. Homebuilding has been 16 percent of our economy’s GDP and the inventory of new housing is at a 42-year low. The inability of qualified homebuilders with viable projects in strong demand to obtain loans is preventing a stronger recovery.

"Our people are ready to get back to work, and this is a common sense way to get our construction and homebuilding markets back on track. We need to make more capital available for small businesses, and this bill will do just that," said Kissell.