For Immediate Release

June 17, 2005

DESPITE RUMORS, TACOMA SBA OFFICE TO REMAIN OPEN

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Although a headquarters-driven proposal to spread-out federal Small Business Administration (SBA) offices around the nation could have meant the closure of Tacoma's popular Small Business Assistance Center, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks confirmed on Friday that the agency will not reduce its presence in the state's second largest city, and that it may even expand the office.

            In a conversation with SBA Administrator Hector V. Barreto today, Rep. Dicks learned that SBA was committed to maintaining the Tacoma center even though regional officials had made preliminary plans to close it, based on their interpretation of a new SBA policy to eliminate field offices within 50 miles of the agency's District offices.   If the new policy had been implemented, it would have required the SBA to move its assistance center to a location at least 20 miles further than Tacoma is to the agency's downtown Seattle District Office.

            "I told the Administrator that there was a tremendous need for the services among entrepreneurs and small business owners in Tacoma, and that relocating the one-person facility located in rent-free space at Bates Technical College would save little money and cause enormous hardship," Rep. Dicks said.  He added that Barreto told him that after researching the issue, the SBA was not planning to close the Tacoma facility.

            In a later conversation with the SBA's Seattle District Director Nancy Gilbertson on Friday, Dicks said he received further assurances and encouragement.  He said the District Director was very familiar with the success of the Tacoma facility, and that it was her view "that the Tacoma office should be expanded, rather than reduced."

            The congressman said he assured SBA Administrator Barreto that maintaining the Tacoma office was also a high priority for Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, as well as Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma, County Executive John Ladenburg and other business leaders in the area.  The County Executive had alerted the state's congressional delegation to the potential closure earlier this month in a letter which highlighted several of the important programs housed in the SBA facility, including the Bates Business Management Training Center, the Office of Minority and Women Business Enterprises, the Service Corps of Retired Executives and WSU's Small Business Development Center.

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