WASHINGTON –U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., today praised the Senate’s temporary extension of two important provisions enacted in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: increased government guarantees and eliminated fees on small business loans. The programs were extended through April 30th.
“Extending these important provisions is a good and necessary step to providing our small businesses with the tools they need to keep their doors open and expand. But the uncertainty these repeated short-term extensions bring to entrepreneurs can impact their plans for growth and impact our lender partners’ interest in making these loans. I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress to ensure these programs receive a long-term extension, like what passed as part of the Senate’s second jobs package earlier this month. The long-term extension of these programs is critical because it is helping our local economies recover and creating and saving significant jobs. Just look at the results. Over the last year, these provisions have added $18.2 billion in lending to more than 40,000 small businesses and helped to create more than 500,000 jobs.”
The Recovery provisions were extended and fully funded to the end of the year in H.R. 4213, The American Workers, State and Business Relief Act, which passed the Senate on March 10th. The bill is currently in conference negotiations with the House. To read more about the bill, please click here.
Chair Landrieu, along with Ranking Member Olympia Snowe, included an extension of these provisions as part of S. 2869, The Small Business Job Creation and Access to Capital Act. To read more about the bill, please click here.