WASHINGTON - Senator John F. Kerry, Chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepeneurship, held a rountable discussion, The 7(a) Loan Guaranty

We are not all gathered together today to discuss an entity of the Small Business Administration, but rather a threat to the main foundation upon which the agency stands. As I have said time and time again, small businesses are the fuel behind a thriving economy and their access to affordable credit is crucial to their continued development. When credit dries up from traditional lenders, the ones who suffer the most are women and minorities. Government Guaranteed loans provide the support small businesses need, not just for their own financial success, but for the prosperity of the nation.

We must come to an accurate solution to the possibility that many borrowers and lenders have been paying too high of fees. We have, in the past, needlessly appropriated too many funds to the 7(A) program and are now faced with a weakening economy desperatly calling for a reduction burdensome and needless fees imposed on the backbone of the government lending procedure.

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