Landrieu, Snowe Letter to President Requests Support for Small Business Proposals

Refinancing for small business real estate debt and other provisions would create jobs.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., and Ranking Member Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, today sent a letter to President Obama encouraging him to support two bipartisan measures – including one that in part allows small businesses to refinance short-term commercial real estate debt. The letter comes on the heels of the President's State of the Union address where he emphasized his clear commitment to investing in small businesses to help create jobs.

"As Chair and Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, we fully recognized how small businesses are the engine of economic growth in our country," Sens. Landrieu and Snowe wrote. "At the same time, with small businesses accounting for 85 percent of all job losses in the last year, they have also been bearing the brunt of these difficult economic times. As we move forward on the consideration of a Jobs Bill and your Administration looks for initiatives that can help jump start our economy, we respectfully ask for you to consider promoting two pieces of legislation that have bipartisan support and were successfully marked up in our Committee."

One of the two bills, S. 2869, The Small Business Job Creation and Access to Capital Act, would raise the cap on small business loans – increasing small business lending by $5 billion – and extend critical Recovery Act provisions, supporting $18.5 billion in additional loans by the end of the fiscal year. Along with these changes, the bill allows the 504 loan program to refinance short-term commercial real estate debt into long-term, fixed-rate loans. It is expected to be budget neutral and could produce more than 225,000 jobs.

Additionally, S. 2862, The Small Business Export Enhancement and International Trade Act, would boost the exporting potential of small businesses by adding more than $1 billion in capital for small firms looking to export and could create or save nearly 30,000 jobs this year.

"These two bills could provide a cost-effective way of ensuring that our nation's small businesses have the access to capital and exporting opportunities they require to grow and create jobs," the senators wrote.

To read the letter sent to the President today, please click here.

For more information on the bills, please click here.

SOURCE U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship

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