Landrieu Urges Support of Small Business Jobs Proposals

Bipartisan legislation seeks to spur job growth for small businesses.

WASHINGTON, April 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, today sent a letter to Senate colleagues requesting support of several measures aimed at creating jobs and spurring small business growth. Sen. Landrieu is requesting that the proposals be included in the next jobs bill to be considered by the Senate.

"As Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I am writing to ask for your support on a package of small business measures that I would like to see become a part of any upcoming jobs bills in the Senate," Sen. Landrieu said in the letter. "Most of these proposals have passed by a large bipartisan margin out of the Committee, and for a modest amount all of these measures will create hundreds of thousands of jobs in 2010. These proposals would make key improvements to the U.S. Small Business Administration's (SBA) lending, exporting, contracting, innovation and business counseling programs."

The letter describes five proposals for small business growth, including:

• Small Business Job Creation and Access to Capital Act of 2009 (S. 2869): Raises the cap on small business loans to increase lending by $5 billion the first year, and refinances commercial real estate debt into long-term, fixed-rate loans – provisions that are expected to be budget neutral and could create/save 200,000 jobs;
• Small Business Export Enhancement and International Trade Act of 2009 (S.2862): Boosts small businesses' exporting potential by improving access to loans, counseling programs and coordination of existing federal export assistance resources, while injecting more than $1 billion in capital for small businesses and saving/creating as many as 50,000 jobs;
• Small Business Contracting Revitalization Act of 2010 (S. 2989): Removes the red tape and closes loopholes that too often put government work into the hands of multinational corporations instead of Main Street businesses. Increasing contracts to small businesses by just 1 percent can create more than 100,000 jobs;
• Small Business Community Partner Relief Act of 2010 (S. 3165): Strengthens SBA women's business and microloan programs to ensure they have the funds and manpower needed to be successful resource partners and help small business owners get the assistance they need; and
• SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2009 (S. 1233): Encourages small businesses to develop new technologies in fields from health care and defense to clean energy. These competitive grants are the largest source of federal R&D funding for small, high-tech rms. Twenty-percent of SBIR participants say they started their company in part because of a prospective SBIR award, creating thousands of jobs.

To view a full copy of the letter sent by Sen. Landrieu, please click here.

Specific information on each of the provisions listed above can be found by clicking here.

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

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