Congress passes loan program to aid small manufacturers.

Included in this years annual spending bill is legislation coauthored by House of Representatives Small Business Committee Chair Don Manzullo (R-Ill.) and Senate Slnall Business Committee Chair Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) that reauthorizes and strengthens the Small Business Administration (SBA) and many of its popular loan guarantee programs for two years.

The bill, which includes many provisions written by Manzullo and Snowe in an earlier version of the Small Business Reauthorization and Manufacturing Assistance Act of 2004 (H.R. 5108 and S. 2821), strengthens the 7(a) loan guarantee program by maintaining current fees and eliminating the need for federal subsidies, saving taxpayers between $70 million and $80 million. In addition, the legislation raises the maximum 7(a) loan guarantee level from $1 million to $l.5 million and raises the maximum loan amount from $250,000 to $350,000 for paperwork-friendly SBA Express loans.

The legislation also makes the 504 Certified Development Company loan guarantee program more useful for needy small businesses by increasing the amounts that small businesses can borrow, particularly for small manufacturers. It also increases the job requirement amount for the 504 program in the law from $35,000 to $50,000 to match existing practice.

Further, the bill makes the International Trade loan program friendlier to struggling manufacturers suffering from foreign import competition, helps small businesses establish drug free workplaces, protects the privacy rights of small businesses seeking assistance from Small Business Development Centers and bolsters the surety bond program to help small businesses obtain government contracts. It also strengthens and expands the HUBZone program.

The 7(a) and 504 programs helped more than 80,000 small employers flourish this last year, and the changes in this bill will stabilize and improve these SBA programs and others so the agency can continue to help small employers expand and create jobs.

Also included in the bill is a provision that creates a Small Business Manufacturing Task Force at the SBA to examine what it can do better to meet the needs of small manufacturers.

For more information on these loans, visit the SBA web site at http://www.sba.gov.