WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 30, 2015) — The Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship has approved eight bills aimed at improving small firms' access to capital and bolstering the technical assistance offerings of the Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), according to the National Small Business Association.
The following bills now await action on the Senate floor, the NSBA said:
c Veterans Entrepreneurship Act (S. 957) — which would permanently make Small Business Administration (SBA) loans less expensive for veterans in the Express loan program by waiving loan fees;
- Commercial Real Estate and Economic Development Act of 2015 or CREED Act (S. 966) — which would reinstate the 504 Refi program that allows small businesses to refinance existing qualified commercial real estate debt;
- Communicating Lender Activity Reports from the SBA Act or CLEAR Act (S. 967) — which would make SBA lending more transparent by making key decision-making information for borrowers available in a user-friendly database;
- Small Business Development Centers Improvement Act of 2015 (S. 999) — which would prohibit the administration from funding new SBA-created initiatives that duplicate the work of SBDCs and enable SBDCs to help small businesses outside of their own states in cases of natural disasters or other emergencies;
- SCORE for Small Business Act of 2015 (S. 1000) — which authorizes $10.5 million spending for the SCORE program for fiscal years 2016-18;
- Small Business Lending Reauthorization Act (S. 1001) — which would establish general SBA loan program lending caps of $20.5 billion for fiscal year 2015 and $23.5 billion for 2016;
- Small Business Fairness Act (S. 958) — which deals with small firm teaming and joint ventures on certain bundled contracts; and
- Small Business Investment Capital Company Act of 2015 (S. 552) — which would increase the cap to $350 million from $225 million for SBIC-program companies.