House Passes Nye's Small Business Amendment

Press Release

Congressman Glenn Nye (VA-02) introduced an amendment today to the Small Business Lending Fund (SBLF) Act of 2010. The amendment passed with overwhelming support.

The SBLF program aims to expand much needed lending to small businesses, providing them access to the capital they need to grow and thrive. Nye's amendment puts controls in place to ensure that the funds in this bill are in fact going to every qualified small business.

The amendment first adds the Small Business Administration's (SBA) definition of what constitutes a small business. It additionally links lending incentives to the number of loans a bank makes, not just the amount of money lent.

"If we measure the lending of a bank merely by the amount of money lent, then a bank could make a few large loans and call it a day," Nye explained. "Working capital for most small businesses requires small loans, and many times it takes more than one. Thus, to effectively measure if this program is truly supporting working capital efforts, we must certify that the volume of these small loans increases."

The amendment also requires a full year's worth of data to measure a bank's lending record (as opposed to just one fiscal quarter). Finally, the amendment extends SBLF eligibility to viable small business lending companies with less than $10 billion in assets.

"If our economic recovery is going to translate into economic expansion, we must open up the credit markets to our small businesses who are our proven job creators, and we must ensure that programs created to provide capital to small business lending, and not big business bailouts," Nye said.

Nye currently serves as Chairman of the Small Business Subcommittee on Contracting and Technology, and has consistently worked to increase capital and lower taxes for small business. Just last year Nye worked with fellow Virginian Mark Warner to push the SBA to implement the Appalachian Regional Commission, a program expected to create or retain 24,000 jobs and assist 4,900 businesses this year alone.

"I firmly believe that the success of our long-term economy is dependent on the success of our small businesses," Nye stated. "I remain committed to working on their behalf."

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