SBA Women's Business Programs Act Of 2007

Floor Speech

SBA WOMEN'S BUSINESS PROGRAMS ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - June 18, 2007)

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Ms. FALLIN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking Chairwoman Velázquez and Ranking Member Chabot for their support for this legislation and also in helping to build a strong bipartisan coalition in the Small Business Committee.

This bill, the SBA Women's Business Act of 2007, will strengthen the Women Business Centers program that was established in 1997 by making it more efficient and more accountable. The Women's Business Centers are a very important part of the grant programs that are funded by the Small Business Administration. Today, Women's Business Centers all across the country are providing women entrepreneurs with much-needed technical assistance in starting and operating their own small businesses.

In the mid-1990s, the Federal Government began awarding grants to Women's Business Centers that were operating as nonprofit organizations in conjunction with institutions of higher learning. Originally, these grants were intended to be awarded to business centers in their first 5 years with the understanding that after the first 5-year period had ended, the center would be financially self-sustaining.

Although many Women's Business Centers did meet this goal, some have not for a variety of reasons. As a result, a greater percentage of the funding for this program has been consumed by the operating costs of potentially unviable centers rather than the intended purposes of establishing new business centers. The result is a drag on the system and viable business centers that are not truly serving an unmet need in their communities. This jeopardizes the effectiveness in the viability of the entire program.

The SBA Women's Business Programs Act of 2007 will restore the original priorities held by the Federal Government when this program was created. By offering a three-tiered system of funding and lower caps on spending for older business centers, we can ensure a balanced percentage of funding is used to support both new and existing business centers.

The first tier requires that at least 40 percent of the total funds be reserved for the purpose of establishing and supporting new Women's Business Centers during their first 5 years of existence. The second tier will use 20 percent of the total funds to help sustain the centers that have successfully existed during their first 5 years.

Lastly, the third tier will use a maximum of 40 percent of the funds to continue supporting centers that have existed for 8 years or more and have met the necessary benchmarks set forth by the SBA to receive this funding. This three-tiered system will offer a helping hand to newly established centers while slowly weaning the older centers off the dependency of the Federal grants.

It is important to realize that this legislation does not affect the overall funding level of this program. Rather, it rearranges the distribution of funds to reflect the original intention of these grants, an offer of temporary assistance rather than one of permanent dependency on the Federal Government.

This legislation will ultimately restore accountability and efficiency to a program that, while well intentioned, has become weighed down by inefficiency. These are goals that every Member of Congress can all support. The SBA Women's Business Programs Act of 2007 has passed in the Small Business Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support, and I want to encourage all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote in favor of this today.

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