Mississippi’s United States Representatives Trent Kelly, Bennie Thompson, Gregg Harper and Stephen Palazzo recently signed a letter addressed to United States Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon asking for the Small Business Administration to reconsider the proposed rule on the Express Loan Programs and Affiliation Standards.
“We are deeply concerned that this proposed rule would drive rural America out of SBA’s loan programs,” the letter stated. “Small family farms and main street businesses are the lifeblood of many rural communities and remain the backbone of American economy, but they rely on loan guarantee programs like the SBA 7(a) loan program for critical financing. In the 115th Congress, we are proud to have enhanced oversight of SBA’s loan programs with the passage of H.R. 4743, the Small Business 7(a) Lending Oversight Reform Act of 2018.”
The letter goes on to state specific instances of why the rule was proposed, and why these instances are inaccurate.
“A key component of SBA’s mission is to maintain and strengthen the nation’s economy by enabling the establishment and vitality of small businesses,” the letter stated. “One of SBA’s goals is to grow businesses and create jobs by expanding access to capital and fuel small business growth. We are gravely concerned that the proposed rule would undermine this objective and, in fact, place even more obstacles in the path of rural American businesses. A significant challenge that small farmers and rural communities face is access to capital.”
According to the letter that the proposed regulation is not required by any recently passed law or Congressional action. In total, the letter submitted had 29 cosigners from across the country.