President Obama signed the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) appropriations bill on Saturday Dec. 20, 2009. It added money to the Recovery Act fund that pays the .5% lender fee and the 1.5% borrower fee in the 504 program.
Previously, fee waiver funds had run out in late November 2009. Borrowers willing to wait for the possibility of new funds were placed in a queue. SBA cleared all of the "conditionally approved" 504 loans by Christmas Eve and the queue is gone for now.
The extension included in the DOD bill authorizes fee relief until this additional funding is exhausted. SBA will reactivate the queues as funds are close to being exhausted.