House Bill HR 4302

If passed the Small Business Access to Capital Act of 2009 would:

• Make more capital available to main street
• Provide more capital to growing existing companies
• Help more and larger small businesses expand
• Refinance high cost existing debt at today's low rates

Access to capital is currently the #1 problem for the small businesses of Main Street America. Banks are either so capital stressed and/or their credit boxes are so small that many credit worthy small businesses cannot find the financing they need to retain their existing employees, or to expand their growing companies.

Small businesses are the engine that creates most of the jobs and innovation for the American economy. Small businesses are acknowledged to create as much as 60% of all new jobs, and without the capital to expand, the power of small business will not be there to help move our country out of this severe recession.

HR 4302 will greatly assist access to capital for American small business by:

• Substantially increase the SBA maximum loan sizes for SBA 504 loans (to $5.5 million), for SBA 7a Loans (to $5 million) and for SBA Microloans (to $50,000). This will enable the SBA guaranteed loan programs to help a wider range of companies and also will help many existing SBA borrowers to access additional capital.
• Increase the maximum size of companies that can be assisted which will allow the SBA programs to help many more local companies obtain badly needed capital and retain and create jobs. Many of these companies are locally owned companies that create the most jobs for our economy. Others are companies that create jobs by establishing multiple locations. Many of these companies are currently tapped out on their SBA maximum loan assistance and will not expand without additional new capital funding.
• Enable the SBA 504 program to safely refinance existing commercial mortgages for small businesses that are caught in loans with bad terms or in loans with balloon payments coming due soon, and with no affordable private sector alternatives available to provide well structured debt at today's low interest rates.

SBA 504, with low fees, historic low fixed interest rates, and 20-year terms, can provide the best alternative for small businesses to finance real estate and fixed asset expansion projects, as well as re-financing of debt in today's frozen credit markets. Expansion of 504 availability will help get America's economy growing again by saving existing jobs and by creating new jobs.

We urge you to contact your Congressional Representatives in support the Administration's proposed 504 loan size increases and the temporary change to enable use of 504 for refinancing of existing qualified small business debt.