Charlie Melancon: “Mr. Chairman, this bill has the potential to help thousands of small businesses and business owners still struggling to…”

“Mr. Chairman, this bill has the potential to help thousands of small businesses and business owners still struggling to recover from these hurricanes that devastated the U.S. gulf coast. I rise today in opposition to this amendment. After surviving Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, two of the worst natural disasters in our country's history, the citizens of the gulf coast were then faced with a man-made disaster, one of the most disorganized, chaotic Federal responses that anyone has ever seen. Many of the Federal agencies that were created to help these people recover wound up making matters worse. One of these agencies was the SBA. After these storms, 81,000 businesses were economically impacted. Over 18,000 were completely or severely destroyed. Astonishingly, however, following these hurricanes, only 38 percent of small business disaster loans were approved. In hearings, the SBA admitted that after 'typical' disasters, they approved 60 percent of these business loans. After Katrina and Rita, conversely, over 60 percent did not receive SBA assistance and were left with nowhere to turn for help. One of the many reasons that the SBA failed the people of the gulf coast was because it did not have the proper tools nor the flexibility it needed to sufficiently and adequately address the demands caused by the extraordinary storms.”