On the recordMay 25, 2010
this amendment is another tool we can use to give help to these businesses along the gulf coast. It would actually set up a relatively new procedure but based on past action. This procedure would allow the SBA, in giving out an economic damage loan, to substitute the collateral that is normally required, which would be a house or some asset--a boat or something else--to substitute that for the pending BP claim, so that it is technically a loan, but it is acting as a cash advance, to keep businesses in business, to keep lights on, to keep mortgages being paid. I understand the SBA is looking closely at this and may very well want to do it, and this would authorize it. That is the essence of this amendment, which is to give up to $2 million in what would be technically a loan, but with these changes I am proposing would actually act as more of an advance, because no interest or principle would be due for a year.
