John Kerry: “this month marks the 2-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and still thousands of small business owners in New…”

“this month marks the 2-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and still thousands of small business owners in New Orleans and across the gulf coast are still struggling to keep their doors open, keep their employees working, and get the economy back on its feet. Since the days immediately following the storm, I have worked with Senators Snowe, Landrieu, and Vitter to produce a comprehensive package to reform the SBA's Disaster Assistance program. Nearly 2 years of bipartisan negotiations have produced a piece of legislation that has broad bipartisan support as well as the support of the administration. Today that legislation will pass the Senate, and is one step closer to authorizing the tools needed by the SBA to respond to large scale disasters. This bill includes directives for the SBA to create a private disaster loan program, to allow for lenders to issue guaranteed disaster loans in the aftermath of a catastrophic disaster. To ensure that these loans are borrower-friendly, we provide authorization for appropriations so that the agency can subsidize the interest rates. In addition, the administrator is authorized to enter into agreements with private contractors in order to expedite loan application processing for direct disaster loans.”