John Kerry: “let me speak for a minute about this legislation. I understand Senator DeMint's need to object on behalf of the Senator…”

“let me speak for a minute about this legislation. I understand Senator DeMint's need to object on behalf of the Senator from Oklahoma. This is legislation that has broad--I do mean broad--bipartisan support. It was passed out of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee on a unanimous vote. It now represents a very broad compromise worked on with the administration and with all of the members of the committee, both Republican and Democrat. I will review very quickly what this bill does. As everybody knows, when Katrina hit, we had a terrible time getting small business assistance to the countless thousands of small businesses that were impacted, not only in New Orleans but in Baton Rouge and across into Mississippi, Alabama, and elsewhere, where there were many services being provided by other folks. A lot of small businesses were impacted. We learned there was not an adequate capacity within the Small Business Administration to deliver this kind of assistance in a rapid way. So we have worked now, after a series of hearings and over the course of 2 years, to pull together the Small Business Disaster Response and Loan Improvement Act. It does a number of things. It creates a new elevated level of disaster declaration, referred to as catastrophic national disaster. That triggers nationwide economic injury disaster loans for adversely affected small businesses.”