Rich Neal: “Mr. Speaker, I stand in support of this small business bill before us today. In addition to the several tax breaks that…”

“Mr. Speaker, I stand in support of this small business bill before us today. In addition to the several tax breaks that Mr. Levin has pointed out, the bill will create a lending fund for our community banks to crop into. That's perhaps the most salient part of this proposal, to get capital flowing, to get capital back into the marketplace so that there's an opportunity for small businesses across the country to take advantage of what heretofore has become a dried up resource, and that is the availability of capital. While the data tells us the economy is improving, our small businesses back home are still struggling, and much of that is due to the fact that lines of credit have tightened up or in many instances simply gone away. Now, those businesses are doing their best to keep everyone on the payroll even though sales are slow in an attempt to climb back, but the regulators have kept a strong hand and hold on banks that otherwise might be lending. Now, conceptually, I don't know how you can be opposed to this legislation. Community banks provide more than half of the small business loans in America that are less than $100,000. In Massachusetts alone, commercial bank lending to small businesses through the SBA guarantee program has doubled over the last year. This legislation will help even more.”