Political Quotes

“let me very briefly explain this amendment. This amendment improves the SBA program for surety bonds for small businesses. In the underlying bill the committee has brought out an additional $15 million that will allow SBA to help with the surety program. The challenge today is that for small business to get a government contract of over $100,000, they have to put up a surety bond. It is very difficult for them to get that surety bond. The SBA has a program to help them obtain a surety bond. The challenge is that the current limit is $2 million. For any contract over $2 million the program cannot be used. Well, with the underlying bill and the types of procurement we are anticipating, there are going to be larger contracts. What this amendment does is increase the $2 million to $5 million. Secondly, in order to qualify for a small business, your annual revenue must be below the Federal guidelines or State guidelines if it is a State contract. What the underlying amendment does is use the Federal guidelines, which is $31 million, for construction contractor businesses and $13 million for specific trades as the standard for being eligible for the Federal SBA program on your surety bond. I am very pleased that this amendment has the support of the leadership of the Small Business Committee, Senators Landrieu and Snowe. It is bipartisan. The CBO scored this at no cost, so it will not cost money. I urge my colleagues to support it.”