Nydia M. Velazquez: “For the past 4 years, our Nation has faced economic headwinds, but was able to break through and strengthen…”

“For the past 4 years, our Nation has faced economic headwinds, but was able to break through and strengthen considerably. In that time, over 12 million jobs have been created, the stock market has come roaring back, and optimism in the small business sector has returned to prerecession levels. As we all know, small businesses are the driving force in our Nation's economy, creating two out of three new jobs and producing roughly 50 percent of our GDP. In order to fulfill that role, they need capital. One option is SBA's 7(a) Loan Program, which has been very popular over the past 2 years. In 2014, the program made over 52,000 loans, totaling $19 billion, one of its best years since 2007. SBA carried that momentum into 2015, growing another 20 percent overall, which brings us to today. Due to this unexpected robust lending activity, SBA learned it will reach its $18.75 billion lending cap before the end of the year, cutting off thousands of borrowers. The chairman is totally correct when he talks about the issue of SBA not notifying Congress in the proper time. Last week I introduced H.R. 3132 to raise the cap to $23.5 billion, giving SBA over $4 billion in additional authority to provide capital to deserving small businesses. Unfortunately, the cap was reached on Thursday before we could get that bill to the floor. Today's bill includes my language to raise the lending cap to $23.5 billion.…”