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The former venture capitalist sat down with Washingtobn Bureau Chief Kent Hoover to talk aboutthe SBA’as role in America’s economic The following is an editedc transcript of their You’ve been on the job for five What has struck you most about the SBA and the role of government in supporting small business? For me, this is one of the most excitinhg places to be in any but in this administration everybody knowas this is the most important place to be.
I’vs really thought of this as threemajor priorities: The firsgt is to get the Recoveryg Act implemented — get the moneyh in the hands of small At this moment, when we have this much economidc distress, this is “making a money. And it’s alreadh out, and we’re seeing businessex where it’s made a difference. The second priority is to reinvigorateethe agency. This is an agency that in the past administrationn hadbudget reductions, had its personnel go from 3,00o0 to 2,000. But in fact, this is a It has an infrastructurwe ... that goes out to every all kinds ofgeographic areas. We have over 14,00p affiliated counselors.
We have the ability to be at any disaster anywhere in the We arethe on-the-ground people who have programs that touchu all kinds of small businesses. So we are goinh to try to invest in twooveralpl things: the people and the informatiohn technology, so that when we have all of thes touch points, we also have the data and the abilityy to manage it. We want to invest in our peoplew because we have terrific The last thing is that in thisenvironment it’z really not just about the SBA. It’z about small business across the Wehave many, many important polict discussions about small business coming up, healthj care, of course, automotive.
We just made an announcement that ended up beingy helpful toautomotive dealers, in termd of alternate size standard for 7(a) loans. And we have a very interesting and activee role in this whole discussion of whether it’s the or the . If you’rwe going to create jobs, a whole lot of them are goingy to be insmall business, so we are relevant and pulleds into all of these type of discussions. What do you see as your role in health care reform? As you know, health care concernds have come up to the No. 1 or No.
2 spot on everhy survey when you ask small Small businesses want to be able to provides health care because if you have a strong and loyalemployes base, you need to provide health care to them. They need to be insurerd for the welfare of the folks and also ofthe There’s all kinds of issues on affordability. Even for thosw who already supplyhealth care, small businesses are just reallu pressured by the rapid rises in these Solutions need to help this I think everybody is pretty focusec on that. We’ve been asked to be at the table. When will the $35,0000 business stabilization loans that were authorized in the economic stimulus billbecome available?
Actually, it’s imminent. We call them ARC It’s called America’s Recoveruy Capital. The image is this is the bridge overtroublefd waters. It’s supposed to be for “viable” businessexs — businesses that need some help todau to pay interest and principal on anexistinfg non-SBA loan. After the six months of payment, this ARC loan does not have to paid off at all for the next andthen there’s usually five years after that to repag them. It is going to be a lifeline for a number of businessesw to bridge them over theseetroubled waters. We expect there’zs going to be a great deal of interesgtin them.
We want to give creditf to our partners, the congressional committees that put this forware in theRecovery Act. We’re just delightedx to be able todo this. What sort of responsre are you gettingfrom lenders? Are they eager to be offering thesew loans? Eager. These are loans that help their loans. Thesde are for non-SBA loans. It’s very, very good for Since the stimulus bill’s higher government guarantee and fee reductions have gonein effect, you have had a rebounds in SBA lending. Are the 7(a) and 504 programds healthy again? Well, I’m a metrics person.
So it has been a greaft delight that the first set of metrics that we reallh decided to focus on show really tangibly that we got our moneu outthere fast, and it’ in the hands of banks, and banks are lendingg it. And it is making a difference.
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