to have presented to him this past weekend. 65 years after his heroic act. madam speaker, please join me in honoring first lieutenant wayne t. hogancamp of the united states army. thank you. i yield back. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. for what purpose does the gentlelady from california rise? >> to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. speer: madam speaker, i have one question -- ms. speier: madam speaker, i have one question, how long until we do something about our reliance on oil? the amount of oil that has spilled in the gulf since its inception is 65,000 barrels a day, up from 1,000 barrels. do you realize that if we had

retrofitted 100,000 homes in this country it would equal the amount of oil that's been spilled into the gulf during this time. i say to ll of us it's time to take decisive action. it's time to rid ourselves on our dependence on oil. we can do so by embracing the home star program that the house has already passed and really what we should do is ask b.p. to put into an escrow account $6 billion, and with $6 billion, do you know what we can do? we can retrofit over three million homes in america. and by the way, we can put to work 160,000 americans. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana rise? >> i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> madam speaker, i rise today as the champion of the small business community to ask members to support the floor manager's amendment.

mr. carson: it includes my provision which amendments h.r. 5297 to make sure that women and minority owned businesses are allowed lending opportunities to have access to capital. it requires states to apply -- apply to receive federal contributions for their capital access programs to submit a report. this report will explain how they plan to provide lending opportunities for small businesses in underserved and low and moderate-income communities. according to s.b.a. estimates, about 60% of the jobs lost in 2008 through the second quarter of 2009 were lost in small firms. as our nation continues its recovery from the worst economic downturn since the great depression, we must recognize that our comeback will only go as far as our small businesses allow. this includes tapping into the potential of women and minority owned small businesses. several studies have found that these small business owners are more likely to experience loan

denials, pay higher interest rates and less likely to apply for loans because of fear of rejection. i understand that because of the economic challenges we face banks cannot lend to existing our expiring business owners but i understand that we must work with states to increase lending opportunities for women and minority owned businesses. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. carson: i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from illinois rise? >> i ask that the instruction printed in part b of house report 111-506 relating to page 11, line 8, be considered to refer to section 4-d-2-a of the matter proposed to be inserted by the amendment printed in part a of such report in part b of such report. the speaker pro tempore: without objection.

>> i reserve the right -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized. >> i reserve the right to object. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas reserves the right -- the time. mr. neugebauer: while i do not plan to object, i want to point out by accepting the chairman's request we're agreeing to help you fix a draft issue with your amendment. however, republicans also note that only one of our amendments was made in order today. so at the same time we are agreeing to help you fix your amendment, an amendment, by the way, that is considered adopted without a vote, your side has blocked all but one of our amendments from coming up. i just wanted to make sure we're clear on how things are handled in the house before we move on this bill. with that i withdraw my objection. the speaker pro tempore: the reservation is withdrawn. without objection, so ordered. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from illinois rise? >> madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on h.r.

5297 and to insert extraneous material thereon. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. pursuant to house resolution 1436 and rule 18, the chair declares the house in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for the consideration of h.r. 5297. the chair now appoint the gentleman from arizona, mr. pastor, to proceed over the committee of the whole. the chair: the house is in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for consideration of h.r. 5297 which the clerk will report by title.

the clerk: a bill to create the small business lending fund program to direct the secretary of the treasury to make capital investments in eligible institutions in order to increase the availability of credit for small businesses, and for other purposes. the chair: pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered as read the first time. general debate shall not exceed one hour with 30 minutes equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on financial services. and 30 minutes equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on small business. the gentlewoman from illinois, ms. bean, and the gentleman from texas, mr. neugebauer, and the gentlewoman from new york, ms. velazquez, and the gentleman from missouri, mr. graves, each will control 15 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlelady from illinois. ms. bean: thank you, mr. chairman. i yield myself five minutes. the chair: the gentlelady is

recognized for five minutes. ms. bean: mr. chairman, our nation's economic rebirth relies on our community businesses to innovate, develop and market solutions that deliver measurable value to their customers. their success drives the majority of new jobs in our nation. they are the engine of innovation and their resiliencey to reinvent their business models and adapt to emerging growth models is critical. it's their creativity that drives 13 times more patents per employees than large firms. they are beyond the goods and services and jobs they provide, they invest in the bricks and mortar. they have supply chains that depend on their businesses. they do charitable givings and they mentor young people in their communities. congress has done much to address the challenges small businesses face. among the 288 billion dollars in tax breaks in the recovery act were crucial small business tax provisions such as

accelerated bonus depreciation and expansion of the net operating loss carryback that has rebated $2.6 billion. u.s. manufacturing is growing. we're adding new jobs every month in 2010, and g.d.p. is now trending positively, moving from a negative six to positive sixxin the year following the recovery act. and it's now holding at 3%. but as i talk with small businesses in my district and across the nation, the issue that has continued to be an obstacle to business expansion and diversification is access to credit. the financial crisis of 2008 severely tightened small businesses' access to credit. when small businesses can't access financing, they can't hire new employees and make other expansions. in the worse cases, they must cut payrolls, go into bankruptcy or close their doors for good. congress has taken steps to alleviate that problem.

the recovery program has reduced fees for lenders and borrowers and increasing government guarantees to attract more capital. as a result, weekly s.b.a. approvals has increased by over 90%. the -- it has helped but much more needs to be done. earlier this year commercial and industrial loans declined for the seventh straight quarter, down from 17% from 2009. and banks are receiving mixed messages. on the one hand congress and the administration are urging them to lend more. on the other hand bank regulators are telling them to hold back on lending. in fact, our colleague, mr. price's amendment, expresses a sense of congress on that point. in addition, banks have greater risk diversion stemming especially from the inability of the commercial real estate sector. that brings us to this important bill on the floor today, the financial services committee has held several hearings on the restriction of credit for small business. the bill before us today builds on those hearings and was

considered in the open process the committee is known for. during markup of the bill, the committee has adapted 15 amendments, including seven republican amendments, and today we will consider 17 additional amendments, the vast majority of which are to the financial services portion of the bill. the small business lending fund act is a significant step to boost small business lending through our community banks. this legislation builds on the effective financial stabilization measures congress has previously taken by establishing a new $30 billion small business loan fund to provide additional capital to community banks that increase lending to small businesses. this $30 billion investment on which the government will be collecting dividends and earning a profit per the c.b.o. estimates can be leveraged by banks into over $300 billion in new small business loans. this is an important investment by the federal government and our small businesses that brings tremendous returns. the terms of the capital provided to banks are performance based. the more a bank increases its

small lending -- small business lending the lower the dividend rate for the sblf capital. if a bank decreases its small business lending it will be penalized with higher dividend rates. this legislation includes strong safeguards to ensure that banks adequately utilize adequate funds to increase lending to small businesses, not for other lending or to improve their balance sheet. there will be oversight consistently throughout the program, plus it requires that the capital be invested in strong financial institutions with little risk at default, that are in best position to increase small business lending. it's important for americans to understand that although this fund has a maximum value of $30 billion, it is going to have a profit and it will go not to banks but to the small businesses and the communities that they lend to. as our financial system stabilizes and our community banks recapitalize, these funds will be repaid to treasury with full repayment required over the next 10 years. also included in the financial services portion of this bill is the state small business

credit initiative championed by our colleague, mr. peters. the underlying bill provides $2 billion in funding for newer existing state lending programs. this program provides funding -- i yield myself another minute. the chair: the yale the gentlelady is recognized for an a-- the gentlelady is recognized for an additional minute. ms. bean: this program provides funding for states to expand or create lending programs that use small amounts of public resources to generate private bank financing and are designed to address critical reasons why banks are having trouble making increased investments now. lack of adequate capital reserves on the part of lenders and collateral shortfalls on the part of borrowers. the state small business credit initiative is required to leverage $10 for every $1 of government funding. many of the existing capital access program -- by supporting existing programs and using an easy to replicate model, this program will be quickly ramped

up to increase small business lending which will retain and create jobs. small businesses are the job creators of our nation, supporting their ability to grow and innovate is key to a robust and stable economic recovery. i commend the leadership of chairman frank and chairwoman velazquez in bringing this package to the floor which will provide critical support to half of all american workers who either own or work for a small business. mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the jail reserves her time. the gentleman from texas. -- the gentlelady reserves her time. the gentleman from texas. mr. neugebauer: thank you, mr. chairman. i yyeld myself such time as i may consume. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. neugebauer: my opposition not to question whether i support small businesses. it's a question of whether this bill will help small businesses. unfortunately, my conclusion is that this bill will not help them but cost taxpayers another $33 billion, by the way, $33 billion that we don't have. as a former small business owner as well as a former lender, i understand firsthand the need for small businesses to have access to credit,

access to credit is tightened but demand for credit for worthy borrowers has also declined. what small businesses really need more than anything in the current economic environment is certainty so they can invest and plan for the future. what they have gotten from congress is more and more uncertainty. small businesses will face a costly tax penalty if they can't comply with the added cost of the new health care law. one business owner in my district told me he plans to expand -- he had planned to expand and create jobs but he's put those on hold now because his business will not grow over 51 employees and then be subject to the new law. small businesses are worried about how much their energy costs will go up from the proposals of cap and tax bills. finally, they have no idea how much their taxes will be next year -- excuse me -- not only are they worried about the new taxes to pay for more government spending but they know that taxes will also go up automatically if congress does not do anything to address the

expiring tax provisions. no wonder small businesses are in a holding pattern and not creating new jobs. but this bill does nothing to provide any certainty for small businesses. rather than doing something that creates more certainty for small businesses to grow and add jobs in this economy, the majority is repeating the same failed initiatives that helped our national grow to $13 trillion in the past two years. this bill follows the model of the tarp program minus the stronger oversight and puts another $30 billion into banks and hope that lendinging to -- lending to small businesses. according to the person that oversees tarp, in its participants, its application process, from an oversight perspective, the small business lending fund would essentially be an extension of the tarp's capital purchase program. . elizabeth warren says, i quote, the fdls prospects are far from

certain. the sblf also raises questions whether in light of capital purchase programs' poor performance in improving credit access, any infusion could jump-start small business lending. this bill allows another $3 million in spending that will be added to the government's credit card. c.b.o. tells us that the bank lending portion will ultimately cost the taxpayers $3.4 billion when market risk is taken into account. we had record bank failures including four that were tarp recipients. when those tarp recipients failed, the timps' investment of $26.6 billion was essentially wiped out. more than 100 banks that have received tarp funds so far have missed their dividend payments. these missed dividend payments will cost the taxpayers almost $200 million. so it turns out that many of these banks that received tarp funds were far from healthy.

do we really think there will be no more bank failures or missed dividends payments out of this new tarp program? we know there will be. the c.b.o. says there will be leading to more losses for the taxpayers. this fund is just like the tarp's capital purchase program except for the stronger oversight. i'm extremely disappointed the rules committee blocked a sensible amendment that would have improved oversight of this new lending fund by bringing it under the oversight of the special inspector general for tarp. sig tarp has developed significant experience in looking out for the taxpayer when it comes to the tarp program. the expertise should be used for this fund to protect the taxpayers. h.r. 5297 will lead to more losses for taxpayers and no more improvement of credit for small businesses. lack of credit is not the largest problem facing the small businesses. according to the national federation of independent

businesses, the top problem facing small businesses is the lack of sales and demand. if businesses are not confident they will have customers, they are not going to borrow and they are not going to expand and they are not going to add jobs. this $33 billion bill is not going to help increase demand for small business customers. instead we need the government to step back and allowing the uncertainty that's crowding out economic growth in our country. the sad thing is there are things the congress could be doing to help small businesses. instead the majority has chosen to bring up bills that will cost the taxpayers billions and do nothing to help the small businesses. they have denied our side the ability to offer substantial amendments. i think it was appalling, mr. speaker, that the majority awarded themselves 66 amendments to this bill. they awarded the republicans one. now, if that's the bipartisanship that this leadership is talking about, i don't think the american people

are buying that that is bipartisan. because many of the amendments that we offered, mr. speaker, were to add additional protections for the pirps. obviously the majority is not interested in protecting the taxpayers' investment, this $33 billion. by the way this is $33 billion that we don't have. i'm hoping that the majority's going to tell us this morning where the $33 billion that they are proposing in this plan is going to come from. i can tell you where it's going to come from. we are going to charge it to our children and our grandchildren. you know what? i think we just about limited out what the amount of money we should charge to our children and grandchildren. so, mr. speaker, i'm going to urge my colleagues to insist that we do better for small businesses, do something for small businesses, but this is not the answer. i'm going to encourage my colleagues to vote no. with that i reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. -- the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from illinois. ms. bean: i yield one minute to the gentleman from connecticut.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, mr. speaker, i rise in support of the bill for the purpose of engaging in a colloquy with congresswoman bean. mr. larson: i want to bring to the attention the important role of banks at $25 billion asset play in this economy, particularly in lending to small businesses. the state of connecticut has three such banks within the $10 billion to $25 billion range in terms of asset caps. these banks are on the ground and lending. they are the biggest s.b.a. lenders and biggest lenders to minority businesses and fulfill a niche opportunity for so much manufacturers in my state as well. i understand the cap could not be raised to include these banks in this bill. i would ask that congresswoman bean and chairman frank work with me, the treasury, and other body to ensure these banks can be included in this program as this legislation goes forward. ms. bean: i thank the congressman for his concerns and had similar concerns in my home

state of illinois we also have institution that is would like to participate but would be unable to because of the cap. i agree on this point and yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves the balance of her time. ms. bean: i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas. mr. neugebauer: thank you, mr. chairman. one of the things that is interesting, this is a program -- program is designed to put more capital into the banking system. and according to the federal reserve's april survey of senior loan officers, three factors that exerted the greatest influence on banks' business lending practices over the past three months were competitive pressures, the economic outlook, and the tolerance for risk in the business loan market. last of capital -- lack of capital was not mentioned as one of the driving forces for lending decision that is are being made.

-- decisions that are being made. so basically, mr. chairman, what this bill tries to do is try to solve a problem that according to the federal reserve doesn't exist. there is plenty of capital but this competitive pressure, the economic outlook, and this tolerance for risk, and going back to my earlier point, when i traveled around the 19th congressional district i talked to a number of lenders and at the same time i visited businesses in their communities. and to buy what i wanted during that process is that many of the small businesses said, congressman, things are too uncertain right now. we don't know what congress is going to do with taxes. we don't know what they are going to do with this energy bill. we don't know, we are trying to figure out how this new health care bill is going to impact our business. how it's going to impact our bottom line. and then i went over and talked to the lenders, many of the lenders are sitting on record amounts of cash and capital in

their banks. they are looking hard as they can for lending opportunities. what they said is unfortunately some of our customers are not creditworthy. that the economy has hurt their sales and so it wouldn't be prudent to loan those businesses more money. others say that our good customers, customers that are creditworthy, are not coming to us and borrowing any money because, again, of this uncertainty. so again our opposition to this bill is that it's not really addressing the real issue in our economy and that is bringing some certainty and leaving the capital in the companies, leaving the capital in the economy instead of the federal government continuing to create uncertainty and taking money out of the economy. with that i reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from new york. ms. velazquez: thank you, mr.

chairman, small businesses which rely on 99.7% are the key to the recovery of the u.s. economy. so innovation and hard work they are able to not only create jobs but also build the foundation for future growth. we saw this after the desession of the early 1990's and as we emerge from the latest downturn, small firms again will lead the way. these downturns have affected every facet of the global economy. most of the focus has been on repairing the residential housing market and homeowners in particular. it is important to note that these have greatly impacted small businesses as well. through the recovery act, we were able to help them, providing more than $28 billion in assistance through the s.b.a.

h.r. 5297 builds on this by establishing additional lending initiatives that will give small businesses even greater financing options. this legislation, mr. chairman, also recognizes that capital markets are changing dramatically. credit standards are stricter and small businesses now are not only looking to loan credit cards to finance their operations, but also to equity investments to turn their ideas into reality. this has become even more pronounced as values have declined leaving entrepreneurs with less collateral to borrow against. unfortunately small business assets to venture capital and equity investments has declined. last year such investments plummeted from $28 billion in

2008 to only $17 billion. this is due in part to the previous administration's decisions to terminate the s.b.a.'s largest financing program, the small business investment company participating securities program. this has left many entrepreneurs that need equity investment to fulfill their business plan without a source of such financing. as a result it has become more difficult to start a new business and to create the jobs that come with such activity. this is seen in data from the labor of -- bureau of labor statistics which shows that self-employment declined by -- declined between 2007 and 2009. less entrepreneurship is never a good thing. but during a recession it's

particularly problematic as small firms generate 2/3 of net new jobs. in order to address this, title 3 creates a $2 billion investment fund at the s.b.a. unner this program the agency will provide much loans to qualified investment companies who in turn will invest in small companies. to ensure that the public and private sectors interest align, the s.b.a. funding will be provided at a one to one ratio of private investment capital. funds from the program will only be given to investment companies that have a proven record of returning a profit to its investors. er's experience in investing in small early stage companies and the ability to provide leadership.

in selecting investment firms to participate in the program, the s.b.a. will give a special preference to small investment companies who already have substantial experience in financing small firms. in exchange for receiving funds, participating investment funds must convey an equity interest to the s.b.a. similar to that in which an individual investor will receive. the equity interest show in title s.b.a. repayment of this investment and in proportion of any profits made by the investment company. as a result, the government is on a level playing field with prife sector investor and the taxpayer stands to benefit from the growth and success of this -- these small companies. by giving entrepreneurs access to $2 billion in equity

investment, we will provide them the resources to grow and create the type of long-term employment gains we need. it goes without saying that the groundbreaking, innovative firms that rely on such investment tend to be some of our most prolific job creators. between 2008, 2006, and 2008, these cops created eight times more jobs than other businesses. that is exactly the kind of job growth americans need right now. mr. chairman, i support this legislation and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves the balance of her time. the gentleman from missouri. >> thank you, mr. speaker. mr. chairman. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman, mr. chairman, today i rise in opposition to h.r. 5297, the small business lending fund act. although my colleagues on the other side of the aisle claim other side of the aisle claim this bill would