Two bills designed to reform the Small Business Administration (SBA) disaster loan process, as well as to fix the broken federal work force, advanced out of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Friday.
The bills, the Returning SBA to Main Street Act, the Disaster Loan Accountability and Reform Act, and the SBA Disaster Transparency Act, would reform the SBA and increase the agency’s transparency and accountability, U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), chair of the committee said. The legislation will help small businesses and entrepreneurs across the country.
“I am proud to see the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee continue to work in a productive and bipartisan manner to make life better for Main Street,” Ernst said. “The burdensome and bloated bureaucracy is costly to taxpayers and hurts small businesses. We are enacting long-overdue reforms to ensure Washington better serves the American people, especially in their time of need.”
The Returning SBA to Main Street Act, will relocate nearly a third (30 percent) of the SBA’s employees in its Washington D.C. headquarters back to the communities they serve. The Disaster Loan Accountability and Reform Act, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) will strength oversight, financial safeguards and transparency within the SBA’s disaster loan account, officials said. And the SBA Disaster Transparency Act, co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Adam Schiff (D-CA), will reform SBA disaster loan programs by requiring public reports, officials said.