S.Amdt. 4431

SA 4431. Mr. COCHRAN (for himself, Ms. Landrieu, and Mr. Wicker) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 4402 proposed by Mr. Reid (for Mr. Baucus (for himself, Ms. Landrieu, and Mr. Reid)) to the bill H.R. 5297, 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, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax incentives for small business job creation, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

On page 128, between lines 19 and 20, insert the following:

SEC. 1704. DISASTER LOANS PROGRAM ACCOUNT.

(a) In General.--From unobligated balances in the appropriations account appropriated under the heading “disaster loans program account” under the heading “Small Business Administration”, up to $100,000,000 shall be available to the Administrator of the Small Business Administration (in this section referred to as the “Administrator”) to waive the payment, for a period of not more than 3 years, of not more than $15,000 in interest on loans made under section 7(b) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(b)) to businesses located in an area affected by a hurricane occurring during 2005 or 2008 for which the President declared a major disaster under section 401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170).

(b) Priority.--The Administrator shall, to the extent practicable, give priority to an application for a waiver of interest under the program established under this section by a small business concern (as defined under section 3 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632)) with not more than 50 employees or that the Administrator determines suffered a substantial economic injury as a result of the discharge of oil that began in April 2010 in connection with the explosion on, and sinking of, the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon (in this section referred to as the “Deepwater Horizon oil spill”).

(c) Termination.--The Administrator may not approve an application under the program established under this section after December 31, 2010.

(d) Other Disasters.--If a disaster is declared under section 7(b) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C.636(b)) during the period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act and ending on December 31, 2010, and to the extent there are inadequate funds in the appropriations account described in subsection (a) to provide assistance relating to the disaster under section 7(b) of the Small Business Act and waive the payment of interest under the program established under this section, the Administrator shall give priority in using the funds to applications under section 7(b) of the Small Business Act relating to the disaster.

(e) Reimbursement by Responsible Party.--The Administrator may present a claim to the responsible party (as defined in section 1001 of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. 2701)) for costs and expenses described in section 1012(a)(5) of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. 2712(a)(5)) relating to a waiver of interest under this section for a business suffering a substantial economic injury as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 in accordance with section 1013 of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. 2713).

(f) Budgetary Provision.--This section is designated as an emergency for purposes of pay-as-you-go principles. The amount made available under this section is designated as an emergency requirement pursuant to sections 403(a) and 423(b) of S. Con. Res. 13 (111th Congress), the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2010. The amount made available under this section is designated as an emergency requirement pursuant to section 4(g) of the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-139; 2 U.S.C. 933(g)).