S.Amdt. 4460

SA 4460. Mr. BENNET 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 113, between lines 17 and 18, insert the following:

SEC. 1348. SMALL BUSINESS CLEARINGHOUSE.

Section 7(a) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(a)) is amended by adding after paragraph (35), as added by section 1206 of this Act, the following:

“(36) Small business clearinghouse.--

“(A) Submission to administration.--

“(i) In general.--The Administrator shall establish a process under which a lender participating in a program under this subsection that denies an application by small business concern for a loan guaranteed under this subsection may submit the application to the Administrator for the purpose of making the application available to other lenders under this paragraph.

“(ii) Information.--With the approval of the applicant, a lender shall include with an application submitted to the Administrator under clause (i) any information in the possession of the lender relating to the creditworthiness and repayment ability of the applicant.

“(iii) Determination.--The Administrator shall determine whether an application submitted under clause (i) meets the eligibility and credit standards that a lender would be required to apply to approve a loan under this subsection.

“(B) Participation of lenders.--

“(i) In general.--The Administrator shall establish a process under which the Administrator makes available to lenders each loan application submitted and determined to meet basic eligibility and credit standards under subparagraph (A) for the purpose of the lenders originating, underwriting, closing, and servicing the loan for which the applicant applied.

“(ii) Eligibility.--A lender shall be eligible to receive a loan application described in clause (i) if the lender participates in the programs established under this subsection.

“(iii) Local lenders.--The Administrator shall initially make available a loan application described in clause (i) to lenders participating in a program under this subsection with an office located within approximately 100 miles of the principal office of the loan applicant.

“(iv) Preferred or certified lenders.--If, as of 10 business days after the date the Administrator makes a loan application available under clause (iii), no lender described in clause (iii) has agreed to originate, underwrite, close, and service the loan, the Administrator shall make available the loan application to lenders participating in the Preferred Lenders Program under paragraph (2)(C)(ii) and lenders participating in the Certified Lenders Program under paragraph (19).

“(C) Referral fee.--A lender that agrees to originate, underwrite, close, and service a loan under subparagraph (B) shall pay a nominal referral fee, in an amount established by the Administrator, to the lender that submitted the application for the loan under subparagraph (A).”.