In legislative session, I wish to make a unanimous consent request. I ask unanimous consent that the Banking Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 2919, the Small Business Lending…
In legislative session, I wish to make a unanimous consent request.
I ask unanimous consent that the Banking Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 2919, the Small Business Lending Enhancement Act, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that a Udall of Colorado substitute amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read the third time and passed, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.
Mr. President, if I might, for the record, I will talk briefly about the legislation I referred to. This is a bipartisan bill. I filed it----
Mr. President, the reason I have offered this consent agreement today is that this would help literally hundreds of small businesses to create hundreds of thousands of jobs at no cost to the American taxpayer.
I did want to, in the spirit of bipartisanship, mention the cosponsors of the bill: Majority Leader Reid from Nevada, and Senators Snowe, Collins, Schumer, Boxer, Brown, Gillibrand, Inouye, Lieberman, Nelson of Florida, Bennet of Colorado, Sanders, and Wyden.
The bill addresses a problem that everybody in the Chamber agrees needs to be addressed, and that is the trouble small businesses are having accessing capital so they can grow and create jobs.
We saw that our unemployment rate inched up to 9.8 percent in November. That is indicative of the fact that our economy is having trouble gaining traction. We all know that if small businesses expand and grow, our economy will be getting back on track.
If I might, let me tell you how this bill would help small businesses. Under current law, credit unions are doing what they can to help business interests and meet the demands of particularly family businesses. But they are constrained by an arbitrary cap on the size and amount of the loans they can issue. In every State, there are credit unions that would like to lend more, responsibly. But the Federal Government gets in the way.
This legislation would get the Federal Government out of the way and allow credit unions help jumpstart the economy. Under current statute, credit unions are constrained to dedicating no more than 12.25 percent of their total assets to small business lending. Many credit unions have run up against that cap. What this legislation would do is take the most experienced and well-run credit unions and allow them to meet the rising demand for small business loans.
The National Credit Union Administration, the Federal regulator, would have the authority to allow the small business lending cap to slowly increase from the current 12.25 percent limit to a maximum of 27.5 percent of total assets.
Lest you think this has been pulled out of thin air, the proposal has the backing of the Banking Committee, the Treasury Department, and National Credit Union Association. It also has the support of the National Small Business Association, the National Association of Realtors, and even the Conservative Americans for Tax Reform thinks this is a good idea.
The Credit Union National Association projects that these reforms are sensible reforms and would increase small business lending by $10 billion within the first year, with an increase of nearly $200 million in my State, and I am sure it would be similar in all States. It is expected to also increase 100,000 jobs nationwide.
This is disappointing. It is a shame we can't move this legislation forward. We should be helping our economy, but we are embroiled in other things here. I will continue to fight for this, and I hope other Senators here today will join me in helping unleash the power of credit unions and get Americans back to work.
