Senate Clears Major Hurdle On Small Business Bill

By Samira Sadeque - Talk Radio News Service

The Senate yesterday moved forward on legislation that would provide badly needed assistance to banks and small businesses. By a vote of 61-37, the upper chamber ended debate on a bill to spur lending to community banks, clearing the way for a final vote expected to come later this week.

Democrats and administration officials alike touted the legislation for its efforts to boost small business hiring. Senior Treasury official Gene Sperling said the bill will aid recovery for the middle class.

“Small businesses were the innocent victims of a perfect storm - the financial crisis. They got hit on the value of their collateral, they got hit on the tightening of bank lending and very little of it was due to their fault.”

In an effort to create jobs, the bill provides $12 billion worth of tax breaks for small businesses and sets up a $30 billion lending pool that will go directly to community banks. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) called the legislation “smart, strategic and fiscally responsible.”

Democrats were helped by a pair of Republicans, George Voinovich (Ohio) and George Lemieux (Fla.), who both voted in favor of the bill. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) thanked her GOP colleagues for breaking with their party.

“This is about righting a wrong that was done to small business when Walls Street took Main Street down and cut off access to capital. This is about restoring what we believe, in America, makes our economy great - entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs who can get access to capital.”

Earlier in the day, the Senate voted down two separate amendments to the bill that would have reformed a controversial tax reporting provision in the healthcare law passed this summer.