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In its first full quarter since the Recovery Act kicked in, the SBA still backed 30% fewer small business loans than it did a year ago. ROAD TO RESCUE Small business lending falls sharply SOS: Send loans now NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Despite emergency stimulus measures, small business lending continues to fall. In the just-ended quarter, the Small Business Administration's flagship program backed 30% fewer loans than it did a year ago, and 55% fewer loans than it did in 2007, before the recession set in. The numbers bear out the grim reports from business owners who say that credit...

KOKOMO, IND.—Appearing at an afternoon news conference today with the White House auto czar and the head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Senator Evan Bayh and Congressman Joe Donnelly today (May 28, 2009), strongly endorsed the administration’s decision to open up a major new source of credit for Indiana dealerships that sell cars, recreational vehicles, boats and manufactured homes.

HotlineTo report fraud, waste, or abuse: OIG Fraud Line 1 (800) 767-0385 OIGHotline@sba.gov Mailing address for Complaints or Fraud: Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General Investigations Division Mail Code: 4113 409 Third Street, S.W. Washington, DC 20416 To suggest an investigation or audit: Investigations Division: Headquarters: 202-205-6220 Eastern Region: 202-205-6226 Central Region: 312-353-4467 Southern Region: 504-589-6685 x2843 Western Region: 818-552-3236 Auditing Division; (202) 205-7203 Referrals for investigations should be as specific as possible as to who and what is involved. Confidentiality may be requested, and the referrer's identity will not be disclosed unless it becomes unavoidable during an ensuing...

<p>Amid misgivings over his spending blueprint, President Barack Obama has decided to provide billions of dollars in federal lending aid aimed at struggling small business owners.</p> <p>The broad package of measures to be announced Monday includes $730 million from the stimulus plan that will immediately reduce small-business lending fees and increase the government guarantee on some Small Business Administration loans to 90 percent. The government also will take aggressive steps to boost bank liquidity with more than $10 billion aimed at unfreezing the secondary credit market, according to officials briefed on the plan who demanded anonymity to avoid pre-empting the president's announcement.</p>

Petaluma, Calif. – The Small Business Administration (SBA) has lost its fourth lawsuit to the American Small Business League (ASBL) in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling will increase transparency and set a new legal standard. The SBA will now be forced to release the names of any and all firms that received federal small business contracts. In September of 2008, the SBA appealed a United States District Court ruling, which directed the agency to release the specific names of all recipients of federal small business contracts during fiscal years (FY) 2005 and 2006.

The investment fund that owns the Washington Blade, the Southern Voice, Genre magazine, and other gay publications has been forced into receivership by the federal Small Business Administration (SBA), which will sell the fund's assets and distribute the proceeds to investors. "As a consequence of defendant's continuing violation... SBA is entitled to the injunctive relief... including the appointment of SBA as receiver of [the Avalon Equity Fund]," the SBA wrote in an August 2008 court filing, which was only recently found by Gay City News. Avalon, which owns a stake in the company that publishes the New York Blade and...

Automobile dealers are suffering, and minority dealers are getting hit especially hard by the steep economic downturn, said Legacy Chevrolet owner Emanuel Jones. Jones, acting on behalf of the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers, is calling for the Obama administration to free up loan money from the Small Business Administration to help the struggling dealerships. "It is a lot more severe for minority dealers," Jones said. "Traditionally, they have smaller stores in smaller communities." Jones, also a Georgia state senator from Henry County, will make his plea today at a news conference in Atlanta. Representatives from other minority business...

Congress' Latest Attempt to Send Your Tax Dollars to Planned Parenthood After two vetoes by the President, Members of Congress are negotiating to  pass a new version of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).The problem is, instead of improving the program, legislators are planning to make the SCHIP program worse.  How?  By allowing Planned Parenthood to access even more taxpayer funds through SCHIP.   Your voice is needed now more than ever to tell Congress this is unacceptable. Please contact Congress today and urge your legislators to keep funding for Planned Parenthood out of this program.Several Republican members with...

The Small Business Administration (SBA) enlisted banks across the country to participate in a new loan program reserved for military veterans. The program features fast approval times, low interest rates and up to $500,000 to help start a business or expand one. The Patriot Express Loans Program offers rates of 2.25 percent - 4.75 percent over the prime interest rate, depending upon the size and maturity of the loan. The SBA also offers counseling and training for entrepreneurial veterans. For more information, visit the Patriot Express website.

NASA to Use Fortune 1000 Firms to Hit Small Business Goal With New SBA Policy, Says American Small Business League The following is a statement by the American Small Business League: A new Small Business Administration policy set to take effect on June 30th will allow NASA to continue to count contracts to Fortune 1000 firms towards their federally mandated 23 percent small business contracting goal. In February of 2006, NASA lost a federal lawsuit to the American Small Business League, which was filed under the Freedom of Information Act. NASA was forced to disclose information that indicated that they...

Corporate America is missing a HUGE opportunity! Most companies, regardless of the improved economy, are still searching for ways to reduce their costs and become more competitive. Many companies have outsourced several functions to reduce costs. Of course, the most obvious outsourcing activity has been the customer relations call centers. How many of us have tried to call a customer service number only to find that we have difficulty understanding the person at the other end of the line. Now, here’s the opportunity that has been wasted. The largest customer for most of our Fortune 1000 companies is the Federal...

Last September, the Small Business Administration, which provides most long-term rebuilding aid to disaster victims, accelerated its lending to homeowners and businesses in the Gulf Coast, responding to criticism that it had been slow to respond to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita of 2005. But now federal investigators are looking into accusations that in speeding up its work, the agency made thousands of loans without following its own rules to avoid fraud. Current and former employees of the agency have told investigators that agency workers failed to secure proper proof that borrowers owned the houses they were supposed to rebuild or...

The United Nations has described the situation in Darfur as the world's gravest humanitarian crisis. In 2004, then-secretary of state Colin Powell called it genocide. On Tuesday, a US Congressional delegation that had visited Sudan told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, "The issue of Darfur challenges the conscience of our country." So what is being done about it? Darfur is a province in the southwest of Sudan, an Arab country. The area had a population of about 6 million - about 2 million have fled to neighboring Chad, while about 400,000 were killed by the Sudanese military and the Janjaweed militias...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush hailed the health of the US small business sector, using a neighborhood hardware store a short drive from the White House as a homespun backdrop. The president hailed what he described as a roaring US economy and its healthy jobs growth, after picking up few chew toys for Barney, the White House dog. "I just spent some of my hard-earned money on Barney," the president said during the photo-op at Frager's, an old-fashioned hardware store that he praised as "a good place to shop."

Last night the President and First Lady held a retirement dinner in honor of Justice O Connor at the White House. Today the President delivered remarks to the Small Business Week Conference at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington. Today was Andy Card's last day at the White House. Later in the day the Presdent departed from the White House to spend the Easter weekend with his family at Camp David. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay at the State Department Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

WASHINGTON - The White House has rejected hurricane disaster-recovery loans at a higher rate than any other administration in the last 15 years, according to a congressional study by Democrats. The report, expected to be released Wednesday, said business and home loan approval rates averaged about 60 percent after Hurricane Andrew devastated much of south Florida in 1992. The trend continued through the rest of President George H.W. Bush's administration and into the Clinton administration, according to Democratic members of the House Small Business Committee. After Hurricane Wilma surged ashore in south Florida last year, the approval rate for low-interest,...

The Associated Press found that loans to help small businesses recover from the Sept. 11th attacks were given to businesses who were unaffected by the attacks. The Small Business Administration (SBA) doled out $5 billion in low-interest loans with little oversight and allowed the loans be distributed among many industries, as reported. Indeed, small businesses that were not affected by the terrorist attacks were granted loans. Tom Mayl received two Sept. 11th loans to open a Subway shop and a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Sidney, Ohio. Other small businesses that received loans were 55 Dunkin Donuts franchises, a Virgin...

The top Democrat on the House Small Business Committee called for the immediate resignation of Small Business Administration chief Hector Barreto. The agency's slow handling of hurricane disaster loans was the last straw for Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y. She also contends the SBA has failed to ensure that small businesses have adequate access to capital and government contracting opportunities. "We need new leadership at SBA with the vision to put this agency back on track," Velazquez says. Barreto says he has no plans to leave. "There's so much work left to be done," he says. The chairman of the House...

December 31, 2005 -- WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday called on President Bush to launch an investigation into the Small Business Administration's outrageous bungling of a special loan program meant to help businesses hurt by 9/11. Clinton said she was "particularly incensed" that the SBA pushed lenders across the country to peddle 9/11 loans to a tanning salon in Las Vegas and a golf course in Texas "while many New York businesses struggled just to stay afloat." She dispatched letters yesterday to Bush and to Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) — the top two members...

"Funds appropriated for . . . small businesses adversely affected by the terrorist attacks may not have been used for that purpose," the report, released Wednesday by the Small Business Administration's inspector general, found. Along with dozens of Dunkin' Donut shops and pizza parlors across the country, beneficiaries of the SBA's Supplemental Terrorist Activity Relief (STAR) program — which provided special post-9/11 loan guarantees — included: * A tanning salon — in Las Vegas — basked in a loan of more than $500,000. * A golf course in Texas scored a hole-in-one with a $640,000 advance. * Jan's Janitorial Service,...