Free Republic

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...

Washington (AP) - Citing enormous backlogs and high rates of declined loans for hurricane victims, a House Democrat on Wednesday called on the head of the Small Business Administration to quit immediately.Rep. Nydia Velazquez, the top Democrat on the House Small Business Committee, said a flood of missteps by the SBA this year make it clear that Hector Barreto isn't capable of leading the agency. Barreto, said the New York congresswoman, "has simply run SBA straight into the ground." Velazquez said that since the hurricanes roared ashore in August and September, the agency has declined 80 percent of disaster loans...