Implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will have a significant impact on small businesses and on the credit crunch, providing tax incentives and financing opportunities that will help them create jobs.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act makes SBA part of the solution, providing it with specific tools to make it easier and less expensive for small businesses to get loans, give lenders new incentives to make more small business loans, and help unfreeze the secondary markets to boost liquidity in the credit markets.

More details on implementation will be coming over the next few weeks.

The bill provides $730 million to SBA and makes changes to the agency’s lending and investment programs so that they can reach more small businesses that need help. The funding includes:

$375 million for temporarily eliminating fees on SBA-backed loans and raising SBA's guarantee percentage on some loans to 90 percent. The elimination of fees, announced on March 16, will remain in effect until the end of the calendar year or until the funding is exhausted. The elimination of fees is retroactive to the day the Recovery Act was signed into law.

$255 million for a new loan program to help small businesses meet existing debt payments

$30 million for expanding SBA’s Microloan program, enough to finance up to $50 million in new lending and $24 million in technical assistance grants to microlenders

$20 million for technology systems to streamline SBA’s lending and oversight processes

$15 million for expanding SBA’s Surety Bond Guarantee program

$25 million for staffing up to meet demands for new programs

$10 million for the Office of Inspector General