Partisan fight delays bill to reauthorize SBA

House Small Business Committee Chairman Don Manzullo, R-Ill., postponed Wednesday's markup of the Small Business Reauthorization Act of 2006 after Democrats denounced the bill as partisan and inadequate to shore up a troubled agency.

Republicans countered that they made efforts to work with Democrats on the legislation (H.R. 5352), which governs the Small Business Administration, and that the minority had failed to meet deadlines to submit amendments.

Manzullo last week asked that all amendments be submitted by 5 p.m. Tuesday, said Rich Carter, a Republican spokesman. But batches from Democrats began arriving at 9:36 p.m. Tuesday night, and some showed up just before the hearing began Wednesday morning, he said. By that time, Democrats had not yet presented their substitute bill, Carter noted.

There are 49 Democratic amendments in all, and one Republican amendment. Manzullo put off the markup session "to meet with the sponsors to see if he can accommodate any of their amendments in a bipartisan bill," Carter said.

Democrats struck a harsher tone to describe the impasse.

In a statement issued before the markup, ranking member Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., berated Republicans for failing to address an agency she described as spinning out of control: its "budget has nearly been cut in half, its programs are desperately in need of modernization, and it is struggling to reverse a disaster response that disappointed thousands of small businesses," she said.

"I must say that this is my third SBA reauthorization as the ranking member," she continued, "and the first time that I have not been a co-sponsor of the original bill."

In December, Velazquez had called for the resignation of SBA chief Hector Barreto. His tenure was marked by criticism from both Congress and small business owners who faulted the agency for a slow and disorganized response both to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and to the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita disasters last August and September.

Barreto, a California businessman, left the agency last month and now heads the Latino Coalition, a Washington-based advocacy group. His successor, former investment banker Steven C. Preston, has been criticized for his relative lack of small business experience.

One of the amendments submitted by Democrats would require the head of the SBA to have small business experience.

Other proposals would restore funding to programs slashed in previous years, and would aim to raise the agency's profile. For example, one measure would increase the overall small business government contracting goal from 23 to 30 percent. Another would boost the size of loans administered under the Microloan program from $35,000 to $50,000, and yet another would create a $3 million grant program to help small businesses find and afford health insurance.

There is no price tag yet on the SBA legislation, which would be reauthorized for four years. Neither the House nor Senate is expected to move on the bill until after Congress returns from its Memorial Day break.