Senator John Kerry (D), from Massachusetts, who is the chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, has been a driving force for change in services at the Small Business Administration. He has fought to insure that federal funding is available to Small Businesses throughout the United States for years.
In 2006, President George Bush signed into law Kerry’s Small Business Drought Relief Act. Kerry fought for three years to get the bill passed. The law provides accessibility of low interest loans to small businesses that are in states that have drought declarations made by the Secretary of Agriculture. Loans are available for business related purposes, including making payroll and paying bills until business returns to normal. Previously there was a loophole that enabled the Small Business Administration to deny agriculture dependent or non-farm businesses access to economic injury disaster loans when a drought declaration was made. Kerry’s work helped close that loophole.
Currently businesses that are affected by the drought and heat, from July 15th to December 31, 2007, in the counties of Barnstable, Bristol, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk, and Worcester, Massachusetts are eligible for drought funding relief.
John Kerry is currently working to improve the SBA’s disaster loan program from $1.5 million to $2 million. He would also like to increase the processing times of disaster loan requests.
The deadline to apply for this SBA economic injury disaster loan is December 8, 2008. For more information call (800) 659-2955 or visit the SBA website at www.sba.gov to download an application.
