SBEA Urges Congress to Strengthen SBA’s Export Promotion Programs

In recent Congressional testimony, SBEA drew attention to the remarkable success of the U.S. Small Business Administration in supporting small business exporters. Not only does SBA offer “how to” export counseling through SBA District Offices, Small Business Development Centers and the Service Corps or Retired Executives (SCORE), but the agency manages to finance over $2 billion in export sales annually using just a handful of export finance specialists.

Each $1 that the taxpayers have invested in SBA’s export finance program has yielded over $500 in export sales. This is probably the single most successful export promotion program, dollar for dollar, in the entire U.S. government, SBEA told the House Committee on Small Business.

But SBEA warned the Committee that SBA is stretched much too thin, especially when it comes to export financing, which is in great demand from smaller exporters. We recommended several steps to help meet this need, and we endorsed legislation, which the Committee subsequently approved, that is designed to address the problem.

SBEA hopes that the full House of Representatives will soon pass this bill, H.R. 2992, and that the U.S. Senate will approve similar legislation. H.R. 2992 also makes useful innovations in improving the information about small business that is available to trade negotiators and in improving SBA’s programs to aid companies that are injured by imports.

To read the full text of SBEA’s testimony, go to:

http://www.nsba.biz/docs/sbea_testimony_re_sba_oit__12_july_20079___rev__001.pdf