Date: 1983-02-02
Speaker: GUY MOLINARI (republican)
Chamber: H

and DENNIS EcKART. This serves to underscore the board. bipartisan support that exists for the small business pollution control fi. nancing program. In fact. in three separate hearings in 198182. we were unable to find anyone who agreed February . 1983 with the administrations decision to kill this program. The SBAs program. which consists solely of authority to issue offbudget loan guarantees. was created by Congress in 1976. Its purpose is to help small businesses meet the costs of compliance with environmental protection laws. Such a program was required in order to overcome the unique problems small businesses face in financing pollution control equipment. Both government and private witnesses say there is no adequate substitute for the SBA program as it was established by Congress. Mr. Speaker. according to every witness we heard. and by any measure one can apply. the small business pollution control loan guarantee program has been a great success. It met its objective of helping small business finance the cost of complying with environmental protection laws and it actually earns the Government a net profit because of interest earned on escrow funds. The SBAs pollution control loan guarantee program probably was among the bestrun. most costeffective programs in the Federal Government. The problem is that the program was effectively shut down on January 1. 1982. Acting on orders from the Office of Management and Budget. the SBA changed the regulations governing the pollution control loan guarantee program so that it is no longer of any use to the people it is supposed to help. What they did was to bar the use of the SBA loan guarantee in conjunction with taxexempt financing. even though that linkage is specifically authorized by the 1976 statute and even though that linkage has been integral to the program since its inception. Mr. Speaker. in the first quarter of fiscal year 1982. the SBA completed 18 deals. providing loan guarantees totaling $39.6 million under this program. All involved taxexempt financing. Then. on January 1. 1982. they changed the rules. In the last three quarters of fiscal year 1982. the SBA was able to conclude only one deal. involving the guarantee of $500.000 in taxable financing. Beyond that. they could not find anyone who wanted to participate in the revised program. This does not mean. however. that there are no small businesses who need help in financing Governmentrequired pollution control equipment. Our subcommittee has been besieged by these people. and by numerous State agencies who also argue on their behalf. It is simply that the new rules have rendered a helpful program unusable. Indeed. at the time of the rules change. the agency had about 100 applications pending. totaling $180.9 million in guarantees sought. None of those projects have gone forward and the program contained almost $210 million in unobligated authority at the close of the year. We can only lament the delays in new construction and the resulting Inability of these firms to upgrade their level of environmental compliance There have been bipartisan protests from both sides of Capitol Hill. asking that the SBA program be restored to its pre1982 status. But these pleas have fallen on deaf ears. so it is necessary for us to introduce this legislation and move it quickly to passage. Last year. Mr. CONTE and I introduced a similar bill. H.R. 6189. It. too. was cosponsored by every member of the Subcommittee on Energy. Environment. and Safety Matters Affecting Small Business. We skipped subcommittee markup and took it straight to the full committee where it was incorporated in an omnibus small business bill. That legislation. H.R. 6086. was reported by a unanimuous vote in May 1982. In June its text was substituted for that of S. 1947 and it was sent to the Senate by a voice vote. The Senate declined to act on S. 1947 as amended. because of differences over unrelated portions of the legislation. We have been told that the Senate is in full agreement with the House on the matter of small business pollution control financing. Mr. Speaker. we intend to move this legislation quickly. because an injustice has been done and the remedy is close at hand. Nonetheless. we wish we did not have to do this. By a simple administrative act. the bureaucrats at OMB and SBA couldon their own authorityrestore this worthy program just as surely and just as quickly as they crippled it a year ago. If they would just comply with the stated intent of Congress. it would save everyone a lot of trouble and we could get on with helping small businesses meet their Governmentimposed obligations to improve the environment.e