Senators Say SBA Budget Is Inadequate The Small Business Administration’s proposal to add nine procurement center representatives is inadequate, according to several senators from both parties. PCRs are tasked to find set-aside opportunities for small businesses. SBA Administrator Steven Preston said the agency has about 54 PCRs now and will add nine more this year and next. But Senate Democrats said only 30 of them are assigned to the job full-time, to cover several hundred contracting shops. At a hearing of the Senate Small Business Committee Feb. 28, Chairman John Kerry of Massachusetts said, “We need many more to make a difference.” The committee’s ranking Republican, Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, said even after the increase, the agency will have fewer PCRs than in 1993, when the federal procurement budget was far smaller. Congress has called for 100 PCRs, according to a Kerry press release. Preston said SBA is expanding the use of what it calls “electronic” PCRs who use technology to monitor acquisition planning. He said he is asking for money “to give them better tools and technology.” Several Democratic and Republican committee members denounced the Bush administration’s $464 million budget request for SBA in fiscal 2008 as inadequate. The administration says the budget has been reduced by 31% since President Bush took office, but some congressional Democrats say the cuts were even deeper. Some of the decrease came about because Congress approved the administration’s request to increase fees on SBA loans, rather than using appropriated funds. But Kerry said the 2008 budget request for non-credit programs has been cut by 16% below the current level. Recalling the Reagan administration’s failed attempt to abolish SBA in the 1980s, Kerry said he believes the Bush administration is putting the agency on “a starvation diet” that is designed to kill it. Preston said, “Through its ongoing restructuring and business process reengineering, SBA has improved and will continue to improve the effectiveness of the taxpayers’ dollars supporting small business developments.” Kerry said his “most urgent” priority is changing SBA’s disaster loan program, which was widely criticized after Hurricane Katrina. But he praised Preston for progress in reducing the backlog of applications in recent months. SBA said some or all money has been disbursed to 98% of hurricane victims who were approved for loans, or else the borrowers decided not to accept the loan. It said 160,000 loans have been approved and $5.1 billion has been disbursed. But the New York Times reported that SBA’s inspector general is investigating complaints by former employees who said employees bypassed the rules in order to approve loans quickly. The newspaper said SBA offered bonuses and additional overtime to employees who approved the largest number of loans. Preston disputed that his drive to push loans out the door opened the agency to fraud. “Of course we want to get the disbursements out faster,” he told the Times, “but it’s very dangerous to assume that this would lead to fraud and losses to the taxpayer.” Sen. Mary Landrieu has introduced legislation authorizing short-term SBA loans to keep businesses going after a disaster. “Hurricanes Katrina and Rita forced many of Louisiana’s businesses to shut down because they could not get the immediate assistance they needed,” the Louisiana Democrat said in a statement.  “This legislation will give the SBA the flexibility it needs to grant short-term low interest loans to keep ailing small businesses afloat until they are able to get a longer-term disaster loan.