SBA Expands Disaster Loans SBA will guarantee loans up to $150,000 to individuals and businesses in the areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Gulf Opportunity, or GO, loans will be available through lenders that participate in the SBA Express program. Decisions on those loan applications are usually made within 24 hours, the agency said SBA will guarantee 85% of the loan amount. SBA Administrator Hector Barreto said the agency has put more loan officers to work on disaster loan applications and is asking banks and other lenders to volunteer their own personnel to help manage the overwhelming number of applications in the hurricane-ravaged areas. Sen. John Kerry (MA), ranking Democrat on the Small Business Committee, charged that SBA had approved less than 3% of the applications it had received by early November, more than two months after Hurricane Katrina struck. Kerry also blamed the Bush administration for killing a Senate-passed amendment that would have provided bridge loans for small businesses while they waited for disaster loans. A House-Senate conference committee eliminated the provision from SBA’s appropriations bill.