Did anyone post this yet? If so, sorry for the dupe, but I didn't see it.
Source: New York Times Full Feed
Date: December 23, 2005
Edition Name: Late Edition - Final
Section: SECTA
Page: 26
To the Editor:
In a Dec. 15 front-page article about federal loans for the hurricane victims, a Small Business Administration official claims that criticism of the agency is purely “political.” The facts say otherwise: Of 322,000 applications, only about 22,000 loans have been approved.
It’s no small irony that claims of politicization come from the office of Hector V. Barreto, the agency’s administrator, named by The New Republic as one of the administration’s “worst hacks.”
The administration has failed America’s small-business owners. Of the $62 billion President Bush requested for hurricane relief, not one dime has been appropriated for small businesses or the S.B.A.
Twice, the administration scuttled relief for small businesses devastated by the hurricanes that passed the Senate 96 to 0.
President Bush has ignored calls from Congress to use some of the $37 billion sitting idle at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide immediate relief for small businesses and homeowners. That’s hardly a “heck of a job.” Getting the Gulf Coast’s small businesses back on their feet will help local economies rebuild, and it will give the thousands of people they employ the resources to put their lives back together.
John Kerry
Washington, Dec. 19, 2005
The writer is ranking member, Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
See this as well:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20051215/pl_usnw/john_kerry__sba_needs_to_help_gulf_coast_instead_of_holding_press_conferences111_xml