SmallBusinessNewz

Senator John Kerry, who is chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, has yet again called out the Bush Administration for something. Nothing new there, but the focus this time is an estimated $404 million in fixed asset loans from the Small Business Administration's (SBA) 504 program.

Kerry is calling upon the Bush Administration to "protect taxpayer investments" in small business loans backed by the government, and to reinstate a program that "uses lenders to recoup losses from defaulted loans".

Senator John Kerry

According to the Committee, the Bush Administration has failed to request $2 million to fund the program that reimburses 504 lenders, and has announced its intentions to suspend the program.

 "The Bush Administration's willingness to stick taxpayers with a $400 million bill is just bad business," says Kerry. "The choice is clear: Spend $2 million today to help recover up to $404 million in defaulted loans or continue on the current course of failed oversight and inadequate liquidation staff."

A statement from the committee says:

    Last week, the Bush Administration admitted it made a mistake in the agency's 2008 and 2009 budgets to cover costs incurred by Certified Development Corporations that liquidate the defaulted 504 loans. However, instead of working with Congress to reprogram funds or seek additional funding in the budget, the SBA has changed the rules for lenders currently liquidating loans and is working to get rid of the program. At the same time, the agency does not have enough resources to liquidate almost 1,000 defaulted 504 loans worth an estimated $404 million, currently in some stage of liquidation.

You can read the letters that Kerry wrote to the SBA here.