Small Business Saturday is an important holiday tradition for local businesses and neighborhood retailers. This promotion encourages folks to invest in entrepreneurs in their communities by shopping at t homegrown stores during the Christmas season. This is an important step to support small businesses at a time when increasing challenges make it difficult to thrive.
Small businesses are the backbone of America, and capital is the lifeblood of these businesses. Capital is essential when launching operations from the ground up. Without this critical funding, many businesses quickly buckle and break down.
While it’s important lenders and investors find creative ways to get more capital to small businesses, it’s equally important the federal government removes barriers making it difficult for small businesses to access that capital.
This is why Arkansas Congressman French Hill and I introduced the Small Lender Act. True to its name, this legislation addresses concerns about a rule proposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which, instead of focusing on creditworthiness, would require lenders to solicit social factors from small business borrowers and divulge it to federal bureaucrats in Washington. While discrimination of any form is wrong, this rule would prioritize social factors over creditworthiness in small business lending, place additional red tape on lenders and make it harder for small businesses to access capital.
The proposal would change the traditional process of small business lending, creating a system of winners and losers and restricting capital to those who need it the most. The Small Lender Act would remove this red tape for certain lenders and small business borrowers, making it easier for capital to get to the businesses that depend on it the most.
