Chabot Leads Bipartisan Effort to Expand Small Business Access to Capital

WASHINGTON – A bipartisan group led by Small Business Committee Chairman Steve Chabot (R-OH) today introduced legislation to invigorate the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) Program, allowing promising small businesses greater access to capital to grow their businesses and create jobs.

“We have to build an opportunity economy that allows all Americans to get ahead,” said Chairman Chabot. “In my home state of Ohio, more than 2,000 people have jobs today because the SBIC helped small businesses there access the resources they needed to grow. The program is an efficient, smart, and successful way of making capital available to small businesses poised for growth. Strengthening the SBIC will go a long way towards creating more good-paying jobs across the country—all at no cost to taxpayers.”
  
Congressman David N. Cicilline (D-RI), the bill’s lead Democratic co-sponsor, said, “I am proud to work with Chairman Chabot to support SBICs, and am happy to reintroduce this common sense proposal that would help increase the amount of capital available to small businesses and help get hardworking families in Rhode Island and across the country back to work. I look forward to working across the aisle to help pass this legislation and ensure that small businesses around the country have the resources and support they need to grow and expand.”

The SBIC Program is a public-private partnership that provides small businesses access to equity and debt financing. The program has provided billions in private capital to startups and small businesses, some of which have become household names such as Pandora, Whole Foods, Apple, and Nike.

H.R. 1023 would allow experienced managers of multiple SBIC funds to increase their leverage from $225 million to $350 million, helping these entities provide additional capital to small businesses.

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