Policy News – June 24th, 2021

Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee released the draft fiscal year 2022 Financial Services and General Government funding bill, which is being considered in subcommittee today. The text of the draft bill is here. The draft bill includes $29.1 billion in discretionary funding, an increase of $4.8 billion over 2021. Here are the key allocations:

 

Small Business Administration (SBA) – The legislation provides a total of $1 billion for SBA, an increase of $111.9 million above the FY 2021 enacted level, which includes $323.8 million for Entrepreneurial Development Programs, including:

  • $140 million for Small Business Development Centers;
  • $41 million for Microloan Technical Assistance;
  • $30 million for the Federal and State Technology Partnership Program, Growth Accelerators, and Regional Innovation Clusters; and
  • $26 million for Women’s Business Centers.

Department of the Treasury – The legislation provides total of $15.4 billion in discretionary appropriations for the Department in FY22, an increase of $1.9 billion from FY 2021. Notably, the bill includes:

  • $330 million for Community Development Financial Institutions, which includes $212 million for financial and technical assistance grants and $10 million to increase the availability and affordability of small-dollar loans.

Additionally, the House Financial Services Committee held a mark-up on its version of the MBDA codification bill, The Minority Business Resiliency Act of 2021 (H.R. 2689).  A section by section of the bill can be found here

 

On the Hill

The Committee on Financial Services will hold a hybrid hearing on “A Biased, Broken System: Examining Proposals to Overhaul Credit Reporting to Achieve Equity” Tuesday, June 29 at 10:00 AM.

The Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion will hold a hybrid hearing on “The Legacy of George Floyd: An Examination of Financial Services Industry Commitments to Economic and Racial Justice” Tuesday, June 29 at 3:00 PM.

 

Bills of Interest

 

Rep. James Baird (R-IN-4) introduced a bill to amend the Small Business Act to improve the Small Business Innovation Research program and Small Business Technology Transfer program, and for other purposes.