Hawai‘i's representatives voted in line with their colleagues on a pair of uncontroversial bills Tuesday.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted nearly unanimously to pass two measures Tuesday relating to small businesses.
One of those bills, the Loan Agent Oversight Act, would attempt to measure the effectiveness of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 7(a) loan program, which is the agency’s primary loan program for small businesses. The bill requires the SBA to submit an annual report to Congress detailing the results of SBA’s small business loan program over the previous year.
That report would include the number of agents administering SBA’s 7(a) loans, the number of fraudulent 7(a) loans made, the total dollar value of all 7(a) loans, their interest rates and more.
Pennsylvania Rep. Daniel Meuser (R), introducer of the bill, said there has been more than $335 million in documented 7(a) loan agent fraud over the last decade, according to the SBA Inspector General.
Co-introducer Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) said the measure will grant Congress additional oversight over the program to make sure it actually works effectively.
The bill was overwhelmingly popular, with only three representatives — two Republicans and one Democrat — voting against it. Hawai‘i reps Jill Tokuda and Ed Case voted in support, with the final vote 405-3 in favor.
The other measure on Tuesday was the Connecting Small Businesses with Career and Technical Education Graduates Act, which requires small business development centers to provide educational information to small businesses about hiring graduates of career and technical education programs.
Texas Rep. Roger Williams (R), introducer of the bill, explained that small businesses are struggling to find workers while technical education graduates are struggling to find work. The bill, he said, requires SBA’s partners to provide businesses resources to connect with potential employees.
Once again, the bill was popular among both parties, with the final vote 396-5 in favor. No Democrats, including Hawai‘i's reps, voted against the measure.
Both measures will next be discussed in the Senate.
