Fair Access to Small Business Lending Act of 2023

II 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1369 To expand access to capital in underserved markets by providing resources for the Small Business Administration to approve additional Non-Feder- ally Regulated Lenders to make business loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration to small business concerns in low-income and moderate-income neighborhoods. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES APRIL 27, 2023 Mr. RUBIO introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship A BILL To expand access to capital in underserved markets by pro- viding resources for the Small Business Administration to approve additional Non-Federally Regulated Lenders to make business loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration to small business concerns in low-income and moderate-income neighborhoods. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fair Access to Small 4 Business Lending Act of 2023’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:56 May 04, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1369.IS S1369 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1369 IS SEC. 2. FAIR ACCESS TO SMALL BUSINESS LENDING. 1 Section 7(a)(17) of the Small Business Act (15 2 U.S.C. 636(a)(17)) is amended— 3 (1) by striking ‘‘(17) The Administration’’ and 4 inserting the following: 5 ‘‘(17) AUTHORIZATION OF LENDERS.— 6 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Administration’’; 7 and 8 (2) by adding at the end the following: 9 ‘‘(B) ACCESS TO CAPITAL FOR UNDER- 10 SERVED MARKETS.— 11 ‘‘(i) DEFINITIONS.—In this subpara- 12 graph— 13 ‘‘(I) the term ‘covered Non-Fed- 14 erally Regulated Lender’ means a 15 Non-Federally Regulated Lender (as 16 defined in section 120.10 of title 13, 17 Code of Federal Regulations, or any 18 successor thereto) that— 19 ‘‘(aa) has not been approved 20 to make loans guaranteed under 21 this subsection; and 22 ‘‘(bb) meets the applicable 23 criteria for authorizing lenders to 24 make loans guaranteed under 25 this subsection; and 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:56 May 04, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1369.IS S1369 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1369 IS ‘‘(II) the term ‘low or moderate- 1 income neighborhood’ means a neigh- 2 borhood that is a low-income neigh- 3 borhood or a moderate-income neigh- 4 borhood, for the purposes of the Com- 5 munity Reinvestment Act of 1977 (12 6 U.S.C. 2901 et seq.). 7 ‘‘(ii) INITIATIVE.— 8 ‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—The Admin- 9 istrator, acting through the Office of 10 Credit Risk Management, shall carry 11 out an initiative to authorize covered 12 Non-Federally Regulated Lenders to 13 make loans guaranteed under this 14 subsection that is targeted to expand- 15 ing the availability of loans guaran- 16 teed under this subsection to small 17 business concerns that are located in 18 a low or moderate-income neighbor- 19 hood. 20 ‘‘(II) AUTHORITY.—Under the 21 initiative under subclause (I), the Ad- 22 ministrator may not approve a cov- 23 ered Non-Federally Regulated Lender 24 to only be eligible to make loans guar- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:56 May 04, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1369.IS S1369 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1369 IS anteed under the Community Advan- 1 tage Pilot Program of the Administra- 2 tion. 3 ‘‘(III) LENDERS.—A covered 4 Non-Federally Regulated Lender that 5 becomes authorized to make loans 6 guaranteed under this subsection 7 under the initiative under subclause 8 (I) shall ensure that not less than 50 9 percent of the loans made by the cov- 10 ered Non-Federally Regulated Lender 11 that are guaranteed under this sub- 12 section are made to small business 13 concerns that are located in a low or 14 moderate-income neighborhood. 15 ‘‘(iii) FUNDING.—For fiscal year 16 2023, and each fiscal year thereafter, there 17 is appropriated to the Administrator, out 18 of any money in the Treasury not other- 19 wise appropriated, such sums as are nec- 20 essary to carry out the initiative under 21 clause (ii).’’. 22 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:56 May 04, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1369.IS S1369 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS