A key bill for boat dealers may come to the Senate floor for a final vote this week, the Marine Retailers Association of America reported in an alert to its members.
H.R. 5297, which has already passed the House of Representatives, would increase the loan caps for dealer floorplan financing guarantees under the SBA 7(a) loan program from the Small Business Administration from $2 million to $5 million, raise the government guarantees on SBA 7(a) loans from 75 percent to 90 percent, increase the 504 loans from $1.5 million to $5.5 million, and extend the elimination of SBA loan fees through Dec. 31.
The bill also includes a measure to extend the dealer floorplan pilot program to 2013.
"MRAA strongly supports this bill and asks all marine dealers to call or e-mail their two Senate offices immediately to support the bill, H.R. 5297, and an amendment No. 4450 sponsored by Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and George LeMieux, R-Fla., to make $30 billion available to community banks to lend to small business," the MRAA said in its alert.
"Please call today at the general switch board of the U.S. Senate at (202) 224-3121 and ask to speak to your two Senators," the alert added. "If you prefer to e-mail your message, the e-mail address usually follows the following format: senator (last name of your Senator)@(last name of your Senator).senate.gov."
