Small Business Administration Reauthorization and Amendment Act of 1988

(Conference report filed in House, H. Rept. 100-1029)

Small Business Administration Reauthorization and Amendment Act of 1988 - Title I: General Reauthorization Provisions - Amends the Small Business Act to authorize FY 1989 through 1990 Small Business Administration (SBA) program levels for loans to finance small business plant acquisition, construction, conversion, or expansion. Authorizes specific amounts for: (1) handicapped persons and organizations for the handicapped; (2) small businesses either located in urban or rural areas with high unemployment and low income or owned by low-income individuals; and (3) disabled veterans and Vietnam veterans.

Authorizes FY 1989 through 1990 program levels for deferred participation loans and debenture guarantees for small business development companies.

Authorizes specific amounts for: (1) handicapped persons and organizations for the handicapped; (2) small businesses either located in urban or rural areas with high unemployment and low income or owned by low-income individuals; and (3) guarantees of debentures of State and local development companies.

States expressly that the SBA Administrator is not authorized to enter into any guarantees of loans to finance the planning, design, or installation of pollution control facilities.

Authorizes program levels for FY 1989 through 1990 under specified provisions of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 for: (1) direct purchases and guarantees of debentures and purchases of preferred securities of small business investment companies; and (2) surety bond guarantees.

Authorizes FY 1989 through 1991 appropriations to carry out provisions of the Small Business Act and the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 (SBIA) and for disaster loans to small businesses.

Authorizes the SBA to establish a certified loan program for lenders that display knowledge and proficiency with respect to SBA regulations and programs. Directs the SBA to encourage small business loans of $50,000 or less under both this new program and the preferred lenders program in FY 1989 through 1991 by permitting participating lenders to: (1) use exclusively a uniform and simplified loan form; and (2) retain one-half of the related administrative fee. Requires both an interim and final report to the Congress on the amounts of loans approved and losses sustained under the program.

Permits the SBA to reduce its maximum guarantee percentage by up to five points on loans under the preferred lenders program.

Amends the SBIA to subject small business investment companies to biennial rather than annual examination. Provides for waiver of the examination for one year under specified circumstances. Enumerates items to be addressed during the audits.

Permits a limited partnership that has been in existence for ten years to form a small business investment company (current law requires a 30-year existence).

Directs the SBA to issue at least quarterly guarantees of small business investment company debentures and trust certificates.

Requires the Comptroller General, by December 1, 1989, to present to specified congressional committees an evaluation of the volunteer programs operating in the Service Corps of Retired Executives and the Active Corps of Executives.

Directs the SBA to issue policy directives to govern: (1) the standardized and orderly withdrawal of any agency from participation in the Small Business Innovation Research Program; and (2) voluntary Federal agency participation in such a program.

Requires the SBA to develop and implement a comprehensive data acquisition and evaluation system with respect to small business participation in SBA programs and to report to specified congressional committees by March 31, 1989, on the implementation and estimated costs of such a system.

Amends the Small Business Act with respect to breakout procurement center representatives. Removes restrictions on the technical data and procurement records available to such representatives, providing access to certain restricted and classified materials.

Revises appeals procedures in connection with a representative's appeal of failure to act favorably on his or her recommendations.

Revises the definition of "major procurement center" to include entities other than centers of the Department of Defense and to permit the SBA Administrator discretion in determining eligible centers.

Adds the following as duties of breakout procurement center representatives: (1) to conduct familiarization sessions for contracting officers and other appropriate personnel of the assigned procurement center; and (2) to prepare and personally deliver an annual briefing and report to the head of the procurement center. Requires this latter individual personally to receive the briefing and report and to respond in writing, within 60 days, to each recommendation.

Eliminates the revolving funds for commercial or industrial lease guarantees and for pollution control guaranteed loans, transferring their remaining monies to the business loan and investment fund.

Authorizes the SBA to provide deferred participation loans to small businesses to finance the planning, design, or installation of pollution control facilities.

Makes permanent the pilot program under which the SBA sells development company debentures to investors. (Under current law the program extends only through FY 1988.)

Amends the SBIA to direct the SBA, during a limited time period, to promulgate quarterly regulations that establish a maximum permissible interest rate on any commercial loan that funds any part of a development company project cost that is not funded by that company's debenture.

Authorizes the SBA to operate a secondary market in development company loans.

Amends the SBIA to permit a waiver of certain ownership requirements with respect to either the development company or the property involved in a development company loan in cases of close family relationship.

Directs the SBA administrator to increase the emphasis on rural economic needs and the promotion of the development company program in rural areas, and to develop a plan to increase procurement and export trade seminars there.

Permits the leasing of up to 33 percent of a new facility funded by a State or local development company loan if growth projections indicate that the assisted business will both need and use the additional space provided by the new construction.

Allows rural certified development companies to contract out for staff and still meet full-time professional staff and management ability requirements.

Prohibits development companies, on or after May 1, 1991, from accepting any funding from entities that restrict types of businesses to which assistance is offered and thus impair the SBA program. Directs the SBA to report to the Small Business Committees on funding received by certified development companies from non-SBA sources.

Directs the SBA, in administering the disaster loan program to provide assistance, counseling, information, and prompt loan processing to disaster victims and to give the program high priority in allocating funds for administrative expenses. Revises the definition of "disaster" to include ocean conditions that result in the closure of customary fishing waters. Directs the SBA not to withhold disaster assistance to nurseries that are victims of drought disasters. Revises definitions of areas affected by disaster to include victims in contiguous areas as eligible for assistance. Applies a four percent maximum interest rate to disaster loans of agricultural cooperatives and other concerns unable to obtain credit elsewhere.

Authorizes the SBA to increase a disaster loan by up to 20 percent in order to take action to mitigate future disaster to the damaged property. Authorizes the SBA to make disaster loans of $10,000 or less without requiring collateral.

Directs the SBA to study and report to the Congress, not later than June 1, 1989, on the feasibility of and need for developing an expanded national directory of small businesses.

Requires that the President's annual report to the Congress on small business and competition include data related to small business concerns owned and controlled by disadvantaged individuals and by women.

Directs the SBA's Office of the Chief Counsel for Advocacy to study: (1) levels of availability of and demand for debt capital in connection with the service sector of the economy, as well as innovative financing techniques to meet any unmet demand; and (2) the most cost-effective and accurate means of gathering and presenting information on businesses owned by women. Requires both reports to be submitted to the congressional Small Business Committees.

Directs the SBA to provide financial assistance to private organizations to conduct demonstration projects giving financial, management, and marketing assistance to small businesses, including start-up businesses, owned and controlled by women. Describes application criteria. Requires the SBA to report to the congressional Small Business Committees on the projects. Terminates authority for this pilot program on October 1, 1991. Authorizes appropriations.

Directs the SBA, within 180 days of this title's enactment, to have employed seven procurement center representatives to work in States where representatives are not currently assigned.

Amends the Small Business Act to: (1) direct the SBA Administrator, within six months of this Act's enactment, to identify those Federal agencies with substantial procurement or grant-making authority; and (2) require these agencies, within six months of their identification, to develop rural area business enterprise development plans.

Directs the SBA's Office of the Chief Counsel for Advocacy to study the extent to which Federal employees perform for foreign governments professional and technical services that could be performed by small businesses and to recommend ways to eliminate any unfair competition discovered in this area.

Amends the Small Business Computer Security and Education Act of 1984 to extend until October 1, 1990, provisions that permit the SBA to cooperate with profit-making organizations in providing management assistance to small businesses. (Under current law, the provisions expire on October 1, 1988.) Sets guidelines in connection with publicity relating to cosponsored activities in this context, whether with profit-making or nonprofit organizations.

Prohibits the SBA from requiring fingerprints for background check purposes from volunteer program participants unless there are reasonable grounds for believing that the person's record will make the participant ineligible for the given program.

Amends the Small Business Act to authorize public or private organizations for the blind and severely handicapped to bid on small business set-aside contracts in FY 1989 through 1993. Provides for appeals by for-profit small businesses that experience severe economic injury as a result of a proposed award to such an organization for the handicapped. Permits contract awards only if at least 75 percent of the direct labor under the contract is performed by handicapped individuals. Requires the General Accounting Office to report to the congressional Small Business Committees on the effects of such contract awards on for-profit businesses.

Establishes within the SBA a task force on purchases from the blind and severely handicapped.

Redesignates: (1) the Deputy Associate Administrator for Management Assistance as the Associate Administrator for Small Business Development Centers; and (2) the Associate Administrator for Management Assistance.

Prohibits the SBA from suspending or terminating any contract under the small business development center program unless it has first provided the applicant with written notice of the reasons and of the opportunity for a hearing.

Amends the Small Business Act to extend certain funding authorizations through FY 1990.

Directs the SBA to promulgate final regulations with regard to this title within six months after enactment.

Title II: Preferred Surety Bond Guarantee Program - Preferred Surety Bond Guarantee Program Act of 1988 - Amends the SBIA to empower the SBA to: (1) enter into surety bond guarantee commitments under terms that vary on the basis of SBA experience with the particular surety; and (2) engage in a pilot program under which it may authorize any surety meeting specified standards to issue, monitor, and service guarantee bonds (including making indemnification payments against losses in avoiding breach) without further SBA approval. (Current law requires prior SBA approval of bond underwriting and administration decisions.)

Revises SBA guarantee liability limits to equal not more than: (1) 70 percent of any loss paid by a surety authorized to issue bonds without further SBA approval; and (2) 90 percent of both losses paid by sureties needing SBA approval for bond issuance and losses associated either with bonds issued to small businesses owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals or with contracts valued at $150,000 or less.

Disclaims SBA indemnification liability if a surety breaches material provisions of the guarantee agreement or substantially violates relevant SBA regulations.

Sets forth reporting, recordkeeping, and annual audit requirements with respect to sureties participating in the expanded surety guarantee program.

Directs the Comptroller General to submit to specified congressional committees a report evaluating the effects during the program's first two fiscal years on both participation by standard surety firms and access to bonds by small business concerns, especially those owned and controlled by the economically disadvantaged.

Terminates on September 30 of either 1991 or the third fiscal year following this title's enactment the program permitting sureties to issue bonds without prior SBA approval.

Declares that appropriations to the revolving fund for surety bond guarantees shall be without fiscal year limitation.