Access to Capital

Small businesses have difficulty obtaining credit lines. In 2010, one of TechVoice's partners, CompTIA, conducted a number of meetings with both Senate and House small business committees to promote a $10 billion "Growth Tech Capital Initiative" for small tech companies under which qualifications and limits of loans would have been based on the ability to generate jobs, growth and exports.

While this idea was viewed with interest, Congress continued in search of a broader approach and passed legislation that created a $30 billion fund to be used by Treasury to invest in small banks that commit to increasing their lending to small businesses.

Policy Goal: Ideally, a direct lending program would benefit all small businesses. Nevertheless, a more focused approach is appropriate in this economic climate. Therefore, we propose a small business lending pilot program for providers of healthcare information technology (HIT).

This proposal would authorize a new three-year program under which the SBA would make loans to small businesses that provide HIT service and systems to eligible medical professionals. (This proposal is modeled after a provision included in the recently-enacted small business legislation: H.R. 5297, Sec. 1131. small business intermediary lending pilot program.) The purpose of this program is to provide access to capital for small- and medium-sized tech firms enabling these firms to enhance their capacity (through expansion, career training or capital improvements) to service the HIT market, thereby supporting national HIT adoption.