Snowe, Kerry Make Bipartisan Push for Renewal of Women's Business Center Grants

On Monday, Republican Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts sent a letter to the Small Business Administration asking that governmental body to comply with a law to make renewal grants available to established Women's Business Centers across the United States. Snowe is the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Kerry created the Women's Business Center Sustainability Pilot Program in 1999. In the last eight years Congress has had bipartisan support in making sure that those centers with an established track record of success continue to receive matching funding from the SBA. The renewal grant program is an extension of the original pilot program.

According to the Center for Women's Business Research Center, small businesses owned by women add almost $2 trillion to the United States economy each year; and in 2006, there were 10.4 million firms owned by women in the United States, employing 12.8 million people.

Congress had intended for the renewal grants program to be implemented right away so as to ensure that qualified centers would receive new funding by October 1, 2007. However, the program was not put into action immediately, and thus the affected centers would have to wait another year for government funding. In their letter to the SBA, Kerry and Snowe urge the SBA to temporarily alter its grant-making process so that Women's Business Centers will receive their grants by January 1, 2008.

"The purpose of these ongoing grants is to assure that women business owners, as the fastest growing segment of the U.S. business community, receive the technical assistance they need to expand their businesses and enter new markets without interruption. The SBA needs to act quickly so that successful centers throughout New England and the United States are not forced to close their doors because they lack the funding to continue providing women with the business counseling and technical assistance," says Snowe.