ASTA Asks Obama Transition Team to Make Expanded Small Business Lending an Early Priority in 2009

Alexandria, Va., Nov. 20, 2008-By way of follow-up to ASTA's recent letter to the Small Business Administration (SBA), ASTA has written to President-elect Obama's Transportation Transition Team asking the Obama administration to tackle the job of creating a new federal government program to provide direct loans to cash-strapped small business owners. On Nov. 18, ASTA wrote to the SBA, asking that the agency use its existing authority to provide direct low-interest rate loans to small businesses.

In the letter to Obama's transition team, ASTA said:

During this period of economic distress, travel agents and other small businesses would be greatly aided by such a lending program. It is important to note that this proposal is not a bailout- rather, it is simply a means of providing credit (to be repaid at a later date) more rapidly than the usual process of obtaining SBA-backed small business loans from private lenders.

...A short-term expansion of SBA's direct lending programs would be a valuable lifeline for small businesses that are finding difficulty obtaining credit, and would be welcomed as an early sign of the Obama-Biden Administration's commitment to the small business community.

For additional information on this issue, please visit ASTA.org or contact Colin Tooze, vice president of government affairs, at ctooze@asta.org.

ABOUT ASTA
ASTA's (American Society of Travel Agents) mission is to facilitate the business of selling travel through effective representation, shared knowledge and the enhancement of professionalism. ASTA seeks a retail travel marketplace that is profitable, growing and a rewarding place to work, invest and do business.