For Immediate Release
Contact: Bill Chandler
Thursday, August 11, 1994
202/224-9629

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HOUSE-SENATE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE GIVES FINAL APPROVAL TO FEINSTEIN LEGISLATION TO ASSIST SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED
BUSINESSES HURT BY DEFENSE DOWNSIZING

Washington, D.C. -- A key Congressional Committee today approved
a program designed by Senator Dianne Feinstein that will provide $2
billion in private sector loans to many small- and mid-sized businesses
that have been hurt by defense downsizing in areas such as Los Angeles.
The House-Senate Armed Services Conference Committee approved $50 million
in the Small Business Loan guarantee program to leverage $2 billion in
loans, which will create or maintain 200,000 jobs nationwide. Fifty
thousand jobs will be supported in California alone, the state hardest
hit by defense downsizing.

Senator Feinstein first introduced The Small Business Defense
Conversion Loan Guarantee Act of 1994 in February. In July, the Senate
unanimously approved as part of the Defense Authorization Bill $27.4
million in Small Business Administration loan guarantees to leverage $1
billion in private sector loans. The House-Senate Conference Committee
nearly doubled the amount so that the program will now utilize $50
million in loan guarantees. Following final approval from the full House
and Senate, the legislation will go to President for signature into law.

"This legislation is targeted to those companies particularly
impacted by defense downsizing," Senator Feinstein said following the
Committee vote today. "I am extremely pleased that the Conference
Committee saw the merits of this program and funded it at nearly twice
the original level passed by the Senate."

"This program will be specifically targeted to assist those small
business defense contractors who find they are without business and
unable to get a loan to retool existing machinery. Banks are simply not
lending and many businesses that have as much as $20 million in inventory are forced to lay off employees and unable to move their business in a different direction because they cannot get a loan."

"This legislation is specifically targeted toward these small
businesses and I believe it will be very helpful in California, as well
as other states suffering from the defense winddown, the Senator said."

Senator Feinstein's legislation has been endorsed by the United
Auto Workers, the California Chamber of Commerce, California Small
Business Association, the National Association of Government Guaranteed
Lenders and National Small Business United.

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