Amendments to the Fiscal Year 2003 Omnibus Appropriations Bill (HJ Res. 2)

January 22, 2003

To Members of the United States Senate:

As you debate amendments to H.J. Res. 2 — the Fiscal Year 2003 Omnibus Appropriations bill, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region, urges your support for three key amendments sponsored by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and two amendments authored by Senator Christopher (Kit) Bond (R-MO).

We strongly urge you to support the bi-partisan amendment, S. Amdt. 129, introduced by Senator Kerry (D-MA) and co-sponsored by Senator Snowe, (R-ME). If passed, the amendment would authorize the reprogramming of any unused Supplementary Terrorist Activity Relief (STAR) funding into the regular Small Business Administration 7(a) lending program for small business. This would result in adding approximately $1.5 billion in government guaranteed lending capacity to the 7(a) program for fiscal year 2003 and has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to be zero.

Similar language was passed by the Senate at the end of the 107th Congress under unanimous consent (S. 3172) and is currently contained in the House of Representatives 2003 CJS Appropriations bill.

It is paramount that we foster and encourage robust entrepreneurial activity and small business ownership in order to spur economic prosperity important to our long-term vitality and success as a nation. Eliminating approximately $1.5 billion in capital this year to small businesses from the 7(a) program could have an immediate, dramatic, negative impact on the economy and dampen efforts toward recovery. In the long term, the uncertainties in the availability of loans from this program could disrupt current avenues of long-term capital to entrepreneurs willing to invest in starting and growing their businesses.

We also urge you to support S. Amdt. 186, sponsored by Senator Kit Bond. In November 2000, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) issued an opinion recommending the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) restrict flow levels on the Missouri River in the late summer season to maintain and develop sandbar and slow water habitats required by the piping plovers and interior least terns. This reduction in flow and the resulting reduction in water depth would be below levels necessary to maintain barge traffic. Previously, the Corps has relocated the few bird nests found on the sandbars to similar locations and maintained proper water flow. This amendment would ensure that the Corps would again be able to relocate the nests without interference from FWS.

The benefits of keeping the Missouri River navigable to barge traffic are immeasurable. Barges provide a safe and low-cost mode of freight transportation, while reducing environmental impact and surface traffic congestion. Barges move 16% of our nation's freight for 2% of the freight bill. One 15-barge tow transports the equivalent freight of 225 rail cars or 870 trucks.

Furthermore, please support S. Amdt. 185, sponsored by Senator Kit Bond. The Bond amendment would require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to study the methods by which states develop specific emissions standards for engines that differ from national emissions standards established by EPA pursuant to the Clean Air Act. Although private sector manufacturers produce products that meet or exceed national EPA mandates, it is extremely difficult for private sector firms to comply with a myriad of separate and potentially contradictory state emissions standards that do not consider important factors such as technological and economic feasibility, safety, noise and impacts on the energy supply.

Accordingly, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce urges you to support these three important amendments as you continue deliberations on H.J. Res. 2 — the Fiscal Year 2003 Omnibus Appropriations bill.

Sincerely,

R. Bruce Josten
Executive Vice President, Government Affairs
U.S. Chamber of Commerce

cc:

The Honorable J. Dennis Hastert
The Honorable Tom DeLay
The Honorable Roy Blunt
The Honorable C.W. (Bill) Young
The Honorable David Obey