Feb 26 -- The Treasury Department invites comments to OMB by March 27, 2024 regarding data collection for the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI).
This information collection captures information related to the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI). The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) reauthorized and amended the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 (SSBCI statute) to fund the SSBCI as a response to the economic effects of the COVID–19 pandemic. SSBCI is a Federal program administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) that was created to strengthen the programs of jurisdictions (i.e., States, the District of Columbia, Territories, Tribal governments) that support private financing for small businesses. SSBCI includes the Capital Program, through which Treasury provides funding to jurisdictions to expand access to capital for small businesses, and the Technical Assistance (TA) Program, through which jurisdictions provide legal, accounting, and financial advisory services (TA services) to very small and underserved businesses that are applying for SSBCI Capital Program funding and other governmental programs that support small businesses (eligible beneficiaries). The TA Program includes an allocation-formula based TA Grant Program, as well as the competitive grant SSBCI Investing in America Small Business Opportunity Program (SBOP), which Treasury recently announced via a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).
Under the allocation formula-based TA Grant Program, Treasury intends to award federal grants to eligible jurisdictions that submit a complete and timely SSBCI Capital Program application (“eligible recipients”) for the provision of legal, accounting, and financial advisory services (TA services) to qualifying small businesses. The SSBCI reporting requirements are contained in two different documents. The interim final rule (87 FR 13628, March 10, 2022) focuses on demographics-related data of those who own or control small businesses that participate in SSBCI, whereas the Capital Program Reporting Guidance captures these and all of the other data elements that Treasury requires. Eligible jurisdictions need to know what the reporting requirements are in order for them and for their partner lenders and other financial entities, to build and modify their data collection systems to obtain this information. Lenders and other financial entities need to know what the requirements are before agreeing to partner with eligible jurisdictions to implement their SSBCI capital programs.
Under the SSBCI Investing in America Small Business Opportunity Program (SSBCI Investing in America SBOP), which is a competitive grant program, Treasury intends to award federal grants to eligible applicants to support programs that propose innovative and high-impact models for delivering TA services to qualifying small businesses. Similar to the Capital Program, reporting requirements applicable to the TA Grant Program are contained in two different documents. As noted above in the section on Capital Program Reporting, the interim final rule focuses on demographics-related data of those who own or control small businesses that participate in SSBCI, including small businesses that receive technical assistance, whereas the draft TA Grant Program Reporting Guidance captures these and other data elements that Treasury requires. Via the draft TA Grant Program Reporting Guidance, Treasury has interpreted the interim final rule for purposes of the TA Grant Program.
SSBCI:
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/small-business-programs/state-small-business-credit-initiative-ssbci
Treasury submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202402-1505-005 Click IC List for information collection instrument, View Supporting Statement for technical documentation. Submit comments through this webpage.
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2024-03847
For AEA members wishing to submit comments, "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" is available at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806