WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, joined Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) in reintroducing the Coordinated Support for Rural Small Businesses Act, which the Senate Small Business Committee today voted to advance to full Senate consideration.

The bill would direct the Small Business Administration (SBA) to designate an Assistant Administrator for its Office of Rural Affairs and codify cooperation efforts between the SBA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to improve support for rural small businesses.

“Louisiana’s small businesses provide good paying jobs to folks throughout our state and support local economic growth. I’m thankful to my colleagues for advancing this bill to improve support for job creators, and I look forward to full Senate consideration,” said Kennedy.

“Small businesses are the backbone of rural communities but often face higher barriers to accessing federal programs and resources that would help them thrive. I’m pleased that my colleagues on the Small Business Committee cleared the way for our bipartisan bill to increase coordination between federal agencies—bringing us one step closer to delivering more support for rural small businesses across the country,” said Shaheen.

The Coordinated Support for Rural Small Businesses Act would direct SBA and USDA to convene working groups to:

• Identify areas of partnership between the two agencies’ loan programs, including both large programs like 7(a) and smaller microloan programs. 

• Assess where SBA and USDA can coordinate in delivering resources through lenders, resource partners like Small Business Development Centers and others.

• Coordinate SBA’s Small Business Investment Company program and USDA’s Rural Business Investment Company program.

• Share best practices among the two agencies, rural economic development groups and others and evaluate how cooperatives can access SBA programs.

• Collaborate on technical assistance with procurement, exports and innovation.

The bill text is available here.