Landrieu: SBA bungled disaster loans

2007-07-27

Source: New Orleans City Business

The Small Business Administration was more concerned about public image than actually helping victims of the 2005 hurricanes, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-New Orleans, said Wednesday during a Senate committee hearing.

The hearing, "Oversight: Gulf Coast Disaster Loans and the Future of the Disaster Assistance Program," focused on the disaster loan program run by SBA.

It was held a day after a draft inspector general's report said SBA canceled about 11,900 loans to hurricane victims in order to clear a loan backlog. The cancellations were made during two weeks last September, the report said.

Testifying at the hearing were former SBA loan officer Gale Martin and SBA Inspector General Eric Thorson.

“The SBA did not have a handle on the catastrophic nature of hurricanes Katrina and Rita," Landrieu said. "The testimony today corroborates what has already been abundantly clear from the struggles of my constituents - that the agency was more concerned about impressing the press and Congress with the number of loans closed than about working with disaster victims to help them get back on their feet."

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