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Jared Golden Gets Committee Support For Small Business Development Centers

A House committee has unanimously approved a bill by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine’s 2nd District to expand federal small business development centers.

The legislation reauthorizes the program and increases its funding from $135 million to $175 million. The centers help start small businesses and help existing small businesses expand.

Golden says the centers provide technical expertise in financing and marketing. He says they have been very successful in helping Maine companies.

“They bring a lot of resources to the table for small-business owners who may be seeking to, let’s say, break into a new market, but they don’t have marketing expertise, well a small business development center will help you with that,” he says.

Golden says he hopes the legislation will pass the House without debate. Similar legislation is pending in the Senate.

“The bill has come out of the committee unanimously, broad bipartisan support. We are now working to get it on the House calendar where we hope it will simply fly through under suspension, without a vote because who doesn’t want to help small business,” he says.

Journalist Mal Leary spearheads Maine Public's news coverage of politics and government and is based at the State House.