Emergency Clearance Letter

U.S. Small Business Administration

Washington, DC 20416

David T. Rostker

OMB Desk Officer

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

Office of Management and Budget

725 17th Street, N. W.

Washington, DC 20503

Dear Mr. Rostker:

On May 1, 2007, the Small Business Administration (SBA) submitted an existing information collection, OMB control number 3245-0348, to your office for review. Since that time SBA has amended this information collection and, for the reasons discussed below, is requesting emergency processing of the attached amended collection of information by June 11, 2007.

Your approval of this request would facilitate SBA’s implementation of a new loan initiative, Patriot Express, that the agency intends to implement by the end of June 2007. This loan initiative is an outgrowth of SBA’s discussions with the Department of Defense, the military community and our lending partners. Through these discussions SBA has learned that military activations and extensions of tours are having a profound adverse impact on the entrepreneurial sector of the military community. SBA concluded that there is an urgent need for financial, technical and procurement assistance among this group.

In order to carryout the Patriot Express loan initiative by the projected targeted date, SBA needs to have in place an approved loan application package. The Agency considered several options for collecting loan information and determined that adapting the existing SBAExpress collection of information rather than creating a separate and new collection specifically for Patriot Express is the least burdensome approach for the small businesses seeking assistance and for the lenders, the majority of whom are already familiar with the SBAExpress forms.

SBA has also determined that it cannot reasonably comply with the normal clearance procedures under the Paperwork Reduction Act before the targeted date for launching the Patriot Express loan initiative. Because the information collection will be needed prior to the expiration of the normal processing time, SBA asks that OMB approve this information collection by June 11, 2007.

To further facilitate the SBA’s implementation of this loan initiative, the Agency also asks that OMB exercise its authority to waive the 60-day comment notice required under 5 C.F.R. § 1320.8(2)(d)(1). All of the relevant public comment notices regarding this information collection had been published and no comments were received. However, those notices did not address the collection of data for the Patriot Express initiative. SBA acknowledges the need for revised notices but since compliance with the notice requirement would cause a substantial delay in implementing the loan initiative, SBA asks that OMB waive the requirement at this time. OMB regulations provide that emergency approval, if granted, will expire after 90 days. If this request for emergency processing is approved, SBA will shortly thereafter take the necessary steps to obtain the type of approval that would enable the Agency to continue to use this information collection beyond the 90 days.

Being able to move forward with the new Patriot Express initiative as expeditiously as possible is essential to the Agency’s ability to carry out its mission of assisting members of our Nation’s military who are also current or nascent small business owners at a time when such assistance is critical to their economic viability.

SBA appreciates your prompt attention to this matter and looks forward to receiving your emergency approval for this collection of information within five business days.

Sincerely,

Janet A. Tasker

Deputy Associate Administrator

Office of Capital Access