TheWeekInCongress.com

Week Ending December 10, 2004

HR 3818 to improve the results and accountability of micro-enterprise development assistance programs, and for other purposes.

BRIEF

   Microenterprise is a program in which the US got involved during the Clinton administration. The program makes small loans, sometimes as small a few hundred dollars, to individuals in economically poor countries. The program takes into account the ‘very poor’ defined as living on the equivalent of less than $1.00 per day or below the bottom fifty percent of a country’s poverty level.

   The program has been a proven success as evidenced by a 97 percent payback rate. Most loans are made to women.

    This bill extends the program for another year and, as it did last year, adds grant assistance to expand credit, savings and other financial services as well as training, technical assistance and business development services. The grant recipients would be US private and non-profit organizations including faith-based organizations.

   The bill provides for 50 percent of the funds for the very poor and establishes the Office of Microenterprise Develpoment in the US Agency for International Development (USAID)

Sponsor: Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ-4^th)

Vote: Passed House amended without objection (Nov. 20, 2004), Passed Senate by Unanimous Consent (Dec. 8, 2004)

Cost to the taxpayers: $200 million for 2005. The amount is the same as 2004 appropriations. ## All Rights Reserved. No reproduction or distribution without written permission from TheWeekInCongress.com.