(Radio Iowa) - A northwest Iowa banker says there's too much red tape in federal disaster recovery programs.
Gus Barker -- president and C-E-O of First Community Bank in Newell -- testified at a U-S Senate Small Business Committee hearing yesterday (Wednesday). He says disaster victims are in no position to complete the excessive paperwork required for Small Business Administration loans.
Barker says direct lending from the Small Business Administration and other federal programs have played a key role in the survival of disaster striken businesses and he's urging the agency to make changes, like letting impacted businesses get a loan from the S-B-A as well as a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant.