Senator Warner praised the Obama administration today for sending Congress a proposal to create a $30 billion support program to unfreeze credit for the nation's small businesses.

The $30 billion fund would provide support to small and medium-sized banks with assets under $10 billion to encourage them to increase lending to small businesses, and it builds on proposals first suggested by Senator Warner last fall.

He said today:

“Small business job growth will be the economic driver that pulls us out of this recession.  The lack of credit for small business has been holding-back this growth, and this proposal should help us turn things around.”

Over the past 15 years, nearly two-out-of-three new jobs have been created by the nation’s small businesses, and these businesses employ more than 50% of American workers.