SBA targeted for spending cut.

President Bush's 2005 budget would impose higher fees on the Small Business Administration's flagship 7(a) loan guarantee program, while cutting the agency's budget by 10% from the current year and eliminating several smaller loan programs.

SBA said the fee increases mean the 7(a) program "would no longer rely on an annual appropriation." Congress blocked a similar increase in 2002.

But Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), ranking minority member of the House Small Business Committee, said the proposal "leaves small businesses shouldering yet another tax."

The president's budget re quests $12.5 billion in loan guarantee authority for the 7(a) program, a 30 percent increase over last year's request.

No money was requested for the Microloan program, which provided $26.5 million in very small loans to start-ups last year. Also left out was funding for the New Markets Venture Capital Company Program, which provides equity investment to businesses in low-income areas, and PRIME and BusinessLINC, a mentoring program for small businesses in low-income areas. The administration has been trying to kill those programs since it took office in 2001, but Congress has spared them so far.