Stimulus Bill: What's In It For The Entrepreneur?

So did you spend your extended MLK day weekend going through the economic stimulus bill put forth in the House? No? Well, then let me sum up the most relevant provisions for entrepreneurs and small businesspeople.

• As the House Appropriations Committee summary puts it, "to make loans more attractive to lenders and free up capital,"  $430 million to go to direct lending and SBA loan guarantees.
• There are also provisions to increase the amount of money that the SBA is willing to guarantee for loans to local business development groups.
•  $100 million in grants and loans to guarantee $2 billionin loans for rural businesses.
• $70 million to boost the Technology Innovation Program. TIP is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and it was started in 2007 "to accelerate innovation in the United States through high-risk, high-reward research in areas of critical national need." The Appropriations Committee says this money would go into R&D for projects that are likely to yield high job growth. What's not known is exactly how TIP would choose those projects. 
•  $250 million for the Economic Development Administration  "to address long-term economic distress in urban industrial cores and rural areas distributed based on need and ability to create jobs and attract private investment." Although the Appropriations Committee bills this as a "small business" provision, would this money really go to innovative entrepreneurs? Here's a local news story that gives an example of the kind of projects the EDA funds. Perhaps they are important for stimulus, but "shovel-ready" construction projects are not exactly the next Google.

So does this spending amount to a short-term kick in the pants in the economy? Or is it setting the seeds for entrepreneurial innovation down the road? The Appropriations Committee is trying to sell it as both.