President Barack Obama signed a law cutting taxes and creating a $30 billion loan fund for small businesses on Monday after months of legislative stalling in the Senate.
The Small Business Jobs Act aims to help small businesses expand and hire new employees.
The purpose of the loan fund is to encourage lending to small businesses that may have not otherwise been given a bank loan.
The bill also contains abount $12 billion in tax breaks for small businesses.
The passage of the bill comes five weeks before the upcoming Nov. 2 elections.
Republicans objected to the bill largely because they believed that, like the 2008 financial industry bailout, it would cause banks to give out risky loans.
Sens. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and George LeMieux (R-Florida) helped to break the GOP filibuster.
"My support for the small business legislation is based upon the many calls of support I heard from Ohio's small and medium manufacturers," Voinovich said in a Sept. 16 speech to the Senate.
"While I am disappointed that my colleagues were unable to offer amendments to this bill . . . I felt we could no longer wait to pass this legislation. We needed to do something now to help the economy get going," he added.
Obama applauded the efforts of members of Congress who helped pass the bill during a ceremony in which he signed the bill into law.
"This is important because small businesses produce most of the new jobs in this country," he said. "They are the anchors of our Main Streets. They are part of the promise of America-the idea that if you've got a dream and you're willing to work hard, you can succeed."
However, the president also expressed displeasure at the length of time the bill took to get through Congress.
"I regret that this bill &- which was based on ideas from both Democrats and Republicans, and drawing support from business groups that don't normally support me &- I regret that this was blocked for months by the Republican minority in the Senate, and that needlessly delayed this relief," Obama said. "But I do want to thank the two Republicans senators who bucked this partisanship to help pass this bill, and, obviously, I want to thank all the Democrats who worked so hard to get it passed."
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