Small business owners who are interested in getting a loan may be in luck. The U.S. Congress and Treasury Department are supposed to be on the verge of approving a plan that would create a $30 billion fund encouraging banks to lend money to small businesses.

It’s no secret that banks have been stingy with their money as of late. The recession hit some of them quite hard, and many responded (rightly or wrongly) by putting extreme restrictions on loans that few small business owners could satisfy, no matter what sort of customers they’d already shown themselves to be.

Now, there’s hope that this new plan will fix the situation. Darrell A. Hughes spoke to Gene Sperling, senior counsel to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and reported afterward, “Sperling said the new policy is modeled after 20 state-level initiatives known as capital access programs. Treasury is developing policies that will help small businesses in general.”

Those are some encouraging tidbits, considering how unlikely it is that 20 states would all endorse the same horrible idea. And of course, $30 billion sounds like enough cash to fix almost any problem, least of all the matter of simply distributing money.

To be fair, though, not everyone believes this measure would act as a silver bullet. Or even, if we’re to keep talking about projectiles, a styrofoam arrow.

Hughes wrote, “A recent report from the Congressional Oversight Panel, which oversees the government’s $700 billion financial sector bailout, said it’s not sure ‘whether Treasury’s programs can or will play a major role in putting small businesses on the path to growth.’”

Hopefully more facts will surface before long, anyway. Congress is supposed to debate the matter this week, and a few noteworthy details usually come out of such hearings.

In the meantime, it might not be a bad idea for small business owners who would like to seek loans to start practicing their presentations. Even if the government steps in and starts prodding banks to lend more freely, there will still be loan officers to convince and lots of other people competing for their attention.

About the Author: Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.