SBA head resigning to take Latino Coalition job

WASHINGTON — The head of the Small Business Administration, criticized for his agency’s handling of loans to aid recovery after the 9/11 attacks and last year’s hurricanes, announced Tuesday that he was stepping down.

Hector Barreto, picked by President Bush to head the SBA in 2001, said he was leaving the administration to head The Latino Coalition, a prominent Hispanic advocacy group based in Washington.

His departure comes at a time when new White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten is shaking up the administration in the face of record low approval ratings for the president and calls from Republicans in Congress for a staff overhaul.

A spokesman for Barreto said he had not been forced to resign by the White House.

“He was not asked to leave,” said SBA spokesman Raul Cisneros.

“He has been invited to join this prominent Latino organization and he has decided to do so.”

The Associated Press reported last year that a substantial amount of nearly $5 billion in SBA terrorism recovery loans awarded after the 2001 terror attacks had gone to companies that had not wanted the loans or known that they would be receiving government money earmarked for Sept. 11 victims.

In December, Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the House Small Business Committee, called for Barreto’s resignation contending that he “has simply run SBA straight into the ground.”