19 U.S.C. § 2347 — Administration of financial assistance

(a) Powers of Secretary In making and administering guarantees and loans under section 2344 of this title, the Secretary may— (1) require security for any such guarantee or loan, and enforce, waive, or subordinate such security; (2) assign or sell at public or private sale, or otherwise dispose of, upon such terms and conditions and for such consideration as he must determine to be reasonable, any evidence of debt, contract, claim, personal property, or security assigned to or held by him in connection with such guarantees or loans, and collect, compromise, and obtain deficiency judgments about all obligations assigned to or held by him in connection with such guarantees or loans until such time as such obligations may be referred to the Attorney General for suit or collection; (3) renovate, improve, modernize, complete, insure, rent, sell, or otherwise deal with, upon such terms and conditions and for such consideration as he must determine to be reasonable, any real or personal property conveyed to or otherwise acquired by him in connection with such guarantees or loans; (4) acquire, hold, transfer, release, or convey any real or personal property or any interest in it whenever deemed necessary or appropriate, and execute all legal documents for such purposes; and (5) exercise all such other powers and take all such other acts as may be necessary or incidental to the carrying out of functions under section 2344 of this title. (b) Recordation of mortgages Any mortgage acquired as security under subsection (a) must be recorded under applicable State law. (c) Availability of receipts for financing functions All repayments of loans, payments of interest, and other receipts arising out of transactions entered into by the Secretary under this part, must be available for financing functions performed under this part, including administrative expenses in connection with such functions. (d) Privileged or confidential information To the extent the Secretary deems it appropriate, and consistent with the provisions of section 552(b) (4) and section 552b(c) (4) of title 5, that portion of any record, material or data received by the Secretary in connection with any application for financial assistance under this part which contains trade secrets or commercial or financial information regarding the operation or competitive position of any business must be deemed to be privileged or confidential within the meaning of those provisions. (e) Capital assets secured by first lien; exceptions Direct loans made, or loans guaranteed, under this part for the acquisition or development of real property or other capital assets must ordinarily be secured by a first lien on the assets to be financed and must be fully amortized. To the extent that the Secretary finds that exceptions to these standards are necessary to achieve the objectives of this part, he must develop appropriate criteria for the protection of the interests of the United States.