The U.S. Travel Association wants the federal government to establish a $500 million fund, paid for by BP, to promote tourism in the Gulf Coast region.

Kenneth Feinberg, who administers the $20 billion fund set up by BP to compensate victims of its oil spill, should decide which organizations receive the tourism promotion money, the association suggested. This would avoid potential political fights over how the money is doled out, it contended.

Without an aggressive program to change perceptions that the entire Gulf Coast is covered in oil, the tourism-dependent economies of Gulf states could take a $23 billion hit over the next three years, according to a study conducted for the association by Oxford Economics USA. A tourism promotion campaign could reduce that negative impact by $7.5 billion, according to the study.

"This is a situation where BP can pay now or pay more later," said association President CEO Roger Dow. "There are 400,0000 travel and tourism jobs along the Gulf Coast. One of the most cost-effective ways to save tens of thousands of jobs and reduce lost tax revenue is to immediately fund strategic marketing and public information campaigns to counter misperceptions and encourage travel to the region."

See www.ustravel.org

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac reform info due soon

The Treasury Department will hold a conference Aug. 17 on reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises that helped fuel the housing bubble by purchasing too many unsustainable mortgages.

The recently signed financial regulatory reform bill did not address Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a glaring omission in the eyes of Republicans.

But Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said the Obama administration will present Congress with a housing finance reform proposal by January.

"The future of our housing finance system is critical to not only our economic recovery, but also to millions of American homeowners in every corner of our country," Geithner said.

The administration is committed to a proposal "that protects taxpayers, institutes tough oversight, restores the long-term health of our housing market and strengthens our nation's economic recovery," he said.

The Aug. 17 conference will bring together industry groups, consumer and community organizations, academic experts and others to talk about housing finance reform.

Huge losses led President George W. Bush's administration to place Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship in September 2008 and keep them afloat with taxpayer money.

See www.treasury.gov

Confidence in Congress hits low; small biz high

The public has less confidence in Congress than in 15 other institutions - including HMOs - listed in a recent Gallup poll.

Only 11 percent of Americans said they had a great deal or a lot of confidence in Congress, a record low for Congress and 6 percentage points below last year's confidence level.

Half of Americans have very little or no confidence in Congress, up from 38 percent in 2009. That's the highest negative number for any institution since 1973, when Gallup first started tracking public confidence in institutions.

The poll found that 36 percent of Americans had high confidence in the presidency, but that number dropped 15 percentage points from last summer - the biggest drop of any of the 16 institutions in the poll.

Small business, meanwhile, ranked No. 2 on the list, behind only the military. Two-thirds of Americans said they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in small business.

Only 19 percent said the same about big business, but that number was up from 16 percent a year ago.

Organized labor came in just ahead of big business, at 20 percent.

A separate survey of small-business owners by Discover Business card found that 60 percent disapprove of how President Barack Obama has handled the economy.

Two-thirds of small-business owners have little confidence that the Obama administration and Congress can address their needs.

Three out of four small-business owners think the economy is likely to slip back into a recession before it fully recovers.

For more information, see www.gallup.com

Kent Hoover is Washington bureau chief for American City Business Journals. E-mail: khoover@bizjournals.com