Maria Contreras-Sweet, founder and chair of CDFI Bank ProAmérica Bank, has been confirmed by the Senate as the new head of the U.S. Small Business Administration. ProAmérica Bank, which she founded in 2006, serves small and mid-size Latino businesses in the Los Angeles area. Contreras-Sweet fills a role vacated by Karen Mills, who stepped down from the post in August. "Small Business will have a strong advocate in Administrator Contreras-Sweet, a leader with her finger on the pulse of small-business lending," Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, said.