Thank you, Judge Moore for the warm welcome.
As the voice for America’s 30 million small businesses and innovative startups, it’s truly an honor to join NaCo and your incredible membership of dedicated county public servants, who have played such a crucial role in supporting our local economies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
With NaCo membership at an all-time high, our nation is stronger because of the hard work of county officials and employees. As we emerge from this once-in-a-generation pandemic, it’s empowering to see so many of you sharing best practices to help communities recover and rebuild.
I’ve been traveling around the country in recent weeks – talking with small business owners. And while I’ve heard stories about unprecedented struggles, I’ve also witnessed a new sense of hope thanks to the progress we’ve made fighting this pandemic and getting people vaccinated.
Nothing is more important for helping our small businesses reopen fully and safely and with all of their employees than shots in arms.
Our economy is coming back thanks to the American Rescue Plan’s successes fighting COVID. But we’re also still reeling from this unprecedented disaster.
Small businesses have shared how critical the financial relief has been to help them survive the pandemic, but they note that they are still recovering from months of reduced operations, shutdowns and increased costs to pivot and adapt – from building outdoor dining to purchasing PPE and more. That’s why, at the SBA, we remain committed to delivering billions of dollars in COVID relief – ensuring we can get the funding into the hands of our small businesses who need it.
Since the pandemic began, the SBA has scaled dramatically from $40 billion dollars to more than a trillion – disbursing loans, grants, debt relief and other resources to help our nation’s small businesses survive.
Throughout everything we do at the SBA, our top priority is bridging the gaps to support ALL our nation’s small businesses and make them feel like the giants they ARE in our economy.
I’ve directed my staff to be as entrepreneurial as the entrepreneurs we serve and put our customers – America’s small businesses – first. We need to understand their needs and meet them where THEY are, instead of waiting for them to come to us.
And we need to be technology-forward - to leverage technology small businesses have adopted at high rates during COVID, streamline, automate for speed and efficiency.
We’re also focused on equity and reaching our underserved businesses in counties across the nation – the smallest of the small in rural and urban America, veterans, startups and businesses owned by women and people of color, which were disproportionately impacted as a result of historic and persistent barriers to capital and opportunity.
We’ve gotten results.
In 2021, 96 percent of PPP loans went to small businesses with 20 employees or less with strong performance in rural and LMI communities. Now we’re working closely with our more than 5,000 private financial partners to ensure our small businesses can gain forgiveness for their PPP loans.
We designed and implemented an innovative and effective approach to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund to distribute targeted relief to food and beverage businesses – including $18 billion to underserved - women, veterans and socially and economically disadvantaged - businesses.
We revamped the Shuttered Venues Operator Grant program that was established last year to help the performing arts venues and cultural institutions that anchor so many of our communities. As a result, in the past few weeks, we’ve awarded $4.5 billion dollars to close to 6,000 entities.
And now, we’re working to improve the high-in-demand COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan program – or EIDL– which is a strong recovery tool as it provides low-cost, long term funds with deferred payments. We’ve delivered more than 3.8 million loans, for a total of more than $218 billion, plus an additional $3 billion in the companion grants for highly impacted small businesses through the Targeted EIDL and Supplemental Targeted EIDL Advance programs. But we know we can do better and get these programs out more swiftly with key improvements in the coming weeks.
As we continue to transform our programs to make them more customer-centric, technology forward and equitable, we know that our work is only as effective as our connection to small businesses. We must do more to leverage this unprecedented moment and attention on small businesses to ensure ALL of our businesses in need are aware of how to get help from the SBA. Which is why your county-level work is so relevant to us.
Right now, there are many small businesses out there that don’t know they can come to us for help with financial relief, capital to grow, skills to enter new markets and connection to networks. We’re looking for new ways to get the word out that the SBA has resources to help them start and grow.
And our recently announced Community Navigator Pilot program will help us do just that with your partnership.
Through this $100 million dollar pilot program funded by the American Rescue Plan, we will create a network of trusted organizations, local governments and community champions who can leverage their direct access to small businesses to help them navigate resources at all stages of their growth.
We’re building a hub and spoke model to build bridges to those small businesses that have never heard of us – or just don’t trust the federal government YET.
There are 30 million small businesses and innovative startups in the United States, and with new businesses launching every day, we need to help all of them connect to and navigate resources.
County governments are on the frontlines. You all have trusted relationships with small businesses that need our help.
I know many of you are already working with us through our field offices and resource partners and I hope we can collaborate further through the Community Navigator Pilot program.
Once we have strengthened our ecosystem for small businesses, we can be better positioned to ensure this next stage of recovery helps all of our small businesses access the opportunities that will be available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework and President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda with unprecedented investments to reimagine our future economy.
Because as President Biden has said, we can’t just return to where we were before the pandemic – we need to build our country and economy back better.
America’s small businesses are up to the task.
If we give them the tools, they will innovate, build, and adapt.
That’s what they do. That’s what the entrepreneurial spirit is all about.
NaCo members have been working so hard to help our nation’s small businesses. We want you alongside us as we work to bring businesses back, create jobs, and equitably connect all entrepreneurs in America to the support they need to start, grow, and be resilient.
Thank you.