Thank you, it’s wonderful to have this opportunity to speak with you all today and share the many great programs available through your Small Business Administration.
I have served with the SBA under two administrations and it is now an honor to serve as the Adminstrator.
And, SBA – goal focused on capital access and highlighting the critical role small businesses play in our economy.
There’s a trend here – once at SBA, the passion for SB is infectious and never leaves you. I know I’m back again.
I’ve spent my nearly my entire career in the entrepreneurial space – growing up in, starting, advising SBs and advocating on behalf of small businesses and startups.
In my past couple years as California’s Small Business Advocate and now, as the voice for America’s 30 million small businesses and innovative startups, I’ve witnessed the best of entrepreneurial ingenuity.
Our SBs and startups have pivoted and adapted during COVID.
Adapting to a fast-changing marketplace with shifting consumer trends. Discovering new tech to improve operations and create virtual connections. Navigating supply chain disruptions that have impacted a range of industries.
America’s small businesses and startups have confronted those challenges head on.
I’ve been inspired by their agility and pure grit and determination.
Yet our small businesses are still facing a huge crisis. And the federal government and the U.S. Small Business Administration are here to help them recover and rebuild.
Our priority at the SBA is to bring back businesses, create jobs and build an equitable economy that works for all of us.
Thanks to the leadership of President Biden and our champions in Congress, billions of dollars in targeted relief for our small businesses and startups has been allocated through the American Rescue Plan.
We’re focused on getting this relief to those who need our help the most – especially our smallest and underserved businesses owned who have faced historic barriers limiting their growth as equity is core in the Biden-Harris Administration.
The American Rescue Plan included an additional $7.25 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program which we extended with Congress to ensure reach to our smallest firms and underserved businesss such as those owned by people of color and rural and LMI communities . In total, we’ve issued over 10 million loans helping businesses survive this pandemic.
The plan also funded an additional $15 billion dollars for Targeted and Supplemental Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advances for low-income, highly impacted smaller entities – getting additional grants to help those businesses survive.
And one of the first things I did as Administrator less than 2 months ago was to increase the limit on EIDL loans so businesses can now borrow up to 500k for 24 months of injury – more than tripling the available low-cost capital to many who had been shut out from this funding.
We launched grant programs for some of our hardest hit industries – ones that anchor our communities and travel, tourism and entertainment
starting with the Shuttered Venues Operators Grants, with $16.2 billion in funding for our stages, movie theaters, museums and other cultural institutions and busiensses.
And we successfully launched the $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund for grants – not loans – to the hard-hit food and beverage businesses.
We designed this program aligned with my priorities to focus on the customer first, and meet our restaurants where they are.
After several weeks of extensive industry listening sessions, 2 weeks of inclusive community outreach, and strategic development of partnerships with point-of-sale vendors (in recognition of where businesses are at), we’ve already had an overwhelming number of successfully submitted applications – through as simple and effective and swift of a process as possible recognizing that businesses are still trying to survive a disaster and need support tailored to them.
And one final American Rescue Plan program we have launched is the Community Navigator Pilot Program – a $100 million grant program to fund and launch a hub and spoke model of support for entrepreneurs with an emphasis on equity and reaching historically underserved SBs and innovative startups.
We know connection is critical and we need to better build bridges to our entrepreneurs. And the best way to receive assistance and is often through local, trusted and culturally competent partners. The Community Navigator program aims to achieve just that.
When I became SBA Administrator, the agency had changed and scaled dramatically -- growing from a $40 billion dollar portfolio to over a trillion. with more lending partners than ever before, and more stakeholders and interest broadly.
Under my leadership, I have challenged this newly scaled SBA to be as entrepreneurial as the small businesses we serve – adapting and pivoting and focusing on customers and the marketplace.
I’ve directed my incredible SBA team to integrate a customer-first approach, leverage technology and create equity across every one of our program offerings. These priorities will drive us forward as we look beyond recovery and position the SBA to support our small businesses and innovative startups.
Right now, we’re focused on providing immediate relief. But we’re also looking to the future to build long-term recovery to help our small businesses grow and thrive.
President Biden’s $2 trillion-dollar American Jobs Plan is a once-in-a-century investment in our nation’s infrastructure that will provide many opportunities for small businesses and innovative startups. It will give them the tools and opportunities they need to grow and thrive by …increasing funding through credit and venture capital … increasing revenue and contracting opportunities through key investments in infrastructure, broadband, supply chains … …and increasing R&D to help businesses grow, including funding for incubators and innovation hubs that will support entrepreneurship in communities of color and underserved communities.
This plan rewards work, not wealth – and, as you know, small business owners are the workhorses of our economy.
It is a bold investment in America’s future.
Because as President Biden 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, create, build, and reconfigure.
That’s what they do. That’s what the entrepreneurial spirit is all about.
It’s up to us to give them the support they need and ensure that every dream, every idea, every flash of inspiration can grow.
And I know that together, we’ll bring businesses back, create jobs, and connect all entrepreneurs in America to the support they need to start, grow, and be resilient.