Good afternoon. Thank you, Rhett – pleasure to be with you here today. I appreciate our continued partnership and all that you do for our nation’s small businesses. As well, thank you, to Business Forward, and the Small Business for America’s Future team, for hosting this important briefing. This continuous flow of information that you have been facilitating for the small businesses is so critical – thank you. Let’s keep this up.
I am also pleased to see that today’s briefing will include Bharat Ramamurti, the Deputy at the National Economic Council – thank you Bharat for joining to brief our small businesses.
The survey results that Anne just shared are very telling. An overwhelming majority of small business owners think the American Jobs Plan would be good for our economy.
Small business owners know that raising taxes on wealthy corporations to pay their fair share isn’t just the right thing to do. It’s also good for growing our economy from the bottom up and the middle out, as President Biden likes to say.
Small businesses know what’s good for our economy – because they are our economy. If we’re going to recover from this pandemic, we need to do what small businesses do to be successful – create opportunities, adapt and evolve to meet our changing world, and invest in what works for all of us.
The $2-trillion-dollar American Jobs Plan would do all of that. It’s a once-in-a-generation investment in America that allows us– as we rebuild -- to reimagine a new economy, while finally addressing the needs of an aging infrastructure, creating millions of good jobs, and positioning the United States to out-compete China. But even more, the American Jobs Plan will allow us to tap our American-made ingenuity to rebuild in ways that give everybody a chance to succeed, and allows us to combat climate change and tackle long-standing and persistent racial injustice.
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.
At the SBA, we’re committed to helping our nation’s small businesses build back better. Right now, we’re focused on delivering the American Rescue Plan’s billions of dollars in relief.
I’m proud to say that we successfully launched the $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund last week -- we received more than 265,000 applications representing over $65 billion in requested funds. So far, we’ve been able to get out $2.7 billion in relief into the hands of more than 21,000 food and beverage businesses owned by women, veterans, and people of color, who received priority access to the program. And we are reaching the smallest of the small businesses through this program, with one-third of the total funds set aside just for them. This program demonstrates my priorities of meeting our businesses where they are and integrating a customer-first, technology driven and equitable approach to our programs.
With PPP and EIDL, we’ve now gone beyond $1 trillion dollars in relief. And, so far in 2021, 95 percent of PPP loans have gone to Main Street businesses with fewer than 20 employees. Funds remain through our CFIs with further hope to get funds into the hands of businesses who need it the most.
This immediate relief is critically important. But we also need to be looking to the future and our nation’s economic recovery – with equity as our focus.
The path forward must include opportunities for all of us. To get there, we’ve got to eliminate the historic barriers to capital, markets and networks that have left our smallest businesses and our businesses owned by women and people of color behind – and set them up to suffer disproportionately from the pandemic.
These businesses could be a driving force in our economy if their opportunities were not limited.
The American Jobs Plan puts them at the forefront by rewarding work, not wealth – and ensuring the tools small businesses need to succeed are available for all.
It increases access to capital for small businesses by injecting $20 billion in funding into SBA’s 7a loan program, and the Small Business Investment Company or SBIC program, both of which I am committed to leveraging for increased equity and to support the American Jobs Plan’s strategic investments in manufacturing, infrastructure, and clean energy.
We’re also looking at other tools at our disposal to ensure capital gets to our underserved businesses -- who too often have had trouble accessing financing via traditional lenders -- including direct lending by the SBA to the smallest businesses.
The American Jobs Plan also gives small businesses more opportunities to sell their products and services to Uncle Sam – the world’s largest customer – and participate in billions of additional investment in federal R&D. SBA powers the SBIR and Small Business Tech Transfer programs and we want to ensure that small and minority-owned businesses receive the support they need to take advantage of these opportunities, the American Jobs Plan would invest to allow SBA to create a national network of small business incubators, innovation hubs, and technical assistance partners.
The SBA is committed to building a future that gives all entrepreneurs the tools they need to recover, grow and be resilient – and in the process drive our economy forward as they do so well. We know President Biden’s American Jobs Plan will helpus achieve that.
America’s entrepreneurial spirit built this country. Now is the time to tap it to build back better for all of us.
The SBA looks forward to being a supportive partner to our nation’s entrepreneurs and help build an equitable economy that works for everyone.
Thank you for all that you do for your communities, for main streets, for supply chains and industry, for innovation and for our economy.