At today's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) questioned SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler about the SCORE Program.
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00:00Senator Coons.
00:04Thank you Chairman Hagerty, Ranking Member Reed.
00:06Thank you Administrator Loeffler, good to be with you again.
00:11It is unfortunate we don't have in front of us a full budget.
00:14That's the case of all the appropriations subcommittees on which I serve.
00:18What's the timeline on which you'll be providing us with an actual budget for us to review
00:22and work with you on?
00:23Senator, we hope to have it to you in the coming weeks.
00:26I don't have a hard deadline for you but as soon as we have it we will be providing
00:32that to you.
00:33As you can imagine it's sort of difficult for us to do our work if the budget hasn't
00:38arrived and we can't have it in front of us.
00:41I think my small home state is typical.
00:44Small businesses are 98% of all the businesses and employ two-thirds of our workforce and
00:49the SBA is crucial for those who want to start a new business.
00:52It provides a great resource for new and existing businesses and I want to briefly at the outset
00:57recognize the service of Michelle Harris, the SBA state director who is retiring after
01:0235 years of federal service and who dedicated her career to lots of small businesses.
01:08I am concerned by actions you've taken to cut over 40% of the workforce at SBA and close
01:15regional offices and from what we have in the skinny budget you're proposing fairly significant
01:22cuts to an agency that I think does very important work.
01:27I wanted to focus for a moment if I could on a small but mighty part of SBA which is the
01:33SCORE program.
01:34SCORE as you know was founded in my hometown of Wilmington by DuPont Volunteers and it is
01:41the definition of an efficient government program there are 10,000 SCORE volunteers all over
01:47the country in every SBA office and district that help new small businesses launch.
01:53In fact last year these 10,000 volunteers helped launch 63,000 small businesses and Congress appropriated
02:0117 million to it.
02:03With a full year continuing resolution this program should receive another 17 million.
02:08In your confirmation hearing you agreed you'd want to work on a bipartisan reauthorization
02:13of this program and the most recent study said that for every dollar we appropriate to SCORE
02:19it generates $45 just in new federal tax revenue.
02:23So I think this is a wonderful program well worth saving.
02:27I understand you're here defending a budget that is not complete or finished and that may reflect
02:32choices not your own.
02:34That's always true.
02:35Could you provide us with an update on the funding that's been appropriated and whether
02:41it's being dispersed and tell me anything about how you see SCORE fitting into the mission
02:47of the agency to deliver highly efficient and effective support for small business.
02:52Senator thank you for your question and congratulations Michelle and Senator I also want to thank you
02:58for your support of the Made in America Manufacturing Bill.
03:02Look as I've traveled across the country and done dozens of round tables with our resource partners
03:09that provide technical assistance be it SCORE, women's business centers, our small business
03:14development centers and others.
03:16I've seen a fair amount of confusion by small businesses about who they should be working with.
03:22And within the budget constraints it's important that we unify and streamline this agency so
03:29that small businesses have the benefit of going direct to the agency which we have 1000 small
03:35business development centers that operate across the country that provide direct access to
03:41our resource partners as well as direct access to our lenders and the SBA.
03:47And so those SBDCs are critical in delivering those services to our small businesses and we
03:54think that unifying and streamlining will create a better user experience for our small businesses
03:59and have more accountability for taxpayers of eliminating overlapping services that often
04:05result in confusion for our borrowers.
04:07But if I might, I think SCORE fits a unique niche in that it is seasoned, experienced, often
04:15retired business executives, people who've got personal experience, financing, running, whether
04:21it's a manufacturing business, a service business, and at very little cost to the federal government,
04:25they provide a service.
04:26I hear you on the potentially, we could debate it, confusing array of different centers and
04:33missions.
04:34But I think SCORE fits a unique window, if I might, with your forbearance.
04:38One more question, Mr. Chairman.
04:39We also discussed during your confirmation hearing the SBIR program.
04:43I recently introduced with Senator Curtis the Ramp for Innovators Act, which expedites the
04:48application process, improves technical and business assistance, and focuses more on commercialization.
04:55Some have rightfully criticized SBIR grants as leading to circular not moving towards the
05:01workplace.
05:02This is a bill that Senator Rubio and I previously worked on.
05:05SBA plays a critical role in the success of SBIR.
05:09Can you assure us when we get your full budget that your agency will have the staffing to
05:14successfully implement this valuable program that takes research and innovation to the marketplace?
05:20Senator, we've been reviewing the SBIR program and we feel that it's languished in the last
05:25four years and needs attention to achieve the important aims of the program so that critical
05:32technologies can be brought to market.
05:34And in this, a reauthorization year for SBIR, I look forward to working with you and your
05:38office to understand how those programs can be strengthened across all agencies that utilize
05:45this important effort.
05:47Great.