Chris Coons Questions Kelly Loeffler About SCORE Program

Forbes Breaking News

At today's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) questioned SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler about the SCORE Program.

Transcript

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.

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