John Boozman Asks Kelly Loeffler About Improving Awareness Of Federal Aid For Small Businesses

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During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) questioned SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Vice Chair Murray.

00:03I turn to Senator Bozeman now.

00:07It's great to have you here, Administrator Senator Loeffler.

00:10We miss you, but we're very, very proud of the great work that you're doing, and I know

00:14that your heart is certainly in this, and you are doing a very, very good job.

00:20I guess the first question I'd have is just, as a committee, what tools can we give you

00:27in your toolbox?

00:28You've been out and about and touring and trying to figure out the world is very different

00:37now than it was a year or so ago.

00:40What additional authorities do we need to give you, or how can we help you?

00:44Well, Senator, thank you for the question.

00:47It is humbling to serve our nation's 34 million small businesses and then to be able to walk

00:52their restaurant floors, their showroom floors, their factory floors with them and listen to

00:57what their needs are.

00:58And their needs are really along the lines of reduced regulation.

01:02They've suffered from four years of trillions of dollars of burdensome regulation.

01:07They almost faced a $4 trillion tax increase if we don't get this tax bill passed, the uncertainty

01:14from that.

01:15They're focused on skilled workforce.

01:17They really need support on attracting that workforce into these, what we call, new collar

01:24jobs for the fusion of technology and manufacturing, which is very exciting and is going to provide

01:29an on-ramp into the economy for towns that have been hollowed out by the prior three decades

01:36of shipping our jobs overseas.

01:38And so, obviously, our focus is on deregulating, supporting the tax cuts, providing capital,

01:44which we're doing at record levels for small businesses who are investing in themselves,

01:50and ensuring that they have the access to the counseling through our small business development

01:54centers.

01:55I'm also really pleased with our work to support our veterans who had been virtually left behind

02:01during the Biden administration, and so what we are seeing is an opportunity to get the social

02:09engineering out of the SBA, get back to Main Street, leave behind the bureaucracy that had been built up

02:16over the last four years, and then, finally, small businesses want us to pursue the fraud that has

02:21happened in this agency that was swept under the rug the last four years and get back to focusing

02:26the resources on them.

02:27They're already seeing the impact in the field.

02:30They said that they feel that the Small Business Administration is now there for them again,

02:35and so continuing to support our funding, and certainly the bipartisan Made in America

02:42Manufacturing Finance Act would be tremendous to continue to put America first.

02:48One of the things, you know, I'm always amazed at the, as you learn about the small business

02:54program, just how broad it is, and the tremendous things that can be offered to our

03:00small businesses.

03:01A lot of small businesses simply don't know, and I guess my question would be, you know,

03:07how can we help you?

03:08How can you help yourselves?

03:10What are we doing to make it such that small business is aware that there's this great vehicle

03:16out there that this committee, you know, has worked hard to support through the years so

03:22that they can actually benefit from the opportunities?

03:27Well, we certainly take that responsibility very seriously to get the word out.

03:31That's why we've put 30% of our staff into the field.

03:34We'd love to partner with your offices in the field to make sure that they know the resources

03:39available.

03:40We'll be working with the Veterans Administration to reach our veterans in the field collaboratively,

03:46the USDA as well, so we would look forward to visiting Arkansas.

03:51We've certainly, our hearts go out to those impacted by recent disasters, and we've been

03:56on the ground serving disasters.

03:58In fact, we've put out more disaster loans in the first hundred days of President Trump's

04:04administration than all of the last year of President Biden's administration.

04:09So we are back on the ground in local communities and would welcome the opportunity to work with

04:15your office to support Arkansas small businesses.

04:18Tell me about the small business loan volumes.

04:21What has SBA been able to accomplish in the first hundred days regarding small business loans?

04:28Yeah, so you're asking specifically about the loan program?

04:32Yeah, so we operate two core loan programs, the 7A loan program.

04:38We've seen tremendous increase in interest in that program.

04:42That's largely because we've put the guardrails back on the lending standards.

04:46Our lenders were very confused by the rolling back of the guardrails around underwriting during

04:52the Biden administration that unfortunately for that four-year cohort drove a $2.2 billion

04:59negative cash flow for a program that should operate at no cost to taxpayers.

05:04So we've cleaned up the underwriting standards and tightened that so that all small businesses

05:09that qualify have access to that but that we aren't funding businesses that don't qualify.

05:16Our 504 loan program is also one that will benefit from the increase from five to ten million dollars

05:22in manufacturing.

05:23That's a fixed capital asset program really aimed at restaurants and manufacturers, asset-based businesses.

05:30We're probably going to have the second highest year in that loan program in terms of volume.

05:37So we see an interest in Main Street businesses, rural communities, investing and growing thanks

05:43to President Trump's economic agenda.

05:47Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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