news

Thank you for holding this mark-up today. I am committed to working in a bipartisan manner to enact legislation that assists small businesses, as well as conduct rigorous oversight of SBA’s programs.

The past three years have been extremely challenging for small businesses. SBA provided more than $1.2 trillion in pandemic relief, which enabled small businesses to navigate the pandemic and stay afloat.

Today, we are seeing the benefit of that aid. Entrepreneurs have started a record number of small businesses who have created jobs at a rapid pace. Small firms have paved the way for some of the lowest unemployment rates in recent times and we got more good news last week as annual inflation dropped to 3%.

Despite the success of the pandemic relief programs, we know bad actors took advantage of the programs. Last week, we learned from the IG and SBA the extent of that fraud. And while the numbers are vastly different, we must work together to recover fraudulent funds and ensure we learn best practices for the next global catastrophe.

That is why I support this legislation to require the SBA and OIG to submit quarterly reports detailing the amount of fraud.

I also support legislation requiring SBA to issue clear guidance for borrowers, lenders, and financial institutions on how to return PPP funds and implement a process for SBA to track the returned funds.

But, our work doesn’t end with pandemic oversight as we have many other challenges facing our small business community. That’s why I plan to lend my support to the bills we are marking up today to help veterans, small contractors, and innovators.

It is important to note, that we did not see eye to eye on these bills at the beginning of the process, but through hard work of the Chairman, bill sponsors, and committee staff on both sides of the aisle, we were able to reach a compromise.

And while I’m proud of those achievements, it is disappointing we failed to reach an agreement on one bill but it is my hope that we can continue to work through those differences. Thank you, and I yield back.