Political Quotes

“Madam President, as the ranking Democrat on the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee of the U.S. Senate, I take this time to update my colleagues on the implementation of the CARES Act. I think all of us know that the CARES Act contained major, new provisions to help small businesses, and I was proud to be part of a bipartisan working group, with Senator Rubio, Senator Shaheen, and Senator Collins, that helped to craft three new programs to help small businesses as a result of COVID-19. We recognize the importance of small businesses to our economy, to job growth, to innovation, but we also recognize that small businesses are more vulnerable to an economic downturn. They don't have the resiliency. They don't have the deep pockets. They don't have the liquidity that larger companies have. If we are going to get our economy back on track, we have to preserve small businesses and their workforces. We suggested and the Congress passed three new programs to help small businesses--the Paycheck Protection Program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Grant Program, and a loan forgiveness program for existing and new loans taken out under 7(a), 504, or microloans. We recognize that all three of these tools were important. They were not exclusive. They worked together. PPP provides help to keep payrolls together. It buys 8 weeks of payroll. The EIDL Loan Program provides working capital for small businesses.…”