Political Quotes

“Mr. President, let me just repeat a comment. I know Senator Hirono is on the floor, and I want to give her an opportunity to speak on this, but let me make this clear. The affiliate rules that are used by the Small Business Administration are exactly the same for a for-profit or a nonprofit, and there are lots of small businesses that have a big name next to them that are eligible for the programs under the Small Business Administration before COVID-19 and after COVID-19. The affiliation rules have been in the SBA for a long time, and I read them into the Record earlier in my comments. What they cannot do is pick and choose who they like and don't like. That is not how you administer a program. So, in the nonprofit world, I gave the example of the YMCAs--a pretty big name but, the truth of the matter is, they are all independently operated, and the national YMCA cannot discharge the CEO of a local YMCA. So we judge the qualifications based upon the local activities. The same is true for a lot of affiliates on for-profit companies: big chains that are independently owned and not controlled. They can qualify for these funds. I can tell you a lot of organizations that are related in the faith community to an umbrella, but they are not controlled, so, therefore, the affiliate rules allow them to apply independently for these funds as long as they can qualify. We knew that developing this program. We didn't want to change the affiliate rules because that would have been wrong.…”