Blaine Luetkemeyer

No matter how you slice it, higher taxes are a burden for small businesses, both the owners and their employees.

President Biden has pledged to repeal the Trump administration's pro-business Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

The ability to start anew, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and own a small business are all key aspects of the American dream that many immigrants are seeking in the United States.

So if those taxes are raised and you wind up with increased regulation, it is going to suck money out of your operating capital.

I am concerned the numbers will bear out, you made the point about community banks.

The continuance of stringent COVID-19 mandates is burdensome to small business owners and their employees and their customers.

A mandatory higher minimum wage and excessive, unnecessary regulations are a burden for small businesses, small business owners, and their customers.

I think we need to sort of set the stage a little bit here with regards to what we are talking about this morning from a standpoint that the PPP program was implemented in a very, very quick fashion.

This program was not that big compared to the amount of money that is going out with regards to identity theft.

Unfortunately, we have seen numerous blunders--and I use that term very politely--as the SBA has neglected to be good stewards of our constituents' tax dollars.

I applaud the new administration for taking these concerns seriously and acting quickly to prevent emergency loans from going to bad actors.

There has been some documented fraud in there as well, and I think that is the concern that I have is that we make sure we go back and recover those dollars.

The bad news is that the SBA has mismanaged these programs and opened them up to unprecedented levels of waste, fraud, and abuse.

And I rise in support of H.R. 1502, the Microloan Improvement Act of 2021. Before I begin, I would like to thank the chairwoman for working in a bipartisan manner on behalf of our Nation's small businesses. The bills before us today were…

We have one more gentleman coming, but there is a long path between his office and here. Apparently he is not here on time, so I am prepared to close. Madam Speaker, as our economy continues to recover and as our small businesses rebuild…

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you all of the witnesses.

I don't think there is a more important program out there than the restaurant grants.

I was curious as to whether you believed--or what your opinion would be with regards to the necessity of the Community Navigators pilot program here in the COVID relief bill.

I think it is simply going to help increase the outreach and the effectiveness of the partnerships...

If we are delaying--and SBA has got a lot of balls in the air right now...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and congratulations, Congressman Perlmutter. Ed, you and I have been friends for a long time, and I am looking forward to your chairmanship, and your common-sense approach to things, and hopefully, we can do a lot…

I believe that there are meaningful bipartisan initiatives this subcommittee can work on to improve how consumers and businesses can get better access to financial systems.

I am interested to hear from the panel before us on how lenders and businesses view the program, areas that should be improved, and how to adjust the program moving forward.

Despite these circumstances, our nation's job creators have tried their best to move forward.

Due to COVID and these over-reaching shutdown measures, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and startups continue to face severe financial hardships.