administrator over the rads are partnering with SBA and we're getting back on track series, and for all that you do for small businesses. Also for gathering this incredible group of entrepreneurs and small business advocates, I know today's discussion is going to be great. We have a strong program has several special guests, including Congressman Jason and our SBA team of dedicated experts, and of course our vice president Kamala Harris. I spent the past several weeks traveling around the country, meeting with small business owners, they've been reopening their policies and welcoming their customers back. And as the latest economic reports show our economy is clearly the road to recovery. As a restaurant owner in Las Vegas
And more locations across the state.
The music venue operator in Richmond, once again, selling tickets for live shows, small businesses, feeling more optimistic about the future, and it's based in large part to the millions of dollars in investment advice because it is so hard to get past. At the same time and their capital COVID-19 still weighing heavily on any of our small businesses continue to struggle. After months of disruptions, increased cost of debt, there's still uncertainty, especially among our smallest businesses and low income communities, and those owned by women of color.
These entrepreneurs face
historic inequities in persistent areas, which kept them from accessing local jobs and other vital resources. That's why the Paris administration's focus on pedagogy is so important. If our nation is going to recover fully. And we must give everyone with an idea or an entrepreneurial dream, a tool, tools and support they need to help build a reimagined economy. The SBA has failed for a billion dollar portfolio to more than 1 trillion in relief, and we remain committed to delivering billions more swiftly equitably. Today you'll learn about our COVID economic injury disaster loan program, tax credits to help vaccinate your workforce. Our PPP direct forgiveness portal for loans of 150,000 or less, and more. We are working to design and implement programs that are streamlined and accessible to meet our small businesses where they are. And the bipartisan infrastructure deal announced yesterday will be a game changer, providing unprecedented investments in infrastructure and enhancing our global competitiveness. In addition, the Biden Harris administration's by American initiative which includes a kind of divide for all of America will create important new opportunities, and we'll build on passwords to increase federal contracts for small businesses with financing and business development supporting the SBA. Small businesses are at the forefront of the Biden Harris administration's build back better and agenda. As we know they are job creators and Giants in our economy. I'm honored to be joined today by Vice President Kamala Harris, who throughout her career has fostered strengthened small businesses, increase access to capital and help all entrepreneurs thrive, she is committed to supporting the smallest of the small businesses and community lenders, which are a critical part of SBAS network during the pandemic, they were able to provide millions of dollars in PPP forgivable loans to our smallest businesses, Thanks to her advocacy. Small businesses are close to her heart and I am so proud that we have a vice president who regularly takes time to meet with our nation's entrepreneurs to hear about their challenges ideas and dreams for the future. Everyone, please join me in giving a warm welcome to Vice President,
allow everyone Hello, I've been looking at you on this screen in front of me and I just want to thank you all for all the courage and endurance and commitments that you all have shown forever but especially in this last year and a half, and it is great to be with all of you I want to thank the administrator is available for your kind introduction, but also for your leadership, she and I've had many conversations since the beginning of the first days of our ministration and you really are so committed in such a great and important leader, especially at this moment in time. So thank you all, thank you all for your leadership and for being here. You know and I look at you and think about where you are. It's clear that you are not only leaders in business, you are civic leaders, you are community leaders, and you are our country's leaders, and I strongly believe that when someone starts a small business, it is a true act of self determination, a small business owner must have a vision, and through hard work and support. Realize that fish, which of course helps determine not only their future. But the future of their pay with us think about it, small businesses provide almost everything that people need in their community where they live in their neighborhood, from the local dry cleaners to the close neighborhood restaurant is a small batch manufacturer, small businesses, with good paying jobs, and in fact employ nearly half of the private sector workforce of America, small businesses, keep our nation, competitive, you know, the President I spend a lot of time thinking about our relationship with our allies and anyone I have a series around the world. And one of the great points of emphasis for us is that we must remain competitive. Well you are a big part of the formula for how we will do that. All that to say, You do so much. So again, thank you. When the President and I first took office, one of our top priorities was to provide small businesses with relief. And I need to remind you guys of those days when we first took office, and how folks were hurt and suffering in particular, how our small businesses were going for so much pain, through no fault of their own. But through our American rescue mission. We did what we intended to do in terms of relief to the tune of $60 billion. And as a result so many small businesses have been able to reopen and stay afloat. In fact, we learned today, in the first half of this year, Our economy has grown at the fastest rate in nearly 40 years. That's a good sign. And to build on this growth, our administration might be nice is that small business owners need more than just relief they need more than only relief they need more than belief. And in particular, an area that I focus on is the administrator. This is on what small businesses need. Also in terms of access to capital, access to capital and infrastructure that supports your words. And so our administration intends to deliver on both fronts. First on the issue of access to capital. So over the first six months. We have been in direct contact. And in fact, call and talk with some of the most active CDFIs community lenders, senior advisors the walking term but community lenders in our nation. And through these discussions and the work that I've been doing the Janet Yellen and our Treasury Department, We have begun to work on increasing community lending capacity, right, so they do so much but we need to increase their capacity to do more. And as you well know, traditional banks, well, they've not always seen or understood the vision, like a community bank can have to take for example, women small business owners are small business owners of color or small business owners who serve local communities or low income communities community lenders. On the other hand, well they understand the value in providing access to capital, directly to communities, they often exist in the community they live in the community and understand. And in that way, understand the vision and the ideas of the small business owners.
Community lenders have an incredible capacity, therefore, to add value to those communities, and by extension to our whole country. And that is why we must support these lenders and my best friend, one of the areas of focus for us. Second, we will invest in the infrastructure that supports your growth so we've had a lot of work that as you all know, has been happening in these last six months to do just that and there was a big vote last night I'm sure many of you are tracking it. And this is all in the context of the work that President and I have been doing for months now, with members of Congress on the infrastructure policy. So yesterday, Senate voted to advance a bipartisan infrastructure deal. And 67 senators voted in favor of moving the deal forward, pumpkin senators and Democratic senators, and the bipartisan infrastructure deal will improve the lives of people in our country, and the strength of our small businesses and I think it's, I will speak for the President and myself so it's a point of pride that it was a bipartisan deal because I don't need to tell you all small businesses that they think the contribution they make to communities and the challenges they face really don't have much to do with who they voted for in the last election or will in the next election as they're doing what they need to do on the ground every day, to actually be successful, and add value to them. and why I mean if you think about the infrastructure piece of it and but one bipartisan work was important. Well, infrastructure is more difficult to get your goods to market, when our roads are crumbling infrastructure, why is that important. Well, it's more difficult for your customers to travel to your store. When our transit in particular public transit systems, our family, it is more difficult for small businesses to reach new customers, when their internet connection is slow or in many cases and I know we have a lot of rural business leaders here, But when that internet connection is slow or non existent. So, our infrastructure as a nation needs an upgrade. And the bipartisan infrastructure deal. For that reason is we believe, storage, because it will make a once in a generation investment in our nation's infrastructure, positioning our small businesses to compete in the 21st century. And I'll share with you a quick story about that incredible business leader among the many I've been traveling around the country, meeting with folks. And recently I met a business owner, by the name of Megan Kaiser, and she runs an agricultural lab in Bozeman Missouri, and we had a long conversation, but her family's business is at the cutting edge of precision agriculture and grain farming, and her clients, therefore, are from all over the world. But she pointed out, she's got a really big problem on the infrastructure point, which is she cannot get the internet speeds that she needs to avoid blowed soil samples for clients. So, literally, she's talking with customers or potential customers from around the world and then she needs to send them a spreadsheet, she needs to send them information about what she's doing. And because they have the infrastructure around the internet is so slow. She can't upload what she needs to send them immediately. So, you know what she said to me, is I want to be competitive. I feel that my business is a reflection of America's commitment to business and small business, and she's, you know, she basically led on that. It's kind of embarrassing because she wants to be thought because she is a world class business, but she doesn't have the infrastructure to support both you know, world class business that was that,
but it means the bottom line. So, our nation's infrastructure must support businesses like hers, and support the growth of all small businesses. And that led me to stand where I began, which is the point of self determination, and it's such an important point. All of you, do you have vision, and you have drive a strong sense of purpose, often comes from within, as we all know, but it requires support, support from your family and your friends, support from their community. I do deserve to have the support from their government. So I want you to know that the President and I are 100% committed to supporting America's small businesses and small business owners, and again thank you all for your leadership for your courage for your strikes for your vision, and I look forward to working with you as we go forward. Thank you all very much. Thank you. That was amazing. Now you know what motivates me every day.
Incredible incentive for helping our small businesses. And now it's my privilege to introduce to small business owners TRF Glenn TR Clint is an entrepreneur, and an Air Force veteran from Las Vegas, Nevada, as President and CEO of some new marketing and Minority Business Enterprise originally launched by her father is a family business, car, it helps fellow small business owners have access to the marketing tools they need and she's won numerous awards for her efforts to partner with other minority business enterprises, and some of the marketing received SBA assistance during the COVID pandemic through our PvP. So welcome tiara, please kick us off and share your questions with the Vice President
and us go on to administrators, and as a to dynasty award winning family on firm, we really appreciate you being here and the support that we've gotten over the years, man, Vice President, I can't thank you enough for being here with us small business owners today. You mentioned access to capital in your remarks as well as the administrator, and you work with, you know, our community lenders for many of us, especially those in the underserved areas, access to capital is crucial, even before the pandemic black women entrepreneurs received drastically lower venture funding support on average compared to our white counterparts. And yet over 1.5 million businesses jewelry 45 billion in revenue our majority, majority owned by black women, as we move beyond the pandemic, how do you think about expanding access to capital for small businesses and specifically as it relates to closing the gaps and disparities for black women.
That's, that's a great question and a great point. So, I'll tell you, First of all, here's how I see it as a pandemic really in many ways, expose the fissures and the failures and the fractures in in our society and in our economy and in our structures in our systems, but I do look at that as also an opportunity that was created, right, which is more people have been able to see the flaws and we have known have existed. And in that way I think that there is a will, a desire and a momentum to address that stuff and address it head on. And so, let's think about it in terms of context you know which way not this I think it is, we are starting a new era, you know, and a new epoch, a new, in many ways, beginning, but a beginning in that this is the moment to really leapfrog into where we need to be, instead of thinking just incrementally about how we can progress. And in that way then with that sense of optimism and also ambition. I think we have an opportunity to shape an economy of the future, and to make it more inclusive right, We, the President cares deeply about, you know, let's build from the ground up, let's let's build right from the middle out, but I also say, Let's build from the outside. Right, let's make sure that we are inclusive and bringing folks into these systems. And so, for CDF eyes for community lenders like they like they are uniquely designed and exist it's almost the culture of their businesses, to really have an awareness, and a sensitivity to see the vision of communities, and then to help you harness the talent and the ambition, within those communities. And, you know, for example, like any placement or the open offices. Those that I've been visiting is the rain company. And there I met with a woman who started a catering company, you know, like many restaurants and caterers and they're all kitchen and bright and then wanted to build on that and get an industrial size apparatus, and, and so she had the ambition and she went with the community lender to invest in building that that Catering Company in that place actually was something that community wanted in support. I met with and talked with owner leeboy, who is a Native American entrepreneur who is investing in a quilt business, and knowing that the community actually the you know quote ceremonies and welds are very important to the community, it's something people want. And she was able to go to community, to get that kind of support because the community lender understood what the community wants and understood her vision. So that's the work that we need to do and, and in fighting for small businesses in particular, again, I understand that one of the keys for folks to not only open a small business, but grow a small business. Equally important is access to capital and so our bill back agenda, basically, is designed to invest billions of dollars to support small businesses around access to credit and funding, of course, and research and development which so many businesses need to do to again, grow, and, and we're also putting resources and money, significant money into creating incentives for venture capital investment. And that's all on top of the 16 billion that we did in the American rescue for them and the PPP, to address the support that, that folks need but again, as I said in my comments earlier, not only on the piece of our belief, But what we need to do the LeapFrog into where our system
could actually be better than it was before. So thank you for that. Thank you. I really appreciate it and looking forward to the future work. Thank you. That's wonderful. Well thank you so much better vice president for that response I
think that you've nailed it on Capitol Hill lead to opportunities for small businesses. And now we have well, Rohan. Joining us he's an entrepreneur from Columbia, Pennsylvania, which is a borough in Lancaster County that was once just a few votes shy of becoming the New Mexicans capital. So while does the President says on glass, which is a family owned and operated glass decorating business started more than 100 years ago by his uncle and grandfather with a single glass cutting machine on the face of this desk behind the wall has led to growth and expansion of the business to include extensive work and product development, sourcing and is proud to offer as well the Made in America sticker on most of these products and programs, such as behind the glass also received a crucial relief during the pandemic from the SBA SPP program so welcome. Well, Good to have you here, please share your questions and advice.
Good afternoon Madam Vice President, it is an honor to be speaking to you, my name is Walter row and I am the owner of suspended class, and I'm a member of the small business, America's future Small Business Council. We are a family owned business that has been in business for over 111 years. We employ little over 1516 people 50% of those are women, the pandemic has affected a majority of small business owners, including myself, and infrastructure is so important to our work to recover from COVID-19, not just through the bipartisan infrastructure deal of new roads and bridges, but also through the broader investments and family supports on childcare, you spoke to and build that better plan as well. My question is, small businesses are the heartbeat of our economy and our communities, sometimes it feels like policymakers, just don't hear us. How are you, to make small businesses have a voice in your efforts as well.
Well first let me congratulate you, to you and your family well that's, that's incredible. And I'm sure actually that a lot of lessons learned and I'm sure you're in here with by virtue of being with this group, share it with everyone. I'd like to hear some lessons learned as so that I can make sure that our policies are reflecting those lessons as well. But you know here's how I see it and I hope that this is something that I can say over and over again to as many people as possible. I believe that our small business owners are the colors of the community. I know, small businesses I grew up in a neighborhoods of small businesses. Thank you are not only business leaders you are specific leaders, it is our small businesses that are supporting the local Little League teams that are hiring locally that are role models for the young people in the community. If you're the ones where, you know, whether it be a restaurant or a dry cleaner, you name it, where you know folks can go in and you know that, you know, you know their names. And if they're having a bad day and they walk in, you can kind of step in and say hey how you doing I mean, really small businesses are so, so much, not just intertwined, or so much, the part of the fabric of communities the culture of communities of parties. I love our small businesses. You know it's and and not to mention, not only in terms of the heartbeat and the soul of different culture, the community. You are part of the heartbeat, and the, the infrastructure of our economy of our economy. So for all of those reasons, we have to see highlight uplift the stories and the role of our small businesses. and, you know, at its core, also I do feel very strongly that government should be in the business of encouraging and rewarding self determination. Right, and self determination, in my mind is as much as anything about about encouraging people to have a vision, and to actualize that vision, encouraging people to have choices and exercise those choices to make decisions about their lives, to act on right good ideas and and that's as much as anything what you and what everyone. As a small business, what you do, again, in addition to, like, half of the private sector workers in America. So we're making sure that small businesses have a voice, and in large part that's about making sure that we are listening, and I'll tell you the first event that I did when we came into the White House was with small business owners, my first visit, leaving this place of it and getting out there, this was not businesses. In fact, I'll tell you, I know she's on it but one of the, one of the first small business I visited a place called fiber space, just in in Virginia and, and it's a small business that she's, it's basically for crochet and knitting and beautiful yarns. And I'll use that business as an example, I'm talking about I visited there six months ago so still while we were really feeling the effects of the pandemic and her small businesses a place that people could go and she would talk about their craft and she could talk about this by extension their dreams and their lives and their families. You know, and so anyway we will continue to advocate for you, for all of our services. And of course, as I said earlier, there's $60 billion dollars in the American rescue plan, working with Secretary Yellen on CDF eyes, and, and doing also more to as the conversations I've been having with the CEOs of big corporations like JP Morgan and Bank of America to talk with them as I've been about not only what they can and have the capacity to do around PPPs, but again the piece that's about the private
equity component of community lending. So thank you. And again, congratulations to your family for your success. Thank you
very much. Vice President, given this, you keep listening, you certainly have plenty of stories to tackle. Thank you. Good, thank you.
Well, let me add my thanks to you man, Vice President and FDA administrator. The Senate is in conversation, there's so much going on right now with the infrastructure deal the fact that you took this 30 minutes to be with us it means so much in our community, but we also want to let you get back to work, to get that infrastructure bill passed. So we appreciate you being with us. Thank you so much. On behalf of all of this amazing group of small business leaders from across the country. With that, it's now my pleasure to turn the conversation off in full kickoff to getting back on track for
so much while, and we're so excited to continue the conversation about getting back on track, help is here with our webinar series and this week we're focused on the Rocky Mountain region which live in for everyone. But we have 5000. Thank you. They're leaving now. Yep. got it or not.
