The new head of the Small Business Administration says she expects to make changes at the agency that she says will enable it to further help small companies devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, two days after she was sworn in, Isabella Casillas Guzman said her immediate focus is implementing the small business provisions in the $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package President Joseph Biden signed into law last week.
The country has lost 400,000 businesses since the start of the pandemic, Guzman said, warning that “many more are at risk.”
Guzman expects small business provisions in the rescue package to help, including $10 billion to support state lending to companies, and $100 million for a new program called Community Navigator aimed at giving education and advice to struggling business owners. But, she said, more vaccinations against the coronavirus and the $1,400 stimulus payments millions of Americans are receiving will also ultimately aid business by helping the economy recover.
Read more at: Federal News Network