Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 04182020 20240713 :

That means we want to hear from Small Business owners and Small Business employees, and we will open up a special line for you. If you own a Small Business, your number is going to be 202 7488000. If you work for a Small Business, we want to hear from you as well. Your number is going to be 202 7488001. European counts as well, so we want to know what you think about the Small Business loan program being out of money, so your line is 202 7488002. Keep in mind, you can always text us your opinion at 202 we are always reading on social media. On twitter at cspanwj, and facebook at facebook. Com cspan. Once again, Small Businesses are the life lot of america lifeblood of america, and the coronavirus pandemic has hit them hard. We want to know from you how you are surviving if you are a small smallss owner and a business employee. Lets get some information about the program first. Lets go to politicos caitlin who is on the line and here to talk to us about what is going on with the small federal Business Loan program. Caitlin, good morning. Guest good morning. Thanks for having me. Host first and foremost, tell us what the Paycheck Protection Program is and why is it out of money . Right, well this Small Business Lending Program was created by the 2 trillion economic rescue package that congress cleared last month, so totaledkage of loans 350 billion, and was meant to smallas a bailout for businesses with fewer than 500 employees, and meant to keep employees on their payroll. As can apply for this loan long as youre promising to keep all of your employees. Youre not going to fire torybody, you are going keep paying everybody. In exchange, the loan could be forgiven. This pot of money has proven enormously popular, as you said. It ran out of money just yesterday. That was expected all week. Obviously deadlocked right now in terms of what to do. Do we swiftly replenish the funds for just this program, or do we provide funding for other priorities as well . Caitlin, exactly who gets this money and what can they do with it . Can businesses get this money and use it for other things besides employee paychecks, or is it designated for employee paychecks only . Caller it was primarily drafted at guest it was primarily drafted as an incentive to keep employees on the payroll. Like i said, in exchange for the funds, the loan can be forgiven if you are promising to essentially retain all of your employees and maintain their salaries as well. This has proven enormously popular, more than 1. 6 million and at least 5000 lenders participated. It was exhausted very quickly once the program was essentially set up. It was not without its glitches, the Small Business administration, which ran the program, experienced a lot of technical difficulties. Inre are a lot of issues applying, and it definitely did not you cant say it went off without a hitch, essentially. The program has gotten a little bit of blowback, because, for example, major restaurant chains have qualified for some of the loans, if you have a lot of legitimate small as this owners saying well, that is not a small and you have a lot of legitimate Small Business owners saying well, that is not a Small Business. This will need to be replenished very quickly. The conversation in congress right now about getting more money into the program . Is there a partisan divide over whether the program was working, or is it over something completely different . Guest both democrats and republicans realized that Small Businesses are very much in need of more money. The Program Needs to be replenished. Pelosi, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell in agreement on that. That is pretty much the only thing they agree on. Speaker pelosi and House Democrats, they want some conditions placed on any new infusion of funds. For example, House Democrats want to ensure that any new funds, at least some of that is going to communitybased lenders , underserved lenders, underserved Small Businesses owned by women and minorities that they are ultimately getting some of this money and not being cut out. In addition to that, House Democrats also want to provide 150 billion for state and local governments, about 100 billion for hospitals, and they want to increase the maximum food stamp republicansis are essentially saying, you know, these are the priorities that are not as urgent as the Small Business needs. S small process program Small Business program ran out of money. States have not run out of money yet. Two trillion dollar economic package last month provided 150 billion for states. They argue that the Small Business Program Needs action now and the other things can wait until Congress Comes back in early may and they start negotiating a huge package, but immigrants are pretty insistent on the fact that state and local governments are signaling a dire businesseslike small at this time, in addition to health care providers. They are saying, this is extremely urgent. It requires urgent action as well. There was essentially a logjam all week when it comes to this discussion, but we started to see some signs of progress when it comes to today. Said mccarthy congressional leaders were inching along when it came to figuring out exactly what to do. Politicos daily newsletter that publishes in the morning, it publishes also in the afternoon, had some early details on what a legislative framework might look like. Not yetobviously very finalized, very, very much subject to change, but it does anear that there is agreement may be forming around possibly providing more than 250 billion for Small Businesses, in addition to making some funds for communitybased lenders, Something Like 75 billion for hospitals, but all of those details are very much subject to change. It is possible we can see an agreement may be early next week. Last question a for you is anyone checking to make sure that the businesses that are getting these loans is using the money for what it is supposed to be used for . We remember during the last depression, corporations got government funding and used it for stock buybacks. Is anyone checking behind this money to make sure it is being used for what they say they needed it for . Right. The huge Economic Relief package that Congress Passed last month, it was the largest infusion ever of federal funds into the economy. Definitely eclipsing the 2008 financial crisis. That did come with a number of oversight provisions, which are slowly getting off the ground at the moment. Basically, when it comes to a Small Business loan, that comes with its own oversight. But in terms of some of the other big pieces of the bill, congressional leaders found that it was very much necessary to have sort of a threepronged oversight approach when it comes to implementation of the huge relief package. Essentially, those three things again,ll, you know this bill was passed a few weeks ago, so the money is starting to flow, but not all of the mass of oversight protections are there. There are some provisions that prevent recipients of the aid, especially corporations, from stock buybacks, from executive bonuses, things like that. Basically, congress is trying to establish a five member Congressional Panel that will not oversee the Small Business loan, but the separate 500 billion corporate relief fund for big businesses, big Distressed Industries in addition to a special Inspector General appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate will also separately oversee that fund. As the third prong of oversight, a sort of pandemic relief panel made up of Inspector Generals across the federal government will oversee basically general implementation of the bill. Again, those three things are still kind of getting off the ground, you know ca you know . The president has gone some criticism for intervening too much in the process and trying to interfere with oversight. Hopefully in the next week we will see those three oversight protections become fully formed. Thankwe would like to caitlin emma, budget and appropriations reporter for politico, for coming on the program this morning. Caitlin, thank you so much and stay safe out there. Ruling ideas the black book of the american left. Thank you so guest thank you so much. AskedPresident Trump was about additional funding for the Small Business loan program during a press conference yesterday, and here is what he had to say. [video clip] negotiations are underway for the next round of funding for Small Businesses. If tens of millions of dollars went in a matter of days in the first time, will this second relief package be enough . Get us toly, it will a point that will be rather beautiful. We think that will be the points and it could be we need one more, but it could be at a certain point we need to stop. It has been a success and sq executed flawlessly, and the banks have gone done a good job. The Community Banks have been incredible. We had over 4000 Community Banks. They gave the money out. It is so organized and it has been such a great program. Essentially we are waiting for 250 billion. The democrats are refusing to this is money that essentially is going to the workers. It will keep the companys whole whole, restaurants and a lot of companies, and it is a small amount of money relative to what it represents , because it represents small Small Businesses represent approximately 50 of the power of our business enterprises. Not all the big monster businesses that you read about every day, it is all of these Small Businesses. It is something that should be approved by the democrats and republicans who want it badly, and the people want it very badly. 10 of the loans given out work for 5 million, but some could not get a loan for 100,000. Is that acceptable . Nobody knew it was going to be this successful. When you say the money is gone, it has been a tremendous success of the program. Somee really want it, and people will not be able to keep their business open unless they get that money. It has been a tremendous success, it has been executed flawlessly. With a few exceptions it has really been good, and i think the democrats are going to do it. Is away on pelosi vacation or something and she should come back. She should come back and get this done. Host i want to emphasize some President Trump said something President Trump said during his conference there. The actual numbers of Small Businesses in the United States. Information has been updated for april 2020. How many Small Businesses are there in the United States . There are 30. 2 million Small Businesses in this country, which compromise a whopping 99. 9 of all u. S. Businesses. Now, they pulled this number from the Small Business associations office, which a Small Business as a firm with fewer 500 employees. This includes law firms, hedge funds, and other firms you might not they go when someone uses the term Small Business. How Many Americans are employed by these companies that have less than 500 employees . Andera. Com, Small Businesses employ 50 million , which makes up to 45 of the countrys total workforce. Almost half of all of the employees in this country work for Small Businesses. We will talk to some of our Small Business owners and see what they think about this program and if they have been able to take advantage of it. Lets start with juliet, from rockport, massachusetts. Good morning. Caller good morning, jesse. You are back. I applied about three weeks ago to no avail. My bank is being uncooperative and unresponsive, because they did not have any guidance at that point in time from the fed, if you will, the fda. I urge the bank officer to send me an application, and i had absolutely no luck. Then i went to the economic idustry disaster loan, which filled up the application with success online. I was under the impression that i would be eligible for a 10,000 forgivable loan, which would be a grant in essence, but anot in the mail a n email the other day that said since i am a sold would only be, i eligible for 1000 of that to be forgiven. Then i got a notification from the state of massachusetts that i as a sole proprietorship, because i and other independent contractors in the gig economy, will be eligible for unemployment benefits. But they had to create a new portal because they have never done this before. They had to get guidance from the federal government. They basically said they wanted to use my business as an experiment to see if the portal actually worked. When obamacare debuted, no one could sign up because the website shutdown. It could not handle all the people at the time. So i was able to successfully apply for what they call the pua pandemic unemployment assistance, through the state of massachusetts, which i will be eligible retroactively to get money from the last day that i worked, which was four weeks ago. Im thinking there is light at the end of the proverbial tunnel after all, and we will see. Im hoping all the other small independent contractors out there will find this conduit through their own state to get assistance and unemployment. Juliet, it sounds like most of the assistance you have been getting has been coming from your state, not the federal government. Not this multibilliondollar program that came through congress. Caller no, the 350 billion success going no through my small bank. I have been banking with this thing for 25 years. They were frustrated too, because they were not getting the right guidance and they were overwhelmed with inundated calls from other local businesses, and it has been a nightmare. Actually i have savings in the ink to keep thankfully have savings in the bank to keep me solvent during this interim the governor baker, he might be extending foreclosure until the 15th of may and beyond, so we dont know. Meanwhile, i am hoping and praying that the pua, the pandemic unemployment assistance will come through, and i will get some retroactive unemployment benefits. Subsequent to that, additional benefits, plus the 600 they are adding on. Ithink that is actually to am grateful for it, but i do not know if i will need that 600. I do not have employees, so i do not have someone elses family to worry about feeding, if you will, but i hope the other Small Businesses out there have the opportunity to look into the pua. Host lets go to john, calling from westwood, massachusetts. Good morning. Caller good morning, jesse. How are you . Host i should have asked juliet this question as well. What Small Business do you own and how many employees do you have . An Accounting Firm here in westwood, and i have three employees. I have worked for the last two weeks, night and day, to prepare these ppp applications, having applicationsst 70 for Small Businesses in my area. The last caller was also from massachusetts, and i would say to her that she would be eligible for massachusetts, probably the cap on unemployment here is 832 a week plus the 600 stimulus that has been added. She will be getting 1400 a week, and that will be retroactive to april 1, the 600 is anyway, and that will hopefully help her out. My experience over the last 2, 2 and half weeks preparing these applications is exactly what she said. I have worked across 20 and trying tos follow the rules of each particular bank in place, there are particular forms that need to be filled out. Every Small Business in this state has found they have had to go through their own bank in order to apply. They cannot cross banks, or i was not able to until the very thatable to find a bank would accept applications outside of their own bank. That bank with paypal. Eventually, paypal came on board, and we were able to load applications into paypal and use their loan builder bank to actually get a little bit of funding. Now, the only 70 [inaudible] i have prepared applications for, of those, i have gone one funded and nine approved for funding that will have to happen over the next 10 days. That is all i have been able to do for my 70 Small Business applications. Host john, is the hold up on the side of the bank . Is the hold up on the side of the business is applying for the loan, or is the hold up on the side of the federal government . Res the checkpoints here chokepoint here . Caller the chokepoint is in to approve these loans,