My colleagues the status of where we are in regards to the professions in the cares act that relate to Small Businesses. First i want to make it clear that our top priority for americas businesses, whether they be Small Businesses or large businesses, is to get this covid19 behind us, to stop the spread of this deadly disease, to give confidence back to the American People that its safe to pursue their economic desires and, therefore, to have businesses be able to go back to a situation where they have customers and they can be open for business. We have appropriated significant resources in order to make sure we do whats right financially to deal with this deadly disease. And we have provided the tools to to protect our economy. So let me talk a little bit about the attention to Small Business. Im pleased and proud to be the ranking democrat in the Small Business and entrepreneurship committee. I serve with senator rubio, who is the chairman of the committee. And we have worked together, democrats and republicans, in order to help Small Businesses during this pandemic. We did that because we understand that Small Businesses do not have the same degree of Financial Resiliency that Larger Companies have and when youre going through an emergency situation, when youre going through a pandemic, they dont have the same capacity to get credit and to get the cash that they need that Larger Companies have. We also understand that Small Businesses is where the job creation most will take place in our country. Most jobs are created through Smaller Companies. We also understand that Smaller Companies are more innovative. They come up with new and creative ways in order to build our economy. But we recognize that we had to do something to make sure they could survive through the pandemic, and thats where the cares act came in. So on a bipartisan basis we crafted new tools under the Small Business administration to help Small Businesses. I was proud to work with senator rubio and senator shaheen and senator collins. The four of us got together well before the cares act was brought to the floor of the United States senate in order to deal with what is necessary to keep Small Businesses afloat during the pandemic. And new tools were created and the cares act enacted tools that can help Small Businesses survive this pandemic. The program thats getting the most attention is the Paycheck Protection Program, the p. P. P. Program, in the original cares act we authorized and appropriated 349 billion for that program and then we replenished in the second round an additional 310 billion for a total of 659 billion for the p. P. P. Program. Its a program in which Small Businesses go to their Financial Institution and take out a 7a loan which is a loan which is provided for under the Small Business act but there are private lenders who lend the money to the Small Businesses. But we made special provisions in this law to provide 100 federal guarantee so theres no risk to the borrower. We made it easier for those companies to get those 7a loans and provided additional lenders for other communities. We expanded the 7a program to include not only conventional forprofit Small Businesses but also nonprofit businesses as well as individual proprietors and to date the programs been very successful. Over four million 7a loans have been made under the Paycheck Protection Program. But we have concerns. So let me talk a little bit about the concerns that we have. One of our concerns is that its been difficult for the underserved community, the underbanked community to be able to be able to get these 7a loans as a priority. We found that in the first round that it was the Larger Companies that had established relationships with their banks that got priority on the processing of these loans so that minority businesses, womenown businesses, businesses located in rural communities, veteranowned businesses did not receive the same attention as the larger businesses did. So our First Priority is to find out exactly how the program is working. We need to get the data. We need to know where these loans were made. We need to know what industries got the different loans. We need to know the locations of these loans. We need to know the size by dollar value and by number of employees. We also need to know how the different provisions of the p. P. P. Program have been allocated by loans. For example, we made an exception on the 5000 employee 500 employees to come under the nic code. They are really hurting. We need to know how many hospitals and moments we need to know how much went to the nonprofit community, how much went to the selfemployed community. And for that reason, madam president , i have introduced legislation to senator shaheen and senator schumer to require the s. B. A. To make that Information Available to us on a very regular basis. We need to get that information in order to properly carry out our oversight function. Today the Small Business committee in the senate had a briefing with secretary mnuchin and administrator carranza and we talked about one of the problems we have in administering this law. That is the selfcertification. That is, the business makes the certification they need, the standards they need under the act. We are concerned there may have been abuses, but until we see the information, its difficult for us to do our restrictive oversight. And we dont know if we still have adequate funding. To date, there has been somewhere around 500 over 500 billion. Closer to 600 billion thats already been lent out. 557 billion has already been lent out under this program. Are we going to need more money . Until we get the specific information, we dont know what the future funding needs will be. We need to be able to get that information so we can provide the adequate resources. And i must tell you, i think every member of the senate has been approached by ways in which this program could be made better. There is questions as to why certain groups are eligible and others are not. There is going to be a need for modification in this program, and its difficult for us to make these modifications unless we get the data we need to understand where the loans have been made. There is a Second Program that was created under the cares act and expanded under the cares act, and thats the eidl program, the Economic Injury disaster loan program. We added a Grant Program to that. The initial cares act provided 10 billion when we went through the second round funding, we put another 60 billion into this program. And why did we do that . Because the loan program under eidl which is an Emergency Program for businesses that have suffered disasters, and covid19 qualify for that gives relief beyond just the eight weeks of payroll and the other expenses covered under the p. P. P. Program. Small businesses need help with working capital. They can get that under the eidl loan program. A Small Business might need an immediate influx of cash. They can get that under the Grant Program under eidl up to 10,000. And yes, when the programs were announced, they were oversubscribed. We had over a million Small Businesses make immediate applications for these funds, and the s. B. A. Was overwhelmed. Thats why we provided, in addition to the original 10 billion for the Grant Program, another 10 billion, and in addition to the loan capacity, we put another 50 billion into that program so they could execute 300 billion worth of loans. But its been very slow at the s. B. A. , which is a concern of ours. Only about 50,000 loans have been successfully processed under eidl. We just got that information today. Yes, there has been over a million grants given out, most of them have been under 10,000 whereas the maximum we thought most Small Businesses would get a 10,000 grant. There needs to be better coordination between the p. P. P. Program and the eidl program, and we must make sure that the window remains open, but today, a nonagriculture business applies for an eidl loan are told that they cant process that loan, that the window is basically closed. Thats not the intent of congress. We want to make sure those windows are open. So i come here today to tell you the First Priority is we need to get the facts. We need to fix the program to make sure it works well. But i want to qualify that by saying how proud we are of the men and women at the s. B. A. And treasury, they are implementing this new program literally overnight, working 24 hours a day in order to make sure this program can work. We recognize that. And we recognize this is a major challenge. But we need to make sure the Program Works right. We need oversight and accountability. We cant do that overnight and accountability unless we get all of the facts, unless we get the information. Those who abuse the program need to be held accountable. I was pleased to hear secretary mnuchin talk about that today in the briefing to our committee. And we have to have oversight as to the program working efficiently. But we also have to make sure that we take care of the problems that we have seen in the program, the underserved community. We can do a better job in reaching those businesses that are traditionally underserved. So we specifically allocated 60 billion of p. P. P. To smaller Financial Institutions. We now need to make sure they really get to the institutions that can serve minority Small Businesses, that can serve the smaller of the Small Businesses, that can serve womenowned businesses and veteranowned businesses and businesses located in rural communities. I would suggest that we need to make sure that the cdfis and the minority depository niewgz get their fair share of allocations under the p. P. P. Program in order to reach these hardtoserve Small Businesses. And yes, we do need to look at how we can modify the program to make it work even better. We recognize that when we crafted a program eight weeks we thought would be enough. We now know that our economy is not going to be up and running within that eightweek period in most of the country. How do we improve this program cigna i want to tell you we all recognize that the Paycheck Protection Program may not be enough, even in conjunction with the eidl program may not be enough because businesses are not returning to normal within the next few weeks. We need to design a program that provides the next level of relief to those Small Businesses that really need it. Those that have had significant revenue losses. Those Small Businesses that are really small Small Businesses, the mom and pop type businesses. And yes, those Small Businesses that have traditionally been left out, minority businesses and womenowned businesses and businesses in smaller rural communities, betterknown businesses. The success of the p. P. P. Program, the success of the eidl program was because democrats and republicans worked together in a strong bipartisan manner. Were continuing to do that in the Small Business committee and i applaud our leader, senator rubio, for reaching out to Work Together between democrats and republicans. We need to continue to Work Together and enact the type of oversight that is necessary for the programs that are currently existing, make the modifications so these programs can work effectively and well. We heard today about the inflexibility of the eightweek period and how we need to deal with that. We need to Work Together to improve the program and to make sure that the next level of help for Small Businesses is targeted to those Small Businesses who really need the help so that we can continue to have an economy that can grow, that can create jobs, that can be innovative, and that protects the ability of Small Business owners to be able to participate in our economy. With that, madam president , i would yield the floor. A senator madam president. The presiding officer the senator from missouri. Mr. Blunt let me join with senator cardin in appreciating the work that federal employees do to make these programs work. I was with the s. B. A. Director, i think about two weeks ago on friday. She said in the first 14 days of the p. P. P. Program, they did 14 months of loans in that 14day period. I sought many times secretary mnuchin set these high standards for how quickly we would get to each of these points and probably only later realized just how difficult it is to get the federal government to move, but this is a case where the federal government has moved, the congress has moved, working together. We didnt have the element of time on our side. We really had to move quickly. And i think we all knew when we were doing that that we were going to have some miscalculations. Whether it was the amount of money for p. P. P. Or a program that wasnt quite as refined as it needed to be, and hopefully we are right now trying to look at not only how we have filled in the blanks on the programs that we so quickly dealt with in march, but also to look forward at may and july and try to figure out what the city is going to need, where were going to be in this Health Care Crisis in may and july. Certainly a number of our states are beginning to reopen, states like missouri are opening in what i think is exactly the appropriate way. The governor has looked at the whole state and said were going to allow were going to step back from our initial order in the entire state. Were going to remove that order, but he has then worked thoughtfully and carefully with the mayor of st. Louis and the mayor of kansas city and the county executives and bigger counties, the mayors of columbia and springfield and not gotten in fights with local officials about situations that they have every reason to know more about than he does, just like the governor of missouri has every reason to know more than somebody in washington, d. C. About when our state should reopen. Im glad the president has let governors have that sort of authority, and i think in most states, including mine, governors have stepped back and let local officials assert their view of what should happen in the area where they have been elected to be responsible, and with that combination of things, were going to reopen and begin to see the economy reconnect again like it has not connected for the last couple of months. At the same time, we have got these two fights. One is to save the economy and one is this important fight against the virus. I think in the two months since we went home after the cares act, i have spent most of my time working on the health care side of this. Senator alexander is the authorizing chairman for these health care programs. Im the appropriating chairman for most of them, programs that certainly in the last months americans have learned a lot more about than they ever knew about before. Who knew that the center for disease control, the c. D. C. , was doing what it was doing or the health and Human Services had the responsibility that they had or how troublesome it was if we let our hospitals get out of whack in terms of mcand continuing expenses. All of those things happen. One of the things i have worked on hard has been to get that Research Funding at the National Institutes of health where dr. Fauci runs only one of the double handful of agencies at n. I. H. , the Infectious Disease part of that. But the American People begin to see those things that the government does and also see that the government, like every other family or every other institution, doesnt respond to crisis with immediate efficiency but does begin to work its way toward a solution. So we have spent a lot of time together, senator alexander and i have with f. D. A. And with all of those other agencies, and what we see happening, what i see happening is a real willingness with the total backing of the congress, a real willingness to get out there and try to move these solutions at a faster rate than we ever have before. Dr. Fauci said early on if we develop a vaccine in 18 months, that would be the world record for a u. S. Developed vaccine from a new virus to having a vaccine available. Were trying to do everything we can, not only to meet that potential world record but to beat that world record, and how are we doing that . Were doing that with things like the shark tank concept at n. I. H. That we sp