SBA administrator issues statement on Government Accountability Office findings on PPP program

WASHINGTON – U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman issued a statement in response to a Government Accountability Office report released recently that found that critical changes to the Paycheck Protection Program implemented under her leadership earlier this year had the intended effect of increasing loan access for the smallest and minority-owned businesses that were largely left out of earlier funding.

“It is one of my top priorities as SBA Administrator to expand opportunities for our smallest small businesses and underserved communities and center equity in all our programs. When it became clear that Mom-and-Pop ventures and businesses owned by historically disadvantaged groups were facing unique challenges in getting PPP loans, the Biden-Harris Administration and I directed our team to take action to engage in targeted community outreach and to implement key programmatic changes to level the playing field. I’m proud to say those decisions, and the efforts of the thousands of civil servants at the SBA who do the day-to-day hard work of running this program, have paid off, according to the GAO, the gold standard for oversight. Main streets and industrial centers in every ZIP code across America are coming back to life and leading the way in our nation’s economic recovery, and we’ll continue working with our small businesses to help them strengthen our communities, create new jobs, and set our economy back on track.”

Submitted by the U.S. Small Business Association.