On Tuesday, the Senate confirmed Mr. Biden’s nominee to run the Small Business Administration, Isabel Guzman, by an 81-to-17 vote.
Despite the considerations, Mr. Biden was met with reward in Chester, Pa., when he visited Smith Flooring, a Black-owned enterprise that provides and installs flooring. White House officers stated the store minimize payroll during the last yr, from 22 union staff to 12, after revenues declined by 20 % in the course of the pandemic. It has survived, the officers stated, thanks partially to 2 rounds of loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, which Congress established final yr in the course of the Trump administration to assist small companies.
“This is a great outfit. This is a union shop,” Mr. Biden stated briefly remarks. Its staff, he stated, “work like the devil, and they can make a decent wage, a living wage.”
The house owners of Smith Flooring, Kristin and James Smith, secured their second mortgage from this system as a part of one of many Biden administration’s adjustments, which created a two-week unique interval for sure very small companies to obtain loans. They thanked Mr. Biden for his efforts and for visiting Chester.
Mr. Biden’s assist invoice, signed final week, added $7 billion to this system and funded others to assist struggling companies, together with a $28 billion grant fund for eating places. The regulation additionally put aside further cash for different reduction efforts run by the Small Business Administration, together with a long-delayed grant program for music golf equipment and different live-event companies, which the company stated would begin accepting functions early subsequent month.
Lenders are scrambling to hold out the administration’s adjustments to the Paycheck Protection Program and end processing a flood of functions earlier than March 31. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants called the deadline “unrealistic,” and 10 banking teams sent a letter to lawmakers urging Congress to offer them extra time.
