Small Business Needed Federal Help. The Agency in Charge Fell Short.

In the pandemic shutdown last year, three-quarters of the nation’s small employers turned to the. The portfolio that includes loans issued or guaranteed by the federal agency swelled more than five times to nearly $900 billion.

“On the disaster side, we did a terrible job,” said Robert Scott, a former SBA Regional Administrator who spent several weeks in Washington early in the pandemic helping coordinate the agency’s response. “The existing systems in place, the existing leadership in place, just have not adjusted to what is necessary to meet the demand right now.”

One problem was that the Trump administration gave priority to the PPP, to the detriment of the disaster office, said Sen. Ben Cardin , chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. The disaster loan programs, he said, “suffered in the implementation speed, as well as the amount of resources small businesses should have been entitled to that they did not receive.”

The GAO in March added the SBA to its list of high-risk government programs, citing evidence of fraud, program integrity risks and a need for greater oversight. KPMG, SBA’s independent auditor, declined to express an opinion on the agency’s fiscal 2020 financial statements, noting that the SBA had “inadequate processes and controls.”

, run by the disaster office, hasn’t kept pace. Roughly six months after Congress authorized the program, the SBA has awarded about $304 million in grants. On Wednesday, more than 200 members of Congress signed a letter asking the SBA to explain the delays and speed the flow of funds.The agency in the past week revamped its process to speed up reviews of venue grant applications, an SBA official said.

Ms. Guzman granted field offices access to loan files within days of taking office in March, the agency said. The SBA attributed the previous policy to the Trump administration. ABC Airbrush in Dalton, Ga., which decorates helmets at youth baseball and softball events, was closed for six months last year. Owner Lisa Holmes applied for a grant on Feb. 7, the week the program opened.

Last year, the SBA notified Neal Siegal, a commercial real-estate broker and property manager in Glen Cove, N.Y., that payments on his $9,400 SBA disaster loan were deferred with interest accruing, and the first payment was due on August 5, 2021. He had never taken out such a loan.

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3 Steps For Managing Your Small Business’s TaxesI work at the intersection of the private and public sector. I am the founder of Public Private Strategies, Executive Director of the Small Business Roundtable, Founder of the NextGen Chamber of Commerce, and a Senior Fellow at The Aspen Institute. Over the course of my career, I have worked to engage business leaders - from the small business community to the Fortune 100 - to help solve the most pressing issues of our time. Previously, I served as private sector advisor on The White House Business Council, at the US Department of Health and Human Services, and for the Governor of California. I also have had the opportunity to serve on several presidential, state, and local campaigns. this is terrible news
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