[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                     THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY NAVIGATORS IN 
                       REACHING UNDERSERVED BUSINESSES

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

               SUBCOMMITTEE ON UNDERSERVED, AGRICULTURAL,
                     AND RURAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

                                 OF THE

                      COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
                             UNITED STATES
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                              HEARING HELD
                             MARCH 18, 2021

                               __________

[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
                               

            Small Business Committee Document Number 117-006
             Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
             
                               __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
43-802                      WASHINGTON : 2021                     
          
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                   HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS

                 NYDIA VELAZQUEZ, New York, Chairwoman
                          JARED GOLDEN, Maine
                          JASON CROW, Colorado
                         SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas
                         KWEISI MFUME, Maryland
                        DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota
                         MARIE NEWMAN, Illinois
                       CAROLYN BOURDEAUX, Georgia
                          JUDY CHU, California
                       DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
                       ANTONIO DELGADO, New York
                     CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
                          ANDY KIM, New Jersey
                         ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota
              BLAINE LUETKEMEYER, Missouri, Ranking Member
                         ROGER WILLIAMS, Texas
                        JIM HAGEDORN, Minnesota
                        PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
                        DAN MEUSER, Pennsylvania
                        CLAUDIA TENNEY, New York
                       ANDREW GARBARINO, New York
                         YOUNG KIM, California
                         BETH VAN DUYNE, Texas
                         BYRON DONALDS, Florida
                         MARIA SALAZAR, Florida
                      SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin

                 Melissa Jung, Majority Staff Director
            Ellen Harrington, Majority Deputy Staff Director
                     David Planning, Staff Director
                           
                           C O N T E N T S

                           OPENING STATEMENTS

                                                                   Page
Hon. Jared Golden................................................     1
Hon. Jim Hagedorn................................................     3

                               WITNESSES

Ms. Rebecca Shi, Executive Director, American Business 
  Immigration Coalition, Chicago, IL.............................     6
Ms. Bridget Weston, Chief Executive Officer, Service Corps of 
  Retired Executives (SCORE), Herndon, VA........................     7
Ms. Pilar Guzman Zavala, Chief Executive Officer, Half Moon 
  Empanadas, Miami, FL...........................................     9
Mr. Bruce Strong, State Director, Minnesota Small Business 
  Development Center (SBDC), St. Paul, MN........................    11

                                APPENDIX

Prepared Statements:
    Ms. Rebecca Shi, Executive Director, American Business 
      Immigration Coalition, Chicago, IL.........................    29
    Ms. Bridget Weston, Chief Executive Officer, Service Corps of 
      Retired Executives (SCORE), Herndon, VA....................    34
    Ms. Pilar Guzman Zavala, Chief Executive Officer, Half Moon 
      Empanadas, Miami, FL.......................................    45
    Mr. Bruce Strong, State Director, Minnesota Small Business 
      Development Center (SBDC), St. Paul, MN....................    47
Questions and Answers for the Record:
    Questions from Hon. Jared Golden to Ms. Bridget Weston and 
      Answers from Ms. Bridget Weston............................    50
    Questions from Hon. Jared Golden to Ms. Rebecca Shi and 
      Answers from Ms. Rebecca Shi...............................    52
    Questions from Hon. Jared Golden to Mr. Bruce Strong and 
      Answers from Mr. Bruce Strong..............................    58
Additional Material for the Record:
    America's SBDC Missouri......................................    59

 
  THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY NAVIGATORS IN REACHING UNDERSERVED BUSINESSES

                              ----------                              


                        THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2021

              House of Representatives,    
               Committee on Small Business,
         Subcommittee on Underserved, Agricultural,
                            and Rural Business Development,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in 
Room 2360, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Jared Golden 
[chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
    Present: Representatives Golden, Crow, Delgado, Hagedorn, 
Williams, Stauber, Tenney, and Salazar.
    Also Present: Representative Luetkemeyer.
    Chairman GOLDEN. I call this hearing to order.
    I want to make sure to note a couple of important 
requirements before we get going. Let me first say that 
standing House and committee rules and practice continue to 
apply during hybrid proceedings. All Members are reminded that 
they are expected to adhere to these standing rules, including 
decorum.
    House regulations require Members to be visible through a 
video connection throughout the proceedings, so please keep 
your cameras on. Also please remember to remain muted until 
recognized to minimize background noise. If you have to 
participate in another proceeding, please exit this one and log 
back in later. In the event a Member encounters technical 
issues that prevent them from being recognized for questions I 
will move to the next available Member of the same party and 
recognize that Member at the next appropriate time slot 
provided they have returned to the proceeding.
    For those Members physically present in the Committee room 
today, we will also be following health and safety guidelines 
issued by the House attending physician. That includes social 
distancing and the use of masks. Members and staff are expected 
to wear masks at all times while in the hearing room. And I 
thank you in advance for your commitment to a safe environment 
for all here today.
    I am proud to serve as Chair of this Subcommittee.
    Underserved, agricultural, and rural small businesses have 
experienced some of the harshest outcomes of the COVID-19 
pandemic. The road to recovery they face is long and we should 
ensure to advance policies that will prioritize them so that 
they are not left behind. I hope to use this Subcommittee's 
first hearing during the 117th Congress to examine the newly 
created Community Navigator Program.
    Throughout the COVID crisis large numbers of minority-owned 
and rural small businesses found themselves on the outside 
looking in when trying to access emergency relief. During the 
early days of the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic 
Injury Disaster Loan Advances, large financial institutions 
often prioritized larger customers at the expense of 
underserved rural small businesses. This lack of access to 
relief added insult to injury for small businesses bearing the 
brunt of the pandemic's economic impact.
    When COVID struck, many small businesses in rural areas 
were still financially and structurally rebounding from the 
Great Recession. During 2020 slow rural population growth and 
declining labor force participation led to a much slower 
employment rate in rural areas than elsewhere. Rural businesses 
also face a lack of access to capital in general, as well as 
broadband connectivity, making pivoting to digital offerings 
and adapting to the COVID business environment much more 
difficult.
    Minority-owned businesses have also been devastated by this 
crisis. Last year the number of actively working self-employed 
business owners fell dramatically across the black, Hispanic, 
and Asian American communities. And minority-owned firms that 
had been fortunate enough to avoid closure faced harsher 
financial conditions and have less cash on hand than white 
firms do.
    These are the realities that led to the creation of the 
Community Navigator Program. Congress authorized the program as 
part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. It will provide 
$100 million for grants to organizations to participate in the 
program and $75 million to support outreach and education. The 
funding for education and outreach will go towards offering 
services in the 10 most common languages other than English, 
making improvements to the SBA's website, implementing 
immediate campaign to educate underserved communities, and 
establishing an SBA call center.
    The Community Navigator Program will supply grants to 
traditional business assistance organizations, like small 
business development centers, women's business centers, and its 
core chapters. These institutions have deep ties to the 
communities they operate in and will engage trusted, culturally 
knowledgeable partners to conduct targeted outreach to specific 
sectors of the small business community.
    This outreach can manifest in various ways, including 
hiring dedicated staff to focus on these individual 
communities, or partnering with specialized community 
organizations and chambers of commerce via a hub and spoke 
model. The Community Navigator Program seeks to engage with 
underserved communities by providing technical assistance and 
enhanced outreach.
    For this program to meet its stated goal Congress must 
closely monitor its roll out and work with the Administration 
to make the program operate as effectively as possible. That is 
why this hearing today is important.
    I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about the 
potential impact of the program on underserved and rural small 
businesses and ways the Subcommittee can ensure as many small 
businesses benefit as possible.
    With that, I will now yield to the Ranking Member, Mr. 
Hagedorn, for his opening statement.
    Mr. HAGEDORN. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and 
congratulations on your appointment as Chair of this 
Subcommittee. And on behalf of the Republican Members and 
myself we look forward to working with you during this Congress 
to especially help our small businesses and those in the rural 
communities and the agricultural sector.
    Chairman GOLDEN. I very much look forward to working with 
you too and I am blessed to be two Congresses in a row working 
on a Subcommittee with a Member from Minnesota. And you got the 
other one sitting right in front of you.
    Mr. HAGEDORN. And I know Congressman Stauber had a good 
working relationship with you as well.
    So small businesses from all sectors of the economy have 
turned to the U.S. Small Business Administration programs for 
relief during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the launch of 
the Paycheck Protection Program created by Congress in March of 
last year, the SBA processed more than 14 years-worth of loans 
in less than 14 days, serving or assisting over 50 million 
small business jobs during the program's first run. That is 
just unbelievable when you think about it, the amount of work 
and loans that were run through in such a short period of time.
    The success of recovery programs like PPP is undeniable. 
However, there is no doubt that inconsistent guidance, 
burdensome paperwork, and administrative holes and delays have 
caused confusion for small businesses looking to utilize these 
programs. As Democrats continue to exploit the COVID-19 
pandemic as an excuse to ram through their massive spending 
package and create new government programs, I believe Congress 
should focus on targeted and efficient relief that will aid 
small businesses as we reopen the economy.
    The partisan $1.9 trillion so called American Rescue Plan 
Act of 2021 directed the SBA to establish a Community Navigator 
Pilot Program. This program will issue grants or contracts with 
nonprofits, resource partners, states, and localities, 
providing free assistance and resources to small businesses for 
programs made available during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is my 
hope that any new program created by Congress will aid existing 
SBA resource partners in their outreach to all communities and 
not duplicate current efforts.
    Southern Minnesota is home to a diverse group of small 
businesses. In my district it is important that rural 
communities have the resources needed to contribute to the food 
supply, fuel rural America, and support other local businesses.
    As we move past the pandemic it is critical that we ensure 
farmers and ranchers have access to the resources needed to 
maintain operations. To support rural communities and 
agricultural small businesses, I have introduced H.R. 1411, the 
Bipartisan PPP Flexibility for Farmers and Ranchers Act, which 
would allow farmers and ranchers categorized as partnerships to 
utilize gross income when calculating PPP loans. I hope the 
Members will support me on that bill. I think it can really 
help over 100,000 farm partnerships as we move forward.
    Today's hearing will explore the role of community 
navigators in researching underserved communities. I look 
forward to hearing from our witnesses on the outreach completed 
by existing SBA resource partners, like small business 
development centers, during the pandemic and how they have 
reached underserved areas, including remote and rural 
communities. I look forward to discussing the Community 
Navigator pilot program's objectives and deliverables in 
addition to the standards which the navigators will need to 
uphold.
    Congress has appropriated $175 million for this program and 
we must ensure that we be proper stewards of the taxpayers' 
dollars and that the Navigator program yields beneficial 
results for small businesses.
    With the economy in recovery and egregious and arbitrary 
lock downs finally coming to an end, new and existing federal 
COVID tools, such as the Community Navigator pilot program, 
need to be closely examined to determine the most effective, 
economical, and efficient next steps.
    Thank you for being here today to discuss this important 
topic. I yield back.
    Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you, Mr. Hagedorn.
    Very quickly I will explain how this hearing will proceed. 
Each witness will have 5 minutes to provide a statement and 
each Committee Member will have 5 minutes for questions. Please 
ensure your microphone is on when you begin speaking and that 
you return to mute when finished.
    With that, let us introduce our witnesses.
    Our first witness today is Ms. Rebecca Shi, executive 
director of the American Business Immigration Coalition. As 
executive director of ABIC Ms. Shi works directly with a 
steering committee of over 350 CEOs, university presidents, 
chambers of commerce, and immigrant advocates to support the 
passage of pro immigrant policy at the state and federal 
levels.
    Welcome, Ms. Shi.
    Our second witness--one moment. Just for one second. Our 
second witness is Ms. Bridget Weston. Ms. Weston is the CEO of 
SCORE. As CEO Ms. Weston provides executive leadership and 
works directly and collaboratively with the board of directors 
to establish the vision and direction of SCORE.
    In her 10 years with the organization she has developed an 
in depth understanding of the needs and challenges facing 
SCORE's staff, its 300 chapters, and over 10,000 volunteers.
    Welcome back, Ms. Weston.
    I would now like to yield to Ms. Salazar to introduce our 
third witness.
    Ms. SALAZAR. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity.
    And I would like to introduce my constituent, Ms. Pilar 
Guzman Zavala. Ms. Zavala is a small business owner in the City 
of Miami that I represent and the CEO of Half Moon Empanadas, 
an Argentinian style restaurant based in my district. She is 
also a mentor for women entrepreneurs in the City of Miami with 
the WIN Lab Miami from Babson College and the Florida 
International University StartUP program.
    She is a Ricardo Salinas Scholarship recipient for the 
Aspen Institute and a Young American Leaders Program Fellow 
from the Harvard School of Business.
    Additionally, Ms. Zavala is a Venture Cafe board Member and 
a Miami leadership and a Miami fellow graduate.
    Small businesses are the foundation of our community. And 
during these difficult times our local job creators have been 
absolutely devastated. I am committed to restoring our economy 
and delivering much needed COVID relief for our struggling 
small business owners in South Florida.
    Ms. Zavala's story is truly one of the American dream, just 
like mine. But her story is also one of the trials and 
tribulations. And we look forward to hearing from your 
experiences, Ms. Zavala.
    Thank you so much for joining us today and to all of you 
for doing everything you are doing for our community. Your 
determination over the last year is an example to all of us 
small business owners. And I specifically and my staff are 
looking forward to visiting Half Moon Empanadas on our next 
trip to Miami.
    Thank you, Ms. Zavala. I yield back.
    Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Salazar.
    With snow still on the ground in Maine and I am guessing in 
Minnesota too, the background in Florida there looks pretty 
warm and looks nice.
    But thank you for the introduction and welcome to Ms. 
Zavala.
    And I would now like to yield to the Ranking Member, Mr. 
Hagedorn, to introduce our final witness.
    Mr. HAGEDORN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Our next witness is Bruce Strong, who I believe you have 
met in the past and have worked with. And you were highly 
complementary of his previous testimony. I am looking forward 
to today.
    Mr. Strong is the State Director for the Minnesota Small 
Business Development Center Network. He has extensive 
experience in community and economic development and in the 
mortgage lending and banking industries. Mr. Strong is an Air 
Force veteran and graduated summa cum laude from National 
College with a degree in business administration and marketing.
    Yesterday, on March 17, the nation celebrated Small 
Business Development Centers Day. Small business development 
centers provide valuable resources to our small business 
constituents across the country. And I thank Mr. Strong and his 
SBDC colleagues for their critical work to promote 
entrepreneurship, small business growth, and the U.S. economy.
    Mr. Strong, thank you for joining us today and thank you 
for your service to our great country.
    Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you, Mr. Hagedorn.
    Thank you all for joining us today. And why don't we begin 
with opening statements from our witnesses. First I will 
recognize Ms. Shi for 5 minutes.

    STATEMENTS OF REBECCA SHI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN 
BUSINESS IMMIGRATION COALITION; BRIDGET WESTON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE 
  OFFICER, SERVICE CORPS OF RETIRED EXECUTIVES (SCORE); PILAR 
 GUZMAN ZAVALA, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, HALF MOON EMPANADAS; 
    BRUCE STRONG, STATE DIRECTOR, MINNESOTA SMALL BUSINESS 
                   DEVELOPMENT CENTER (SBDC)

                    STATEMENT OF REBECCA SHI

    Ms. SHI. Good morning, Chairman Golden, Ranking Member 
Hagedorn. My name is Rebecca Shi and I am the executive 
director of the American Business Immigration Coalition.
    ABIC believes that the economy recovery of our nation's 
small and underserved businesses is necessary to ensure our 
nation's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Small business 
owners, especially African American, immigrant, rural, and 
other underserved and isolated businesses are the engines of 
their local economies.
    ABIC is a bipartisan coalition of 1,200 employers, CEOs, 
and business associations across 13 states, including Florida, 
Texas, Maine, Colorado, New York, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, 
Illinois, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, North and South Carolina. 
Over the last 11 months ABIC created and implemented a small 
business recovery technical assistance program, leveraging a 
community navigator model. This program provides one-to-one 
technical assistance for small, underserved minority-owned 
businesses and growers to access critical resources, including 
but not limited to the Paycheck Protection program, federal and 
state small business loans and grants.
    ABIC thanks Congress and President Biden for including $100 
million for community navigators in the American Recovery. We 
also thank Chairman Ben Cardin, Senators Marco Rubio and Susan 
Collins, and Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez for working tirelessly 
over the last 11 months to make improvements to the PPP, 
especially for the smallest borrowers, growers, and their 
lenders, like CDFIs and MDIs.
    The community navigator model utilizes local nonprofits or 
501(c)(3)s in a complementary non-competitive fashion with 
existing SBA technical assistance programs, like SBDCs, the 
NDCs, and SCORE. The unparalleled magnitude of the COVID-19 
pandemic forced shutdowns and disproportionate impact of small 
minority-owned rural business and growers required a 
comprehensive, common sense, grassroots response. This 
community navigator model we utilize in Illinois, Florida, 
Texas, and South Carolina to assist growers, black and 
immigrant entrepreneurs.
    This program assisted Pilar Guzman, whom you will hear 
later, introduced by Congresswoman Salazar, the owner of Half 
Moon Empanadas. We also assisted Chalmers Carr, the owner of 
Titan Farms, the largest peach grower in the country, based in 
South Carolina. He was denied a PPP loan by his bank because 
they did not understand how to calculate his 1,200 H2A workers. 
And Stacey Armstrong, an African American woman entrepreneur, a 
single mother, who employees less than 10 people at her gourmet 
popcorn shop, and she was denied a PPP first because her bank 
prioritized larger firms.
    Each of these of entrepreneurs was ultimately assisted in 
getting a PPP loan by a community navigator and the self-help 
federal Credit Union, a CDFI that understands how to work with 
small and rural businesses.
    Through this model ABIC directly assisted 219 small 
businesses and growers to receive over $8.1 million in PPP 
loans with an average amount of $37,000. This community 
navigator model was later adopted by the State of Illinois' 
Department of Commerce and the Cook County Illinois Economic 
Recovery Initiative to disperse local business recovery grants 
allocated by the CARES Act. The State of Illinois awarded $88 
million in business recovery grants to black, rural, and 
immigrant entrepreneurs.
    I have a chart that I submitted as evidence just to show 
that using the community navigator model we were able to ramp 
up access to these grants to small, minority-owned, and rural 
businesses.
    A couple of things I just wanted to point out, that as the 
navigator model ramped up from October to December of 2020, 
black participation increased by 25 percent and Latino 
participation increased between 30 and 46 percent. Over half of 
the applications for black and Hispanic applicants were 
received in November and December as a result of the 
navigator's program technical assistance. And over two-thirds, 
nearly 70 percent of our Spanish applications came in November 
and December as the navigators did outreach and document 
preparation for these borrowers.
    In sum, our community navigators had over 20,000 
applications by the end of October and throughout the rest of 
December and we were able to award, as I said, up to $88 
million.
    The last thing that I would just mention is the mechanics 
of this navigator model. It is a hub and spoke model. The hub 
is the lead nonprofit responsible for capacity building, train 
the trainers. The spokes are the grassroots nonprofits, sort of 
your boots on the ground conducting direct technical 
assistance, document preparation for the businesses. A 
successful hub and spoke system creates an assembly line that 
feeds directly into a financial institution, a CDFI, and the 
goal is that the application is in excellent shape by the time 
it is received by that financial institution, so we can ensure 
efficiency in processing at scale.
    The second piece is there is a high accountability 
structure to this model. As you all know, nearly every CDFI, or 
financial institution sends a processing number to the PPP 
applicant when the application has been received. And so what 
we require is not just, you know, general outreach or numbers 
of emails sent or just webinars, we ask that each navigator 
must demonstrate the receipts for the outreach so that we know 
that money is getting deposited in the banks.
    So I will just wrap up and just say thank you very much for 
the opportunity to testify on behalf of this model.
    Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you.
    Ms. Weston, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.

                  STATEMENT OF BRIDGET WESTON

    Ms. WESTON. Chairman Golden, Ranking Member Hagedorn, and 
Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to 
offer testimony today.
    SCORE is the nation's largest network of volunteer business 
mentors, with more than 10,000 volunteers across 240 chapters, 
offering free and confidential advice and educational workshops 
to small business owners.
    Founded in 1964 as a resource partner of the SBA, SCORE has 
helped more than 11 million entrepreneurs to start, grow, or 
troubleshoot their small business. Last year SCORE helped its 
clients to start over 45,000 new businesses and create nearly 
75,000 new jobs. And despite the challenging business climate 
of this pandemic, SCORE helped 89 percent of our clients stay 
in business throughout the year. SCORE is the most effective, 
efficient business formation and job creation engine funded by 
the federal government.
    In 2020, our costs to create a new job was $156 and $259 to 
create a new business. And for every one dollar appropriated to 
SCORE, our clients return $67 in new federal tax revenue, 
further demonstrating that SCORE is a good steward of the 
federal dollar.
    SCORE volunteers are the life blood of our organization and 
are passionate about helping small businesses succeed. Our 
volunteers come from all across the country with diverse 
backgrounds and experience in different industries. Our core 
services are mentoring, educational workshops, and online 
resources. Last year, SCORE volunteers held over 315,000 
mentoring sessions, guiding and supporting our clients through 
the tremendous challenges brought on by the pandemic.
    Many business owners told us they would to have applied for 
a PPP or an IDA loan without a SCORE mentor to walk them 
through the process. And our high rates of client satisfaction 
are captured by our net promoter score of 87, with 70 being 
considered excellent.
    In addition to mentoring, SCORE provides virtual webinars 
on our website and our SCORE chapters offer local workshops 
that are in person or virtual. These workshops drew over 
464,000 attendees last year.
    Knowing that the pandemic has hit some businesses harder 
than others, one of SCORE's key areas of focus is fostering 
diversity, equity, and inclusion, both for clients and 
volunteers. Women and minority volunteers climbed to 38 percent 
of total volunteers last year, and this 5 percent increase 
represents the single biggest annual growth since we began 
tracking these metrics in 2012. SCORE currently serves a 
diverse range of small business owners; 60 percent of our 
clients are women and 46 percent are minorities. Early this 
year we launched SCORE for black entrepreneurs as part of our 
SCORE For All initiative, to help serve disadvantaged 
businesses. We plan to add more SCORE For All campaigns to help 
these businesses survive and thrive, supporting women, rural 
entrepreneurs, veterans, the 50 and older community, and 
disabled entrepreneurs.
    SCORE is working harder than ever to reach underserved 
entrepreneurs, leveraging our community relationships 
nationally and locally. National partnerships include the BIPOC 
Support Foundation, Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global, and the 
Latino Coalition who introduce SCORE to new communities of 
small business owners. Across the nation our SCORE chapters are 
already operating as effective community navigators by working 
in local communities to help underserved business owners. For 
example, over the past year SCORE Cleveland has rededicated 
itself to bring its services to the minority business 
community. The chapter has partnered with leading nonprofits 
that target these communities and services have more than 
doubled over last year.
    When the pandemic hit, SCORE pivoted to deliver virtual 
mentoring and education without missing a day of service. And 
we accommodated a 30 percent increase in services last year 
without any increase in funding. Now, we are at capacity and 
will not be able to grow without additional resources. Based on 
SCORE's continued demonstrated impact, increased demand for 
services, and our plans to reach more business owners in 
underserved and disadvantaged communities, SCORE is 
respectfully respecting an increase, a $9.5 million in funding, 
for a total FY2 appropriation of $21.7 million. That additional 
funding would be spent to increase mentoring and education by 
reducing the administrative burden on volunteers, provide more 
direct funding to local chapters for community outreach, and 
focus to help more underserved businesses.
    With this relatively small investment we can provide even 
greater value to the business owners and the economy. The 
increased funding would allow us to deliver more than half a 
million client services, with a projected outcome of 100,000 
additional new businesses started or jobs created.
    SCORE's mentoring and education are critical to helping 
small businesses overcome their challenges and succeed. SCORE 
stands ready to help our nation's most vulnerable small 
business owners so they can keep their doors open and keep 
people employed.
    Thank you very much for your time, and I look forward to 
your questions.
    Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you.
    Ms. Zavala, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.

                STATEMENT OF PILAR GUZMAN ZAVALA

    Ms. ZAVALA. Hello. Hi, everybody. It is an honor to be 
speaking with you all today. Thank you, everyone, for taking 
the time to listen to my story. I think it is a story that 
reflects, you know, the reality of many small businesses like 
mine.
    Thank you, Congresswoman Salazar, for that kind 
introduction. I am here in Miami, 77 degrees. But so my name is 
Pilar Guzman Zavala and I am the CEO of Half Moon Empanadas. I 
represent one of the almost, you know, more than 30 billion 
small businesses in America. I also represent today the 
minority in every sense, you know, I am a woman, I am Hispanic, 
I am an immigrant. And now my company is in an industry where 
there have been so much suffering and torture that I am also 
one of the, you know, minority restaurants that are still open.
    You know, I came to America from Mexico when I was 22 years 
old, right after college. I went to Georgetown School of 
Foreign Service because I wanted to understand how to create 
economic development, how to elevate poverty. Little did I know 
back then that I would end up creating, you know, an impact as 
an entrepreneur in Miami and that my dreams will become clear 
in a, you know, in a new food category in America with 
empanadas, and that this immigrant that has a hard time 
speaking in English in Georgetown would end up picking the 
President of the United States.
    You know, Half Moon Empanadas, it is a small business in 
Miami with a concept of empanadas. Before the pandemic--we have 
been in business 12 years, before the pandemic was had 14 
stores open. The Miami Airport, the University of Miami, 
different non-traditional locations here. And, you know, our 
story wasn't easy. We took us--from the beginning, it took us 7 
years to get a paycheck from our company. We did everything 
wrong and we almost went bankrupt. It took us 10 banks locally 
to actually get us our first financing for our store in the 
airport. So I do know what it is to go through a financial 
system and understand how that works.
    You know, when COVID hit, it was literally a year ago, 
March 13. That week we saw all of our stores closed. In a week, 
everything was like what happened. It was really scary and I 
see how great and how blessed we are to live in this country 
because we were able to apply to PPP. It took us three banks. 
It took us three banks to get noes because the large fund was 
not very--it was not responsive. The medium bank was 
overwhelmed. And so I--thanks to the community navigator, I was 
able to get, you know, the support that we needed. You know, 
they connected us with a local bank that approved us quickly. I 
think 2 days we were approved. This helped us to stay afloat 
and keep our salaries, you know, people in payroll. And because 
I am also a mentor here in the community, and I am part of a 
network of businesses, I joined the effort, too. And we were 
able to help with ABIC, with Becca's team and Impact Fund here 
in Miami, other women and Hispanic-owned companies, to get the 
support. From processing documentation and gathering paperwork. 
We actually got a lot of these businesses approved for PPP.
    And so besides the PPP, we though we entrepreneurs don't 
stop we don't like to stay still. You know, we didn't stop 
there as a company. We did not only rely on help of the 
government, we reinvented ourselves, we became a restaurant in 
Miami making meals for seniors through our Miami-Dade County 
contract and we started our efforts in the digital space, you 
know, to send empanadas locally and nationally.
    So when I think about this whole year, I actually was 
thinking about [inaudible]. It must have been so hard for all 
you guys, government officials, you know, trying to figure out 
what to do and coming up with an entire package to save our 
economy and our community. So I wanted to at least to take 2 
seconds to thank you for the work you have done and for the 
effort, because it truly has made a difference in many 
businesses like mine.
    I had the honor to speak to President Biden twice in the 
last month. On our first call, you know, I raised my hand. My 
husband could not believe that I actually interrupted the 
President and I said could I please give you a suggestion. And 
my suggestion to him was please remember that the small 
businesses are not the large 300 businesses, it is--there are a 
lot of tiny businesses that are what I consider truly a small, 
of one, five, ten, twenty people, and that we need to focus on 
that because we are--we sustain the economy.
    So as we speak today, I am opening one store in 
Congresswoman Salazar's district. I cannot express to you how 
challenging it has been to open that store, because of COVID, 
because how hard it has been to hire. It is just really 
difficult compared to before. But I am a believer and I believe 
change is possible and I truly believe that challenges bring 
opportunities. And so I think this whole crisis has shown us, 
you know, all of us how to work together and how to actually 
focus on the things that really matter.
    I am thankful for President Biden's leadership and for you 
guys' leadership, for Congress to approve, you know, the help. 
I do believe that this Community Navigator Program was helpful 
to me and to many here locally and that we should, you know, 
continue to do this kind of work.
    Thank you so much for your time and your support.
    Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you.
    And finally we will recognize Mr. Strong for 5 minutes.

                   STATEMENT OF BRUCE STRONG

    Mr. STRONG. Thank you, Chairman Golden. Thanks also to 
Ranking Member Jim Hagedorn and Member Pete Stauber, who are 
both from the great State of Minnesota, where I live and work. 
I would also like to recognize Nydia Velazquez, Chairwoman of 
the House Small Business Committee, Ranking Member Blaine 
Luetkemeyer, and Representatives Angie Craig and Dean Phillips, 
who are also from Minnesota, for their many years of service 
and tireless support of small businesses throughout the 
country.
    My name is Bruce Strong and I am the state director of the 
Minnesota Small Business Development Network, or SBDC.
    SBDCs have been operating throughout the country for more 
than 40 years and in Minnesota alone during that time we've 
provided more than 960,000 professional consulting hours to 
help 95,000 clients start 5,200 businesses, helped more than 
80,000 existing businesses, and helped them all to secure $3.2 
billion in new business capital. Since March of last year our 
staff has worked tirelessly and literally day and night to 
double the number of clients that we served in a typical year 
in response to the COVID pandemic. Demand for SBDC assistance 
skyrocketed as business owners needed help with applications 
for the PPP and EIDL loan programs, or to reimagine their 
businesses due to government-ordered shutdowns.
    Recently the U.S. Small Business Administration introduced 
the Community Navigators Program. They state the intent of the 
program is to broaden and intensify outreach and technical 
assistance to targeted sectors of the small business community, 
including persons with disabilities, women, veterans, and/or 
those in minority, immigrant, rural, or other underserved 
communities using a hub and spoke delivery model. We don't yet 
have the details as to exactly how the program will operate, 
but several SBDCs, including Minnesota, are working with SBA on 
a pilot of the program to build models for the future of this 
effort. A total of $175 million has been allocated to the 
program under the American Rescue Plan. This is a significant 
sum and we are pleased to be working with SBA to develop the 
program. Assuming, that is, there is no requirement to provide 
matching funds for the program.
    SBDCs have long worked with other community organizations 
to reach rural and underserved markets, but like other 
businesses, the pandemic forced us to reimagine our own 
business model. To continue meeting the surge in demand, we are 
creating even more partnerships between the SBDC and local 
community organizations. In Minnesota, for instance, we just 
signed a contract with First Children's Finance to provide 
specialized assistance to new and existing childcare 
businesses. We are working to complete a similar contract with 
the African Development Center to increase their services 
throughout the state, and I am seeking to create even more 
partnerships.
    The Northern California SBDC has just launched a new 
inclusivity project that provides a simple but effective 
approach to reach out to the black and African community there. 
It goes beyond simply providing outreach by creating an actual 
challenge for the SBDC and local partners to provide real 
social change to obtain capital and start new black-owned 
businesses. The project has seen tremendous early success and 
was met with great enthusiasm when presented to SBDC state 
directors across the country just last week. So much so, that 
we will be soon adopting this project for implementation in 
America's SBDCs everywhere.
    America's SBDC wishes to express strong support for the 
Community Navigators Program and we envision it will fit 
perfectly into these plans. We are particularly supportive of 
the outreach portion of the funding. SBDCs have too long been a 
``best-kept secret''. We have been prohibited from marketing 
our services and that has truly hampered our outreach. That 
prohibition has only recently been lifted by the SBA. The 
Community Navigator Program will ensure that entrepreneurship 
education reaches all parts of the small business community, 
and it will go a long way to help our efforts to reopen the 
economy.
    Thank you and I look forward to your questions.
    Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you to all of our witnesses and we 
appreciate all the testimony that you shared with us.
    I will now move to questions and I will begin by 
recognizing myself for 5 minutes.
    I think I will begin with Mr. Strong. I did want to point 
out that I agree with Mr. Hagedorn that the PPP program worked 
well. For that matter, I agree with pretty much everyone that 
has joined us and testified today about that as well. I also 
look forward to hearing a little bit about H.R. 1411, your bill 
on PPP in support of farm partnerships. Last Congress you 
joined me, Congressman Hagedorn, in cosponsoring the SBDC 
Reauthorization legislation, which we passed through the House. 
Did not get taken up by the Small Business Committee in the 
Senate, so hopefully we can continue that work in this 
congress, but.
    Mr. Strong, obviously there are some who might naturally 
conclude that some of the groups out there, like SBDCs or 
SCORE, could view the creation of a new program such as this 
one as potentially duplicative or in competition with the 
services you provide. You just ended up by putting forward 
really an endorsement of the program. So I wanted to give you 
the opportunity to say a little bit more about the potential 
effects of the program, how you think it will interact with 
SBDCs. And also if you have any concerns that should be avoided 
in order to make sure that the programs are really 
complementary.
    Mr. STRONG. Thank you, Chairman Golden.
    I don't view the program as being duplicative or 
competitive with what we are already doing. Rather, I view it 
as being complementary to what we are already doing. As I 
mentioned, we have long had partnerships with other local 
organizations to help broaden the reach of the SBDC and 
particularly to provide deep reach into those markets that have 
typically been underserved. We have worked with the 
Metropolitan Economic Development Association, or MEDA, with 
the Neighborhood Development Center, with other local nonprofit 
groups and specifically those that serve communities and 
communities of color.
    So, again, I believe that the Navigator Program will help 
us reach even more community organizations and partner with 
more organizations as we have recently done with the African 
Development Center and First Children's Finance here in 
Minnesota.
    Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you very much. And you made a great 
point, by the way about previous prohibitions on marketing and 
outreach. What good are these services to businesses if they 
don't know that they exist in the first place. So look forward 
to continue to work with the SBDCs and SCORE and others on 
fixing that problem in this Congress as well.
    Next I guess I would direct a question to Ms. Weston from 
SCORE.
    Through your work with underserved and rural small business 
owners and entrepreneurs, what resources and technical support 
are most often requested? And how do you think this new 
partnership with the Community Navigator Program can help 
address these?
    Ms. WESTON. Thank you for the question, Chairman.
    And with SCORE mentors seeing tens of thousands of small 
business owners each year we really do have a pulse on what the 
challenges that small business owners are facing. In our 
mentoring sessions the common themes that our mentors hear do 
relate to funding. Do these small business have position 
funding or cash flow, and, along those lines too, attracting 
and retaining customers. Those are the two biggest challenges 
that we see.
    With SCORE partnering across the country with local 
community partners, as well as nationally with some of the 
partnerships I had mentioned previously, it helps connect those 
business owners struggling with funding opportunities, access 
to capital, cash flow questions, or customer questions with 
those people that have been there, done that expertise. We have 
seen that the PPP and EIDL programs were more successful when 
they were partnered with a mentor like SCORE, SBDC. And we want 
these new federally funded opportunities, which are extremely 
valuable to these business owners, be able to take advantage of 
it. And SCORE mentors are ready to help those most vulnerable 
business owners navigate. The key is to make sure that they are 
connected to those disadvantaged and underserved communities.
    We are doing that already across SCORE chapters. Maine, for 
example, partners with a number or organizations like the USDA, 
the Maine Farmland Trust, to make sure that that one-on-one 
business mentoring service is provided to make sure they have 
the best opportunity for success.
    Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you very much for that. And I hear 
repeatedly from business owners in Maine about how valuable the 
programs and services offered by SCORE are in starting 
businesses and making tough decision to keep them going as 
well. So thank you for that partnership in Maine.
    My time has expired and the Ranking Member, Mr. Hagedorn, 
is now recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. HAGEDORN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    You know, I was listening to testimony, especially from Ms. 
Shi and Ms. Zavala, and they were saying how important it is to 
make sure that our small businesses, all of them, have access 
to especially Paycheck Protection Program and everything else 
needed in order to get, especially at this time, from one side 
of the Coronavirus to the other. And so I think the work of the 
Committee, led by our Committee Chairwoman Velazquez and 
ranking Republican Luetkemeyer, was--and you, Mr. Chairman as 
well, and many Members of this Subcommittee, all of them, I 
think to extend the Paycheck Protection Program by 60 days, 
that bill that was just passed this week, pretty important. So 
hopefully we can work with our Senate colleagues and get that 
done and make sure that all of our businesses are cared for and 
have proper access to the program.
    So, you know, Mr. Strong, I listened to your testimony. It 
is very good. And I certainly am supportive of small business 
development centers and women's business centers, veteran's 
business center, SCORE, you know, all of it. But you said you 
think this is more of a cooperative deal, these navigators, it 
is not going to be competition with you. What do you foresee 
them going out and basically bringing the business back to you? 
Is that kind of the concept? Or could you, you know, let me 
know what your thoughts are on that?
    Mr. STRONG. Sure. Thank you, Representative Hagedorn and 
Chairman Golden for that question.
    Again, the vision for the delivery is a hub and spoke 
model. In my estimation that is the SBDC acting as the hub and 
these local community partners acting as the spokes. That is 
similar to how our model has worked in the past. Oftentimes, 
particularly with communities of color, underserved markets and 
rural markets, folks really want to talk to somebody from their 
own community. They want someone that looks like them that can 
identify with them, and that is the strength in my estimation 
of the community partners in this hub and spoke and approach.
    So I do believe it is going to be effective. I think the 
outreach can actually be a combination of that provided by the 
hub, by the SBDC, to make sure that folks are aware that the 
Community Navigator Program exists and what it does, but then 
also those local partners who can reach out specifically to the 
groups within their local markets and bring clients into the 
program that way as well.
    Mr. HAGEDORN. Thank you. I do really appreciate the work 
that you do on behalf of Minnesotans and have spoken to many of 
your clients over the last several years who have been, you 
know, very much aided by the work that you perform.
    And during the Obama Administration we had Obamacare and we 
had these community navigators then and there were some 
problems with, you know, fraud and just other types of things. 
Are there standards in place do you think with the Small 
Business Administration that we can make sure that these folks 
are going to be trained up properly and we won't have any legal 
or ethical problems?
    Mr. Strong, that is for you again.
    Mr. STRONG. Representative Hagedorn, yes, I do--I believe 
SBA does a great job of oversight of the program that we 
currently run, our regular core program that has been in 
operation for 40 years. They have strong measures in terms of 
metrics and goals that we must achieve under that program. I 
believe the same will be true under the Navigator Program. And 
as long as we have a clear objective as to what this program is 
to do and what it is to accomplish, I am fully confident that 
the SBDCs will absolutely come to bat and make sure this 
program is successful, that it meets the actual challenges. 
That is already being demonstrated most recently in this 
Northern California SBDC program.
    So, absolutely, I believe we will--once we set clear 
objectives and metrics for the program, we will be able to 
accomplish them.
    Mr. HAGEDORN. I hope Members on both sides would make sure 
we do the proper oversight and follow up on that and make sure 
what you are saying is going to work out.
    Lastly, real quickly, on broadband access--and I will stay 
with you, Mr. Strong, since we only have about 30 seconds--how 
important it is that we make sure that folks, not just in rural 
communities, but all across the country, wherever they might 
be, have access to broadband and high speed access in order to 
do their work and to market their businesses and so forth?
    Mr. STRONG. Thanks again for that question, Representative 
Hagedorn.
    Clearly the COVID pandemic underlined the importance of a 
strong broadband network. When we are all confined to our homes 
and required to work from our homes, without a strong broadband 
network, we are sunk. And that is why I believe that support 
for broadband funding is critical. Here in Minnesota the 
legislature is contemplating large scale programs to improve 
and increase the broadband network. I hope that the same--I 
trust the same is happening in other states across the country 
and I hope nationally we can come to a broadband program that 
helps provide a stronger network across the entire country.
    Mr. HAGEDORN. Thank you. I am out of time. Appreciate it.
    Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you. The gentleman's time has 
expired. The gentleman yields back.
    I will now recognize Representative Jason Crow, Chairman of 
the Subcommittee on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Workforce 
Development.
    Mr. CROW. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you to all the 
witnesses for coming in today. Really great testimony and 
really good information for us to look at these programs and 
how to better improve them.
    You know, when I think about the Community Navigator 
Program I am reminded of this program in my district where the 
City of Aurora actually partners with the local nonprofit, the 
Village Exchange Center; has a program called the Natural 
Helpers Program where immigrants and refugees who have been 
here longer actually help fellow immigrants and refugees who 
have recently arrived actually navigate nonprofit resources and 
find their way around the community and better integrate it. 
And I think it is within that spirit that the Community 
Navigator pilot program is trying to help our underserved 
businesses the most.
    So in that vein, starting with Ms. Shi, Ms. Shi, can you 
just tell me your thoughts on what types of private, nonprofit 
that are best suited to serve as community navigators?
    Ms. SHI. Thank you so much for the question, Congressman.
    We had the same experience at the start of the pandemic. 
After the Paycheck Protection Program was rolled out, immigrant 
owned businesses, refugee owned businesses, black owned 
businesses, you know, came to us and they had not heard about 
these other SBA programs or SBDCs. And so we trained local 
nonprofits, so nonprofits that they know in their community, 
that perhaps that they have gone there for English classes or 
citizenship classes. And so they started doing the one-to-one 
document preparation, outreach, and education about the PPP and 
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there will be a host of hand holding and to get them access 
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a navigator that assisted her. And Pilar is much more 
sophisticated compared to some of our small businesses and sole 
proprietors [Audio malfunction.] to do this kind of work for 
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retroactive [Audio malfunction.]. This is the kind of outreach 
that is important and one they are made aware of the program, 
then our navigators like hold their hand and go through the 
entire document preparation for them. You know, because of the 
pandemic, for a lot of these smallest businesses, this is their 
first interaction with a government loan or a grant program, 
right. And so, you know, they are afraid, they are concerned 
and it is--you know, we all know if you check the wrong box, 
right, that affects your credit score. And then, you know, 
getting them access to a lender.
    So I would say the best types of nonprofits are not so 
much--you know, in our experience, the ones that have done this 
work before, but really are willing to get in the gutter and be 
on the ground and hold the hands of our small businesses and 
get them through from the beginning to the end. And we have a 
very, very rigorous accountability measure. Because like with 
Pilar, we need to show that the money--so.
    Mr. CROW. Ms. Shi, I will--yeah, I will stop you there. I 
want to give Ms. Zavala an opportunity to weigh in as well. But 
I appreciate that perspective and your thoughts on that very 
much.
    Ms. Zavala, any thoughts on what you think would be the 
best nonprofits that could perform these types of services?
    Ms. ZAVALA. Yes. Thank you for the question.
    I saw that the CDFIs, the small--really small one branch, 
you know, banks, the Axiom--which now I think it is a different 
name--those are organizations that are close to the small--what 
I mean when I say close is they understand the issues they have 
with not having the perfect P&L, right. I have a perfect P&L. I 
didn't have it 10 years ago. So understanding--I think what is 
good about working with the local organizations is that they 
understand how to work on the context of that small business, 
which banks don't understand.
    So and I think the issue of--you know, it is an issue of 
capacity. There is a lot of--there is the SBA, but is there the 
capacity to serve all of these? I think the numbers show that 
there is not the capacity. We need more.
    Mr. CROW. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I am out of time, but 
really, really great thoughts.
    Ms. ZAVALA. Thank you.
    Mr. CROW. Thank you very much.
    Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Chairman GOLDEN. The gentleman yields.
    I will now recognize Representative Roger Williams, Vice 
Ranking Member of the full Committee.
    Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for your 
leadership. Ranking Member, thank you. And our witnesses, thank 
all of you for being here today.
    I am a small business owner myself. I have been in business 
50 years and still have my business and employ hundreds of 
people back in Texas. And I appreciate your stories. They are 
just so--they show the power of this great country.
    Attending a trade school and learning a skill can be just 
as valuable as going to a traditional four year college. I am a 
strong advocate of career and technical education programs and 
push back against the belief that a college degree is necessary 
to get ahead in America. If someone learns a skill they are on 
their way to eventually translating their abilities into 
starting their own small business. However, learning how to run 
a small business is not easy task, as we all know.
    So my question, to start out with, Ms. Weston, you touched 
a little bit about this earlier, but maybe you can go deeper, 
can you discuss some of the largest challenges you see from 
young entrepreneurs who come to your organization wanting to 
take a chance and start their own businesses and how any way 
the SBA can better utilize resources to spur new business 
creation? Because at the end of the day, risk and reward is the 
American dream.
    Ms. WESTON. Thank you for the question, Congressman.
    And we know at SCORE that being an entrepreneur or a small 
business owner--and you know this too--is challenging under the 
best of circumstances. And this year has been hard on everyone.
    SCORE has data that there are some groups of businesses 
that have struggled more than others, but being a business 
owner and an entrepreneur you feel that you have to be that 
person who does everything, that you--you know, you are the 
Jack or Jill of all trades and you have to wear all of the 
hats. What SCORE and SBDC and other organizations that provide 
technical support do, is we are that step by step guide to 
these businesses that help them fill those gaps when they don't 
have that information on the P&L, like small business centers 
do. You might be an expert as, you know, a plumber or a hair 
stylist, but you don't necessarily have that knowledge about 
how to do your accounting. That is where SCORE and the SBA 
resources come into play. SCORE stands ready for small business 
support for everyone. Some business owners do have unique 
challenges. We have been talking about historically under-
represented groups and rural business owners and there are some 
needs that those groups have a greater need for, and we can 
address those too.
    The important thing is, with 30 million small business 
owners out there that we as the resource partners and the 
technical assistance, get out there, get the word out, connect 
with these community organizations that have the reach into 
those communities so that these business owners know SCORE and 
other resource partners are here to help and provide that 
support. And when the business owner steps away and uses a 
mentor to answer those questions, they are much more likely to 
successful.
    Mr. WILLIAMS. That is great. I think your support find 
there is a big difference between the sale of dollar and the 
gross of dollar. So thank you for helping on that.
    Secondly, I think the Navigator Program has the potential 
to help a large number of small businesses realize the 
resources that they have at their disposal. However, in the 
past, there have been some serious issues of fraud, and we have 
talked about that this morning, and of leaking sensitive 
consumer information that led to some security threats against 
individuals.
    Since we just allocated $100 million to this program, we 
must make sure that we are making good--or being good stewards 
of taxpayer dollars and not repeating the mistakes of the past.
    So, Ms. Shi, for you can you discuss what safeguards the 
SBA should put in place to ensure that this program is not 
opening itself up to waste, fraud, and abuse?
    Ms. SHI. Yeah, absolutely. And thank you so much, 
Congressman, for that question. And that is extremely 
important.
    So when we ran the navigator model in several states, 
including Texas, Florida, and South Carolina, we asked all of 
our navigators to show receipts for the PPP received by their 
small businesses. So that is part of our accountability 
structure. You know, I think it is very easy just to send a 
whole bunch of emails and do a webinar and say that, you know, 
we assisted businesses, right, but we actually--especially 
during this global pandemic as our businesses are struggling--
we need to see that these funds are getting into the bank 
accounts of our small businesses as well as staying with them 
to go through the forgiveness process to turn the loan into a 
grant. So that is number one.
    And number two is working with a trusted CDFI--and the I--
or financial institution, to make sure that, you know, all the 
Ts are crossed, Is are dotted. And, you know, as we know with 
our financial institutions, there are also multiple layers of 
assurance and accountability.
    But, so that is extremely important to us and this is 
taxpayer dollars and these are the local engines of our 
economy. And so we need to make sure that these funds are 
getting to the folks that need it the most.
    Mr. WILLIAMS. Okay. Thank you to the witness. And I yield 
my time back.
    Chairman GOLDEN. The gentleman yields.
    I will now recognize Representative Pete Stauber from 
Minnesota's 8th District.
    Mr. STAUBER. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thanks to all the 
witnesses for providing the testimony today.
    And, Mr. Strong, thanks once again for coming to our Small 
Business Committee hearing and testifying. I am sure all the 
Minnesota Members really appreciate you coming here again and 
giving us quality time.
    I would just like to give you a moment to share what worked 
for the Minnesota SBDCs, what has it looked like during the 
pandemic, and how has it changed from what you had done prior 
to the pandemic?
    Mr. STRONG. Thank you, Representative Stauber. Thank you 
for those kind words.
    What has changed for us is the sheer volume of the 
questions and the demand that we are receiving from the public. 
Obviously the Paycheck Protection Program and the EIDL loan 
programs were critical to those small businesses that were most 
affected as a result of the pandemic. And helping those 
businesses wade through the myriad regulations for both 
programs, both the PPP and EIDL loan programs, and the changing 
requirements that occurred during the launch of those programs, 
just caused so much confusion in the marketplace. We spent a 
great deal of time just trying to decipher those changes 
ourselves and then interpret those changes to the small 
business community so that we could most effectively help them 
apply for their loan, or help them apply for forgiveness under 
the Paycheck Protection Program. We are still to some extent 
struggling with issues regarding that. And this latest deadline 
of the Paycheck Protection Program expiring and hopefully being 
extended just kind of creates ripples throughout that program.
    As Chairman Golden stated, SBA processed 14 years-worth of 
loan applications in a 14-day period of time.
    Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Strong----
    Mr. STRONG. That, you know, by itself is going to cause 
problems.
    Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Strong, I want to just thank you and your 
organization for helping out the small businesses and helping 
with the lending institutions, because when we passed that 
legislation there were some blind spots. And when we knew 
better, we did better with the flexibility portion afterwards.
    Mr. Strong, prior to the pandemic northern Minnesota was 
plagued with a childcare desert. The situation got worse during 
the pandemic. In your testimony you mentioned that Minnesota 
SBDC signed a contract with First Children's Finance to provide 
specialized assistance to new and existing childcare 
businesses.
    Can you elaborate on this? On the work you are doing?
    Mr. STRONG. Certainly. Thank you again for the question.
    First Children's Finance has been around for a long time. 
They are a nonprofit group, they are a CDFI as well. They 
specialize in helping childcare businesses with all of the 
nuances, the legislation, and the requirements that are 
expected of a childcare business. And so partnering with them 
the SBDC will help broaden--the outreach will help broaden 
their outreach. It helps bring funding to them so they can pay 
additional counselors to come alongside. But it also helps the 
SBDC because we can help with the business aspect of running a 
childcare business, even though we may not necessarily 
understand all of the nuances of those requirements.
    And you are exactly right, the childcare industry was 
struggling even pre-COVID. In Minnesota we found that small 
businesses were unable to grow because their employees weren't 
able to find adequate childcare, particularly in rural markets.
    We are hoping and trusting--we believe that partnering with 
First Children's Finance will be of great benefit to the SBDC 
and all Minnesota businesses.
    Mr. STAUBER. And, Mr. Strong, I think that is really great 
news because we know when there is adequate, secure childcare 
that benefits the economy, especially coming out of this COVID 
crisis. We want to make sure that the workforce is there to be 
had and having safe, secure childcare is certainly a priority.
    So, Mr. Strong, once again, thank you for your testimony, 
and we will see you shortly.
    And, Mr. Chair, I yield back.
    Mr. STRONG. Thank you.
    Chairman GOLDEN. The gentleman yields.
    I will now recognize Representative Claudia Tenney from New 
York's 22nd.
    Ms. TENNEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to 
Ranking Member Hagedorn, and the witnesses as well. Great to 
hear from all of you. And thank you for holding this important 
hearing.
    Obviously the COVID-19 situation has been challenging for 
all of us, all Americans, and especially our small business 
community, which are truly the backbone of our economy. And I 
can't emphasize that enough. As a small business owner in New 
York's 22nd District, over 94 percent of the workforce in my 
district come from small businesses. So our community's 
success, our economic success, depends on the success of our 
small businesses.
    Last week I launched a small business outreach tour to meet 
with business leaders and employers across the 22nd District. 
So far I have met with over 30 businesses, have spoken with 
hundreds in the past, and have had the opportunity to discuss 
their priorities and their needs for relief and recovery.
    The two common questions that I get are what programs and 
resources are available and, second, how do we navigate some of 
these cumbersome applications processes and rules. And I know 
as a business owner, also as an attorney, federal programs, you 
know, have helped thousands of businesses in my state, 
particularly in our underserved and rural communities, which my 
district is. We must continue to reach out to these underserved 
communities and educate our employers on how to use these 
resources and their employees. It is also imperative to 
understand that these programs need to be made simpler and 
easier to use because so many small business owners are so busy 
running their businesses they really don't have time to hire 
compliance teams and teams of lawyers. And I know that as my 
business was started over 75 years ago and I have been one of 
the owners for over 35 years, so I understand how complex this 
can be. And I really appreciate our witnesses.
    And my first question--and some of these have been 
answered--I would like to address to Ms. Weston. And first I 
want to say thank you so much for SCORE. I have--as a business 
owner also, many of my colleagues have used SCORE and it has 
been a wonderful asset to people in the business community. So 
I just wanted to ask you, so many of these business owners have 
said this is--getting the money and the Navigator Program has 
been so daunting. What do you consider the biggest barrier and 
what recommendations do you have to fix those issues? Briefly, 
if you could.
    Ms. WESTON. Well, thank you so much for the question, 
Congresswoman. And maybe one day you will consider becoming a 
SCORE volunteer since you are a small business owner yourself.
    So one of the things that we heard from our clients, 
especially as it relates to PPP and EIDL, was just that 
Congress acted so quickly, there was such a drive to help these 
small business owners, and when things were really done quickly 
there was confusion--how to apply, who can apply for these 
loans, what that process is. And so what SCORE was able to do 
is set up our small business resilience program, which paired 
mentoring, check list, and step-by-step guides that were 
industry specific to help these businesses navigate the 
challenges they are facing.
    So we saw nearly 600,000 people through that portal to help 
answer questions in a timely, specific, guided fashion so that 
we could get them to the right lender, the right program, the 
right resource. What we have seen is that these guides, mentors 
from SCORE or other resource programs, are what can really help 
make these federally funded programs successful. And the 
communication would be helpful across lines collaborating with 
other resource partners and other agencies.
    Ms. TENNEY. And as you say that, I know you recommend more 
communication. We also have state programs that are now going 
to be enhancing some of the federal programs. And so that is 
where I consider SCORE would be a great resource for us to be 
able to access them.
    Thank you, though. I appreciate that.
    And for Mr. Strong, I wanted to ask a question about 
childcare, which is really important to me as a single mom, how 
important it is to have reliable safe childcare. But Mr. 
Stauber hit that question, but I was just going to ask you in 
looking at this model, a lot of businesses--this pandemic is 
forcing everyone to reimagine their business model. And in 
response to the demand, what would you say for the SBDC, what 
could we implement in a rural setting to help people in a 
pandemic for the future and how do we best reach out to some of 
these people in rural settings? I am running out of time, but 
if you could answer real quick, I would appreciate it.
    Thank you.
    I guess I will yield my time back. I am sorry.
    Mr. STRONG. I lost your audio. I couldn't get the question.
    Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chairman, we will address it in another 
meeting.
    Thank you so much. We will catch up with you in a private 
setting.
    Thank you.
    Chairman GOLDEN. The gentlewoman yields. Sorry about the 
technical difficulties. And we can submit it for the record if 
you like.
    Ms. TENNEY. Absolutely. You need more broadband. Thank you.
    Chairman GOLDEN. That is the truth.
    I will now recognize the Ranking Member of the full 
Committee, Blaine Luetkemeyer from Missouri's 3rd Congressional 
District.
    Welcome, Ranking Member Luetkemeyer.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you all 
of the witnesses.
    I have been listening in my office and trying to keep a lot 
of balls in the air this morning here. I apologize for getting 
here a little late. But, you know, one of the things that 
concerns me are--that I have been watching here is that, you 
know, I had a meeting this week with an SBIC group, a small 
business investor, and they were telling me that they were 
doing basically what the navigator proposal in this CARES Act, 
or the funding bill, actually was doing. So I mean I am 
curious--you know, they were trying to bring together all the 
different groups, whether the chamber or the libraries--in fact 
is one of the groups they were talking about, as well as 
historic and black colleges that they were working with and 
some other partners. So if they are already doing this, is this 
really necessary? What is your--can you explain to me? Mr. 
Strong, for instance, can you give me the reason why this is a 
good deal? Or should we continue it or change it around? Or 
what is your suggestion here?
    Mr. STRONG. I am sorry, Congressman. I lost the last part 
of your question.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Okay. I was curious as to whether you 
believed--or what your opinion would be with regards to the 
necessity of the Community Navigators pilot program here in the 
COVID relief bill because I was talking with some folks in SBIC 
this week and they do the same thing--some SBDC folks that are 
doing the same thing.
    So are we duplicating services I guess is my question?
    Mr. STRONG. Well, thank you, Congressman. I appreciate the 
question.
    And, again, it is going to be a challenge. It is always a 
challenge, especially when Congress is trying to act in as 
robust a fashion as they are. It seems like a lot of these 
programs are duplicative, but I think it is simply going to 
help increase the outreach and the effectiveness of the 
partnerships between SCORE, the SBDCs, the Women's Business 
Centers, and all of their local community organizations to 
provide even greater outreach into markets that haven't 
historically been very well served.
    We continue to hear about underserved markets, particularly 
in communities of color and in rural markets. The more folks we 
can have out there helping the existing small businesses and 
potential small businesses, I think the better.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Can you explain to me who all is going to 
qualify for this money and how they get it?
    Mr. STRONG. No, I am afraid I can't. We haven't gotten the 
details of the program yet. I have only seen it in concept 
form. We are anxiously awaiting what the actual details of the 
program will be, eligibility criteria, and more importantly, or 
just as importantly, the metrics and goals that we hope to 
achieve through the program. I think that speaks to your 
question about effective use of this funding. We need to have 
clear cut goals, we need to have clear cut eligibility, and we 
need to have clear cut metrics for the outcomes of the program 
to evaluate its success.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. If we are delaying--and SBA has got a lot 
of balls in the air right now. They have got a lot on their 
plate and I am very concerned about that. I am working with 
them on a lot of other issues right now. And if it is going to 
be a delay in getting this information out, putting this 
program together, how worthwhile is it if you wait until 
September to get it done, for instance? If we wait, you know, 4 
or 5 months here, is it still going to be effective? Or is it--
at that point we will be over the hump, so to speak, such that 
it is not going to be necessary?
    Mr. STRONG. Thanks again, Congressman for the question.
    I believe that the problem with underserved markets has 
been around a lot longer than the COVID pandemic. I think 
anything that we can do to help increase outreach to those 
markets is going to be beneficial. You know, if a delay--and 
hopefully it won't be 4 or 5 months before we get clearer 
marching orders on the pilot program isn't necessarily going to 
have an overall impact on its effectiveness.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Just a quick question for you with regards 
to the other programs that are out there. I am not sure you are 
involved with them, but just to kind of get your opinion on 
them real quickly. With regards to the restaurant program, for 
instance, are you working with any of the groups? Do you think 
that is going to be pretty impactful, those restaurant grants?
    Mr. STRONG. I don't think there is a more important program 
out there than the restaurant grants. But, again, we have seen 
absolutely no details on what it will do or how it will work. 
But I can tell you--and Minnesota is not unique here--the 
hospitality industry has been decimated as a result of COVID 
and the required business closures that took effect as a result 
of that.
    So absolutely we must provide some support to the 
restaurants and hospitality industry.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Well, I think the key--I thank the 
Chairman for his diligence here--but I think the key is going 
to be how these grants are doled out, how they are applied for, 
and how they--what kind of oversight is provided over them 
because I think it is a situation that is ripe for fraud if we 
are not careful. And I think hopefully you will work with us to 
provide some expertise in this so we can find a way to minimize 
that.
    With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
    Thank you.
    Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you. The gentleman yields.
    And we would now recognize Representative Maria Salazar 
from Florida's 27th for 5 minutes.
    Ms. SALAZAR. Yes, and thank you very much, Chairman.
    I want to congratulate Ms. Pilar Guzman because I think you 
are the epitome of the American dream and we need more people 
like you in this country. People that came with really not 
knowing any English, as you said, but willing to work and to 
take advantage of this fantastic American dream, or the 
American system that the Founding Fathers put together for 
people like you and me. So I think that we not only have love, 
but gratitude for this country. And I am sure that you feel the 
same way.
    And, look, not only were you able to come, you were able to 
stay, you learned the language, you went to school, and then 
you put together a business, came COVID, and the government 
gave you money so you could keep that business. Where does that 
happen? Nowhere else. Is that true? Nowhere else. And that is 
why I congratulate you and I think that we Hispanic Americans, 
first generation, we should celebrate what a fantastic country 
we have. And that is why I am in Congress, because--and you are 
in business--because we want to keep this system for the future 
of our children.
    Am I right?
    Ms. ZAVALA. Yes, I support that 100 percent.
    Ms. SALAZAR. and I just wanted to ask you, in which way we 
could spread the word and help other businesses like yours, 
specifically in our district, Miami and south Florida in order 
to--what else do you think we could do in order to send a 
message and give the info to people like you in order to 
continue living the American dream?
    Ms. ZAVALA. Yeah, thank you for that question, 
Congresswoman.
    I think that it is crucial that we support groups like 
ABIC, like Impact Fund here in Miami. I saw how hard it was for 
me, and I am a little bit sophisticated in the sense of, you 
know, I have systems in place, I have, you know, financials in 
place. It is so hard as a small business to understand what the 
PPP was, how to apply to it. You know, the bank wasn't 
replying. So, you know, ABIC in that sense helped me connect to 
the opportunity because I couldn't get in. With all my network 
in Miami, I could not get the PPP. So imagine the majority of 
the businesses that don't have that network, that are not 
mentors to other businesses, that don't have the community 
connections, they need ABIC, they need Impact Fund.
    And what I say is, you know, it is great with the SBA, you 
know, has done, you know, during the crisis and before, but we 
must recognize that the numbers don't lie. This is not about 
parties or emotions, it is about numbers. And so we need to 
look at the numbers, who is getting the finance help. And why 
is it that the underserved, you know, communities don't have 
that access to financing. And in this case the PPP--the PPP 
just highlighted the systemic problem we have.
    And so I think that one of the challenges is that we need 
more technical assistance, we need more, you know, guidance in 
how to getting a small loan, because we are lost. Access to 
information and having these local partners working one-on-one 
with businesses that already know them, it is important.
    Ms. SALAZAR. And I thank you, because that is why I created 
a prosperity center within my congressional office. And I am 
glad that you are telling me that information is power. Because 
the more info that we put out there into the community for 
people like you--because like you said, that you had certain 
knowledge. There are many other businesses that are not as 
sophisticated or have as much information as you have.
    So thank you for that.
    I am not sure if I have to yield my time back or if I have 
a few more minutes. I don't have the----
    Chairman GOLDEN. You still have a minute to go if you would 
like to ask another question.
    Ms. SALAZAR. I could have--yeah.
    And now let me ask you this, what about the--like you were 
saying, I have to definitely recognize the local people in the 
Impact Fund, our local partners who are with the American 
Business Immigration Council, ABIC, to help you connect and to 
give you those tools and that information, that technology or 
know that information, basic knowledge in order to be able to 
navigate the system and get to the money.
    Now, the info in Spanish, even though you were 
knowledgeable in English, what else can we do for those people 
that also want to live the American dream but still do not 
understand the literature in English? What have you found out 
there? Do we need to promote more material in Spanish?
    Ms. ZAVALA. Yes. I mean I think that first we need to just 
have the information available. You know, people were just lost 
in the process. Like nobody knew what to do with the PPP. And 
so, yes, it will be very helpful to have it in Spanish as, you 
know, the majority of our businesses here locally are Spanish 
speaker businesses. So certainly that is important and that is 
I think one of the barriers for many of our businesses.
    Ms. SALAZAR. Thank you very much for that info. Thank you 
Ms. Guzman. Looking forward to meet you when I go down to 
Miami.
    Ms. ZAVALA. Thank you, Congresswoman.
    Ms. SALAZAR. I wish you a lot more success in opening up 
many more Half Moon Empanadas shops.
    Ms. ZAVALA. Thank you.
    Ms. SALAZAR. I yield back. Thank you, Chairman.
    Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you very much.
    I am going to ask a few more questions, so second round if 
Members can bear with me. I certainly recognize if you are not 
able to stick it out, however, Mr. Hagedorn, but if you do have 
more questions, I am happy to recognize you after.
    Thank you to the witnesses. Just a few more questions.
    One of them--I guess I will just follow up with you, Ms. 
Zavala, because that was a really good exchange right there. 
You know, early on in the pandemic my office was hearing from 
many, many businesses who were very eager for help from EIDL, 
from PPP, had a lot of questions. SBA staff were very busy 
working with the Treasury trying to build the program, and as a 
result people were really struggling to get information.
    One of the things that the American Rescue Plan authorizes 
at SBA is a call center, where business owners such as yourself 
could call to get information, how do I apply, you know, what 
are the guidelines, you know. Many people were very concerned 
about taking the loan not knowing how they might qualify for 
forgiveness. These types of questions were everywhere. And as 
you said earlier, people were very concerned.
    Do you think that having a call center that you could have 
called at the beginning when you were contemplating the 
Paycheck Protection Program and things like EIDL, would have 
been helpful? And would you have called it if it had existed?
    Ms. ZAVALA. Thank you for the question, Chairman.
    Yes. I mean I think that as the information is what was 
missing, the access is what--sometimes people were lost. Even 
before the pandemic, think about it, like where do you get 
financing. I get those questions all the time when I do 
mentorship. I get texts from companies, from people, I need 
support for this financing wise. Like there is a lack of 
information. And so, yes, a call center--there was an effort 
here in Miami led by the city Foundation where they put 
together a website with like specific questions about where to 
get the help during COVID, the loans or the individual help. 
And so, of course, those are important efforts.
    Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you very much.
    You know, I also wanted to say just thinking about the 
early weeks and months of the pandemic and the emergency it 
caused for a lot of small businesses, I actually had almost my 
entire team establish what we called a task force completely 
focused on aiding small businesses and accessing the EIDL and 
PPP. Even my D.C. staff were on the phone lines trying to 
develop expertise to connect business owners with assistance.
    And, you know, I think it was one of the beautiful things 
that this Committee really took part in early on. Having had 
the PPP established--it wasn't perfect, we had to roll it out. 
And there was a lot of great oversight done by the entire 
Committee that resulted in follow on actions that improved the 
program over time and more, you know, accurately targeted it 
where it needed to be to have the biggest impact as time went 
on. A really important effort.
    And one thing I--you may be aware, maybe you are not--I 
actually voted against the American Rescue Plan, but as 
Chairman of the Subcommittee I certainly intend to take part in 
that kind of collaborative oversight to make sure that these 
programs are very successful for all the businesses that are 
out there. Certainly there is a lot of need that remains.
    So another question I wanted to ask for Ms. Shi, you ran 
the pilot program on the Community Navigator Program in various 
different states, could you talk a little bit about some of the 
issues you came across that SBA and this Committee should be 
aware of in order to avoid those same mistakes occurring as the 
program rolls out nationally?
    You are muted. I am sorry, ma'am. Go ahead, try again. 
Looks like we may have some technical difficulties. We will 
submit that one for the record.
    Ms. SHI. Is this better?
    Chairman GOLDEN. Yes.
    Ms. SHI. Oh, I am so sorry about that.
    Yes, so some of the issues that we identified were the 
access to lenders, were for the sole proprietors, the Schedule 
C issues of not being able to have a fuller relief through the 
calculating with the gross income. And I would just say that 
because these were the boots on ground, it sounds similar, 
Chairman, with your office. Almost seems like you had your 
whole team as navigators. But really holding these small 
businesses' hands to get these loans and then helping to turn 
the loans into the grants were some of the issues and that we 
reflected back to the Committee, to the Chairwoman Velazquez--
and thank you for her leadership on this--and to try to get the 
program major improvements over time as we have seen.
    And just the other issue I think a couple of times that has 
come up about the accountability and the anti fraud measures. 
The other thing that we did in our program is to make sure the 
navigators and organizations that weren't producing, that were 
not helping businesses get the money in the bank, were defunded 
from the program, right. So that this is--we are in a pandemic, 
we are in an emergency, we require high performance and that 
these businesses like Pilar's, and even smaller employers, do 
get the funds that they deserve and do it quickly, so.
    Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you. My time has expired on the 
second round. So I did want to make sure to offer an 
opportunity for further questions to the Ranking Member.
    Mr. HAGEDORN. I have no more questions at this time. I 
would be happy to yield to our Ranking Member for any further 
question.
    But thank you.
    Chairman GOLDEN. Very good.
    Well, I want to thank all of our witnesses for joining us 
today and all of the feedback that you provided. And certainly 
appreciate you bearing with us through all the technical 
difficulties that exist out there. Some people have commented 
on the side here more evidence of the need for this Committee 
to stay focused on access to high speed internet, particularly 
for small business owners all over America. And I think I heard 
the Ranking Member comment he looks forward to having everyone 
back in the Committee. I couldn't agree more.
    But, with that, just some closing remarks.
    You know, to the witnesses, your testimony today will be 
valuable as the Administration and this Committee moves forward 
to stand up and fine tune the Community Navigator Program. For 
a nearly a year COVID has hit underserved, agricultural, and 
rural small businesses particularly hard. Congress has taken 
many steps to make relief programs such as the Paycheck 
Protection Program, EIDL, and others there for small businesses 
more accessible, equitable, and to ensure that our small 
businesses get the greatest, you know, help out of this 
Congress and these programs as possible. But certainly there is 
always room to continue to make improvements.
    Today we have heard about the impact that this program 
could have in underserved small businesses. That is why 
Committee Members need to do everything we can to ensure that 
the program is sped up and run effectively and efficiently 
without waste on getting the help into the hands of those who 
need it the most.
    So, with that, I look forward to continuing to work with my 
fellow Committee Members and the Committee staff as we take a 
look at the roll out of this program and continue to support 
things like the Paycheck Protection Program, as we just 
extended the ability of small businesses to access that program 
through the remainder of the month of March.
    With that, I think I will go ahead and close it out and ask 
unanimous consent that Members have 5 legislative days to 
submit statements and supporting materials for the record. And, 
without objection, so ordered.
    [Whereupon, at 11:34 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
    [Ms. Pilar Guzman Zavala did not submit her QFR's in a 
timely manner.]
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