[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 197 (Tuesday, December 10, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H9955]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SMALL BUSINESS GRANT PROGRAM

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, in 2017, the Gulf region experienced 
one of the greatest catastrophic floods and hurricanes in our history: 
Mr. Speaker, 51 trillion gallons of water. Neighborhoods that have 
never flooded, flooded. People in desperate conditions, reservoirs 
breaking, dams breaking.
  And I knew that we had to rescue them. I introduced the first 
Hurricane Harvey legislation: $174 billion.
  But, Mr. Speaker, there was a group that I did not want to forget 
because I know that they are entrepreneurs, and that is why I 
established the small business grant program, modeled after 9/11, that 
now has come into fruition with $100 million. I will go home and 
announce this to my local community.
  The grants are grants and not loans--unique. They are not like the 
SBA. They are grants. We fought for that from the Federal Government 
all the way down to the State government.
  I am asking my constituents to meet me in Houston at 2 p.m. for a 
grand announcement in order for the small businesses still impacted by 
Hurricane Harvey to get grant relief, money that is not a loan, and I 
am fighting for those loans to be small enough to help all of our small 
entrepreneurs.

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