[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 49 (Tuesday, March 16, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S1537]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                 Nomination of Isabella Casillas Guzman

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise in support of Isabella Guzman, 
currently the director of California's Office of the Small Business 
Advocate--the Presiding Officer's State--to be the Administrator of the 
U.S. Small Business Administration.
  We all know the importance of small businesses and how they have been 
hit so hard during this pandemic. Small businesses employ nearly half 
of all private sector workers and make outsized contributions to the 
innovation that makes America's economy strong. Yet the coronavirus has 
put millions of people out of business, hundreds of thousands of these 
mom-and-pop, brick-and-mortar retail shops out of business, and 
restaurants out of business.
  We are so pleased that there is, as we say in Minnesota, a lighthouse 
that we are looking to now. I was up in Duluth on Sunday, and instead 
of the light at the end of the tunnel, which so many of us talk about 
with regard to the end of this pandemic, the mayor there referred to it 
as a lighthouse, for they have a lot of lighthouses on Lake Superior. 
The end of this pandemic is our lighthouse. We see the blinking lights 
from a distance, but we know we are not there yet. To get there, we not 
only need to get this vaccine to every person--and the President has 
said we will have vaccines available by the end of May for every adult 
in America--but we have to get it distributed, and our pandemic bill 
certainly is going to be a major step toward getting that done.
  We also need to get our business economy back in order. We need to be 
able to not be so far down in the ground that we can't climb out of 
where we are. That is why having Ms. Guzman in place--someone with her 
record and her ability to lead and who served as the Deputy Chief of 
Staff and as the Senior Adviser at the Small Business Administration 
during the Obama administration--is so important.
  She will oversee the Paycheck Protection Program, which we 
established on a bipartisan basis in March of 2020 as part of the CARES 
Act, as she understands the need for greater equity in loan 
distribution and has shown a commitment to transparency and accurate 
loan data. She has made clear that she will make the Paycheck 
Protection Program more accessible to businesses that have 
traditionally not had access to the banking relationships needed to 
secure loans and grants.
  Very significantly to me and to those of us who worked on the Save 
our Stages bill, including Senator Cornyn of Texas, who led the bill 
with me, she has made clear that she will move on the grant program 
immediately. We have been working with the staff there, and we have 
given these venues that have been shuttered--the first to close and the 
last to reopen--the ability to access PPP loans, which is really 
important right now. We also want to get the grant program out 
immediately--get that money out--and distribute over $16 billion in 
grants. Our venues can't wait. They need that relief. Ms. Guzman will 
be key to leading our way out of this and helping Senator Schumer with 
his theaters in New York to the Fargo Theatre in North Dakota. We need 
to get this done.
  We just passed restaurant relief as part of the American Rescue 
Plan--a major, major bill--with the $28.6 billion Restaurant 
Revitalization Fund, which is going to be so key. I was at The Block 
Food & Drink restaurant in Saint Louis Park on Sunday and then headed 
up to Duluth, to the Boat Club, with the mayor and the owners of the 
Boat Club. There were stories I heard of servers who had been laid off, 
then came back, laid off, then came back, and there were stories I 
heard about the owners of some of these restaurants in their taking out 
repeated loans. They are hanging in there, and we need to have their 
backs.
  One out of six restaurants in this country has permanently closed 
down during the pandemic. As the leader of the antitrust subcommittee 
in the Senate, we don't want to just give all of our food service and 
action in the restaurant area to the big guys. We are pleased we have 
successful restaurant chains in this country, but that can't be the 
only thing we have. That is why helping these smaller venues is so 
important.
  Ms. Guzman gets that. She is a lifelong proponent of small businesses 
and is the daughter of a small business owner. As a former 
entrepreneur, this makes her the right person for this job at a pivotal 
time in the life of our country. She has the backing of the U.S. 
Chamber of Commerce and numerous trade organizations. I know her 
leadership at the SBA will put our struggling businesses in the best 
hands.
  I ask my colleagues to support the nomination of Isabella Guzman to 
be Administrator of the Small Business Administration. The Presiding 
Officer must be proud to have someone who has done such good work in 
California in this job. We are excited about her and what she can do