Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, by providing $310 billion for PPP, this bill will allow the program to reopen and more small businesses to secure capital and keep employees on payroll--$310 billion.

When the Senate passed their bill, they passed $250 billion for small businesses. So it is not enough to pour funding into a program if loans are not reaching the intended businesses. All of us have been concerned by reports of big banks prioritizing large firms for this assistance.

Over 80 publicly traded companies have received loans through the PPP. Examples like this come to mind: Ruth's Chris Steak House restaurant got two loans for $20 million. And we have all this, 80 publicly traded companies. This underscores the need for oversight.

If the administration's implementation means giant companies secure loans while small businesses are left waiting, that problem must be corrected promptly. That is not what Congress intended, and the American people expect better.

By the way, today, this morning, as the chair of the House Small Business Committee, I held a hearing entitled, Member Day Hearing on COVID-19 Response and Recovery. Fifty-six Members of this Chamber, Republicans and Democrats, all of them, came before the committee today, and every one, Republican and Democrat, expressed the fact that we needed more transparency, that we needed data, and that we needed to fight to make sure that this program serves every small business in every part of the country.

That is why my colleagues and I fought in this package to secure $60 billion in PPP funds set aside specifically for mission-based, community-oriented lenders. With this set-aside, more underserved small businesses will get loans.

In addition, this bill provides $60 billion for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, the EIDL program. Again, when they sent the bill from the Senate to the House, it didn't have any money for the EIDL program, for the disaster loan program.

Everyone who testified today before my committee was asking how we are going to make sure that their businesses, their constituents, will get disaster loans. Well, we have good news for them. The Democrats fought and secured not only $50 billion, but $10 billion in grants.

And I heard complaints about the fact that the grants program ran out of money and that people really like that program, the grants program. Well, I wanted $100 billion; we secured $10 billion. Again, we are putting in $10 billion in this bill that was not part of what Senator Mitch McConnell sent to us.

I thank Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader Schumer, and Chairwoman Waters for their efforts to include all these provisions, particularly the $60 billion carved out for minority businesses, for women-owned businesses, for veterans' businesses, for farmers to have a chance to secure a loan.

While this legislation is a building block, more must be done. In future legislation, we must help businesses shuttered for longer than 8 weeks.

This bill also does not address problems that let big companies snatch up loans meant for small businesses. To those large publicly traded companies who have already benefitted, I would suggest now would be a time to exhibit some good corporate citizenship by returning those funds.

To the small businesses out there who have not yet received help, whom my office hears from daily, I say this: We are not finished.

Getting these programs restarted and loans out the door is critical. Because of the improvements that we made to this bill, I will say that help is on the way and that we will hold the agencies accountable, that we must adhere to transparency, and that we must provide the data that we need in order to assess if this program is working as it was intended.

As chair of the Small Business Committee, I will fight tooth and nail for small businesses that have not yet received any assistance.

Mr. Speaker, let me remind the Senate majority leader that there are two Chambers. You can be sure that in this Chamber, I will be fighting nonstop for hard-hit States like New York.

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