2024 presidential campaign press release: on Corporations

Kamala Harris: Pandemic aid: increase loans to small businesses

When the last Administration gave out pandemic aid to small businesses, they designed it to favor the well-off and the well-connected who had concierge service with big banks, while underserved entrepreneurs like women-, veteran-, and minority-owned small businesses were put at the back of the line or even out the door. Just one month into office, the Biden-Harris Administration changed that, instituting a 14-day period during which only businesses with fewer than 20 employees could apply for relief. Research shows these reforms helped increase loans to small businesses in low to moderate income communities by 62 percent and expanded lending to the smallest businesses by 35 percent.

Kamala Harris: Small businesses employ almost half of the workforce

So, we're talking about a gigantic, huge workforce that is contributing to the economy, paying taxes, and doing the work that is about strengthening our economy and, by extension, our country.

So, it's good to be here to honor them. [The staff and Congressional supporters of the Small Business Administration] have been doing extraordinary work through the SBA, facilitating loans in an extraordinary way in terms of historically what has happened and now what is happening in terms of the outreach and implementation of [pro-small business] policies.