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Eye on Washington Participates in Small Business Committee Roundtable
Click on photo to enlarge or download:Ranking Member Nydia Velazquez opens the oundtable discussion. Also present were Reps. Alma Adams (far left, partially blocked) and Judy Chu (far right).
Eye on Washington President Janet Kopenhaver participated in a Small Business Committee Roundtable discussion hosted by Ranking Member Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY-7) that focused on access to capital. Others legislators present were Reps. Judy Chu (D-CA-27), Donald Payne Jr. (D-NJ-10) and Alma Adams (D-NC-12).
Click on photo to enlarge or download:Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) acknowledges a Wells Fargo representative as the largest 7a lender to small businesses.
Rep. Velazquez stated in her opening remarks that improving access to capital for small businesses, especially women-owned and minority-owned small businesses, is a priority of the Committee. She asked those in attendance for suggestions and ideas about how the Committee legislatively could help. She pointed out that her goal was to improve access to loans in order to bring them into parity with other small businesses.
Click on photo to enlarge or download:Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) discusses the congressional letter sent to SBA about better access to capital for small businesses.
Rep. Judy Chu began the discussion about access to capital. She first remarked on the importance of small businesses which create 3 million jobs a year and 2/3 of all net new jobs in the United States. The biggest challenge for these small businesses is access to capital. She added that making the situation even worse is that lending institutions have been cutting the amount of funding for small businesses, with totals decreasing by 20% since 2008.
Click on photo to enlarge or download:Rep. Velazquez presses the need to implement new data collection and reporting requirements outlined in the Dodd Frank bill that would track lending to women- and minority-owned small businesses.
Click on photo to enlarge or download:Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) thanks the attendees for their suggestions and insight into access to capital issues for small businesses.
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