oval desk

2:11 p.m. EDT

THE CHAIRMAN: Good morning everyone. How are you? I want to thank Administrator Guzman, who runs the show for us. And we are really starting to move here.

And the vice president, thank you –

THE VICE-PRESIDENT: Of course.

THE CHAIRMAN: – for your focus on small businesses.

We urge lenders to improve their game and provide more help to small, many small businesses. As you know, especially Hispanic and African American small businesses are simply bankrupt because they were bypassed the first time around.

Today, I’m proud to sign the extension, which I’ll do in a second, of the Paycheck Protection Program. It is a bipartisan achievement.

Almost 90,000 business owners are still online and there is money left over. Without someone signing this bill today, there are hundreds of thousands of people who could lose their jobs and small family businesses that could shut down for good. And, as you know, small businesses are the backbone of our economy, accounting for nearly 50 percent of all employees in America.

And I want to thank Senators Cardin, Shaheen, Rubio and Collins for their work in the Senate – it was a bipartisan effort – and Young Kim and Velazquez, as well as Luetkemeyer for their work in the House to make sure this happens. .

And in the last two months we’ve approved forgivable loans for three thousand – sorry, three million six hundred [sic] small businesses – – six hundred thousand small businesses. And three million three hundred [thousand] of these small businesses had fewer than – more – less than 20 employees, which is the backbone of most communities.

So with that, I’m going to sign this. And thank you all for coming.

(The invoice is signed.)

Thank you friends. Have fun.

2:14 p.m. EDT