Morning depending on where youre at in the country right now and i want to make sure to note some important requirements as we conduct this official remote hearing. Let me begin by just saying they standing house and Committee Rules and practice will continue to apply during remote proceedings. So all members are reminded they are expected to adhere to the standing rules including the corum took with that said during committee will operate in accordance to h. Res. 965 and the subsequent guidance from the World Committee and the manner that respects the rights of all members to participate. House regular shows require to be visible through a video connection throughout the preceding. Please keep your cameras on and also got to participate in another proceeding please exit this one and then log back on later. In the event member interest technical issues that prevents them from a recognized for the questioning i will move to the next available member of the same party and i will recognize that member at the next appropriate time slot provided them return to the preceding. Should a members time be interrupted by technical issues i will recognize that member at the next appropriate spot for the remainder of the time once their issues have been resolved. In the event of what this loses connectivity during testimony or questioning i will reserve, preserve their time at staff addresses the technical issues. I may need to recess the preceding to provide time for the witness to reconnect, and hopefully we dont have any of those issues but heres to hoping it all works out. And finally remembers to remain muted until your recognize to minimize background noise. In accordance with the rules established under h. Res. 965 staff the been advised to only in the event there is an introvert and background noise. Should a member to be recognized they must first unmute themselves and then seek recognition at the appropriate time. And so first of all before we really get started here i want to start by recognizing the i went in my community and cost the state the wino have gone through so much over the last month, obviously going to spend and make as well but we got it really with a double whammy here in iowa in this district when what was essentially a category four hurricane style wins came to large part of my district. It was 140 Miles Per Hour winds that took down trees that of an 150, 200 years. I know the city of cedar rapids and their surrounding areas have been through a lot. I know the floods back in 2008 and also in 16 even, but businesses this was a different scale. In 2008 there were 14 mi. 2 affected in miles affected in the city of cedar rapids, all effective plus the run areas, marion, hiawatha, all of lane county essentially and surrounding counties as well, you can, poweshiek, came and marshall just to name a few. I have county. And some of her witnesses that are here are actually, the two witnesses from iowa also had to go through that, whether its damaged it own businesses or to their homes, and we are very grateful. I know when you agree to be a part of this is going to talk about candidate economic recovery as we go to the pandemic and that hopefully come out of it and had we keep things going and do things right and make sure were addressing the right challenges. And then on top of it now we have a whole new host the challenges were dealing with an iowa and one of our witnesses i spoke to this morning, mr. Ketelsen told me we are iowans, we get through this, but its still going to be tough. Were just really grateful to have i known jeremy and chad with us to kind of have those discussions and then also our other witnesses here from throughout the country. I know in vermont and ohio as well and you guys have been through a lot with the pandemic. Just very, very grateful and i know obviously we all are still going to this pandemic, and i were in particular for some numbers, we have had 59,000 folks have tested positive with covid19 and we lost over 1100 iowans. We know that there still a long way to go here, but we need to make sure were doing everything we can. I know this has also caused obviously a huge hardship for our Small Businesses due to the downturn in our economies and 7. 5 million Small Businesses are now at risk of closure, and many of them are in our rural areas. It especially what is frustrating is weve also spent nearly a decade recovering from the recession in 2008 only to now have our rural economies take another devastating hit. The recession had a lasting and disproportionate impact on Rural America. Two out of every three world counties experienced a decline in the total number of businesses, and decline in the population as families left to try to seek opportunities. This is something that i saw happen first hand in iowa and i will like the rest of the country recovering takes hard work. I once took very big risk to strengthen businesses and the paid off. In 2016 nearly 1900 new businesses start in iowa creating 7000 new jobs. This didnt happen in iowa the. It is happen across the country. In 2017 american Small Businesses created 8. 4 million new jobs across the country. But not every Community Bounced back from the recession and there are still places especially in rural areas than never been able to bring back the jobs and opportunities that they lost, and now as we deal with the fallout from this pandemic we need to make sure no businesses or communities are left behind. Recently i produced the unlocking opportunities in emerging markets act which would create a new office at Small Business administration to focus entirely on how can we help improve access to capital for underrepresented entrepreneurs like in those rural areas, this is just one of the many bipartisan bills that being put forward to our Small Business owners in the long term which is what we need to continue to be thinking about as well. I know all of my colleagues here today have been working hard to come up with new ideas and solutions to help get our economy back on track. For that i very, very thankful to get to be on this committee with you all. Thats what you want to hold this thing is to hear directly from americas rural Small Business owners and what they need to move forward and what the pandemic has meant for their business. I look forward to hearing from our policy experts about how Rural America can be a catalyst for job creation across the country and how that is opportunities here it we do this right moving to this pandemic to make sure we have the right things in Rural America whether its broadband and create those opportunities so as folks are looking at, if theyre in bigger cities, one to move back home to the small towns they are from, that they have those opportunities but we also to do our job then on the federal level working with our local folks, also the states to ensure we have connectivity and make sure there is a place for hope to go in the first place and have those opportunities. I also before i pass it over to Ranking Member choice i want to say thank you for joining us ranking never, dr. Joyce, its been great work with europes last year and a half and happy to have you here today and would love to pass over you and yield to you for your Opening Statement. [inaudible] i think of unmute, dr. Joyce. There you go. Thank you, chairwoman, thank you for your leadership. I send my greatest of my District Office in somerset pennsylvania where tomorrow we will hold a memorial of flight 93 tragedy which occurred on 9 11. The echoing sentiments for my district that tomorrow will be a somber day and yet we are all in stages of recovery which we will continue. In the subcommittee, this important subcommittee on Rural Development, agriculture, trade and entrepreneurship, we have discussed the importance of Economic Development and have rejuvenation of americas Small Businesses. The Global Pandemic that has only underscore the importance of these Small Businesses. While others little date is truly available on the number Small Business, some estimate theres approximately 5. 5 million rural Small Businesses in the united states. We know particularly on this subcommittee that Small Businesses are a critical component of the world economy. Which makes them a focal point of many federal, rural, Economic Development efforts. World Small Businesses do indeed differ from urban and suburban small forms anyways. Generally rural firms are more likely to be profitable longterm and typically more successful than nonrural farms in getting [inaudible] additionally, world businesses tend to be small in size, small in revenue and often small in growth opportunities. Weve had multiple hearings on the major challenges experienced by rural Small Businesses, including inadequate access to rural broadband. You are methods to access capital, Higher Health care costs with limited access to rural physicians can increase childcare expenses and workforce shortages. We know small towns and Rural Communities struggle with these issues each and every day. But the coronavirus pandemic has continued to bring these issues to the forefront of our nations attention. About 46 million americans live in rural areas, and, unfortunately, some world residents are increased risk of getting covid19. Demographic characteristics and geographic features coupled with reduced healthcare can disrupt the ability of Rural Regions to respond to the pandemic. Slow down in aggregate demand primary sectors and they expect from so that in trade and global trend might continue to negatively impact rural economies. Due to these factors we must be proactive in our goal of helping americans main street to recover. Unfortunately we find ourselves once again discussing the persistent challenges that we in Rural Communities face every single day. As this issue is yet to receive a resolution we have witnessed in real time the destructive lack of access to health care, telehealth and broadband specifically in our Rural Communities. The question is no longer what is the issue, but what can we do. In partnership with private and Nonprofit Organizations, we can increase access to these lifesaving and life providing resources in order to create equitable opportunity for rural Small Businesses. The hilton recently released an article discussing the significant dynamic of americans who are moving in ways the hill in rural and urban areas. Some said the pandemic, social unrest and Economic Uncertainty while the permanency and benefits from this change remains to be seen. We will assess the impact that this will have on our communities as our economics continue to recover and the pandemic continues to slow. Now when we see a great migration from cities to rural and suburban communities we must not only talk about restraint on resources but we must talk how to leverage these resources so we can retain those who have moved into our communities and foster the opportunities for further growth and development. For these pressing issues i am proud to work with you on this committee where we host witnesses on a wealth of nose on the specific and can come up with Bipartisan Solutions that benefit all of our nations Rural Communities. It is imperative that we learn from those who like our panel today know what its like to steer a Small Business through pandemic. I look for to hearing the testimony of eyewitnesses today, and to the continued partnership and bipartisan nature of the subcommittee. Thank you, madam chair, and i yield back. Thank you, dr. Joyce. The gentleman yields back. Committee members have an Opening Statement prepared we would ask it be submitted for the record. I would like to just take a minute now to explain the timing rules. Each witness gets five minutes to testify and then each member gets administered questionnaire. Theres lighting system to assist you. You can kind to of see. Et cetera etc that on the screen where it says five minutes. The green light if you watch that will be on when you begin, and then the yellow light comes on when you have one minute remaining. The red light comes on when youre out of time out as that you stay within the timeframe to the best of your ability. I hope they can everyone can see that little timer. And then now i would like to introduce our witnesses. I would now like to introduce our first witness, mr. Nath, chad. Mr. Chad nath is the director of link grinnell, a Nonprofit Organization that offers day care and afterschool care. Link nurture, aims to provide a safe and Inclusive Learning environment for all children. Mr. Nath holds a ba in education from Buena Vista University and ask held positions at the kindergarten special Education Teacher and also worked in healthcare sector as well get mr. Nath, you have done a lot and youve done it all in our rural areas and in purnell and we are very, very grateful to have you here. Welcome, mr. Nath. And then our second witness is mr. Jeremy ketelsen. Mr. Ketelsen is the Vice President of ketelsen rv located in hiawatha, iowa. Ketelsen rv began as a small rv business on the family farm in 1962 when mr. Ketelsen ends when father wanted a camper. The business opened a storefront in mary and i am and later a service department, Parts Department and eventually a Sales Department and mr. Ketelsen were really happy to have you here. It was great to chat with you and mr. Nath this morning you can really interested to hear kind of how you hang in there with the pandemic and the derecho affects a welcome come mr. Ketelsen. Then our third witnesses mr. Rembert. Mr. Rembert is regional economist and head of the Rural Innovation Network, or at the center on rural innovation in heartland vermont turkey started in this line of work when his hometown of wilmington ohio, i know we have another ojai went with us today as well come faced the loss of 10,000 jobs during the recession. It died identical to the nonprn or just Putnam County in 2008 and later served as executive director of Wilmington Chamber of commerce. Healed a phd in rachel economics from the Ohio State University i watch a lot of football, and then department of agriculture, environmental and development economic. Welcome, mr. Rembert. And that i would now like to you to our Ranking Member dr. Joyce to introduce our final witness. Thank you chairwoman finkenauer. Our final witness is jason duff, founder and ceo of small nations, a company in belltown ohio that revitalizes small towns and helps small dent of the two numbers across the country. Jason ajmer is jason is a fourthgeneration and defend a font of news and group gained firsthand knowledge about entrepreneurship, goods financial practices and hard work can bring great success. After graduating from the Ohio Northern University with a bachelor of science and Business Administration come he founded Community Storage and properties, a local Self Storage Company that allowed jason to invest in the redevelopment of belltown. Even founded and Outdoor Media Company Operating over 400 billboards in ohio and indiana. In seven years jason and his business small nation team have helped to revitalize the city of bellefontaine. Using their hustle hard approach, theyve managed to renovate more than 30 the story buildings that had been sitting into for decades and then recruit tenets for 14 new Business Concepts here is created 18 new loft departments adding a crucial residential component back to the citys downtown. The combination of retail, restaurant and residential have brought a smalltown main streets back to life. He is a of the Small Business council for the u. S. Chamber of commerce, the Small Business and entrepreneur council, and serves on the board of trustees of Ohio Northern University. Jason, my sister is also an alum of Ohio Northern University. We welcome you to our subcommittee meeting today. Thanks very much, dr. Joyce. Mr. Nath, you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you, chairwoman finkenauer, Ranking Member joyce, and distinguished members of the committee. My name is chad nath. I was born and raised in iowa northwest iowa is where i grew up and settle down in the greenville area. I taught school for soldiers, i was in middle School Special Education Teacher and Kindergarten Teacher and then after that i went to were no Regional Medical center were held several different roles in that organization, Emergency Preparedness come safety, security, Incident Commander for any event that would occur and also Public Health. And we also had a Day Camp Program which may be changed to my new career right now which is imd executive director of link grinnell, a nonprofit that was dreamed up on may 302019, and we knew that there was a huge demand and need for child care in rural iowa as well. So we have a study that have done four years ago that i identified that the were 500 children that did that have a designated home for child care and basically the need and demand was up there. We decided, i decided to leave the hospital in order to lead this venture. What we ended up doing was worked very hard and we are very distinct on the name link, so we are basically i cradle to career program. We looked at ways we can enrich and provide services to children of all ages. We started with Afterschool Programs. So last year at about a year ago we open our doors and started providing care, and we saw that was a huge benefit. Then all of a sudden in march is when covid hit and being some of that is that a lot of for hospitals i know the Surge Capacity for hospital longterm care facilities and First Responders were desperate and they need the staff to be focused and engaged with their patients and clients and the type of thing. So we pivoted from an Afterschool Program to providing care for children of a center workers. Sent out a survey at identified that there were 98 families filled out the survey. There were 163 children that were identified, and of that, if things got big fat and ugly with Community Spread that they would be 86 children what that did in my emergency mind thinking was we needed to have capacity to have 86 children and Group Smaller than ten. What we ended up doing was we created what we call isolated pods. So we have no more than ten individuals in each of these pods and theyre basically like a family unit. They have an entrance and exit and restrooms, dedicated staff. With that i need facilities. I talk to the state of iowa, ended up getting memorandum of agreement with seven different facilities in order to basically contract or expand come to pin it on in which the Community Spread. We ended up seeing 37 children and majority of those were in one longterm care facility that was in Poweshiek County we had 166 cases as of today, and 83 were all from this one longterm care facility. So they get hit really hard. So we were taking care of their staff children and also hospital staff as well. We also continued that all the way to june 1 within we pivoted to allowing the public in as well. We did a summer program, that was 76 children we ended up doing six isolated pods into make different facilities and school has been wonderful in order to allow us to use [inaudible] so in [inaudible] now, all along we have in making sure that we are disinfecting. We use ppe come all the serotypes of things things in order to make this function and work appropriately. So i didnt get through everything. Theres so many things to unpack with this, but we did field trips. We did some other things that are pretty creative and unique, cleaning the bus and all the Different Things in order for that to happen. And then obviously derecho hit and grinnell actually lost power for more than 12 days, and obviously you cannot have child care during that time because the lack of power. Although we did restore power 12 days later and then the demand for child care hit as again because our school year got pushed clear back. So they just started tuesday of this week, and so we filled the gap is will and we did afterschool care that is tuesday, wednesday and thats why we go after this [inaudible] [inaudible] you are a very busy guy. Doing so much, look for to asking questions in hearing even more than this hearing as well. And now we will go to mr. Ketelsen. You are now recognized for five minutes. Thank you chairwoman finkenauer and Ranking Member dr. Joyce and establishment of the committee. I jeremy ketelsen, Vice President of familyowned ketelsen rv with locations in hiawatha, desoto i would pick our dealership was found in 1962 and roughly a point about 60 people. We sell new and used travel trailers, horse trailers, used motorhomes as well as provide working and repair services to customers. It is our families like work to enable people to enjoy the Great Outdoors and traveled this great country. Our dealership is what you are to come back from the economic shot of the pandemic. We have made progress but challenges remain. Among our top concerns are keeping our customers and boys safe, inventory shortages, parts supply chain issues. Were fortunate that we did not need to completely close our business this spring but that was not the case in other states. Rv dealerships in several states were open for service only and only transact sales by phone or whether in some cases rv dealers cannot be open at all. So rv p. A. , are bia, the recreation roundtable and several state associations worked on dealerships to an open kiss of the traveling public. The quick succession of state at home orders left some rv travelers stranded on the road and some had to leave both public and private campgrounds due to state and federal ordered closures. Rv snowbirds who went in the south had to travel back to their home state and it was vital that we remain open to provide services to get them home. In the early days of the pandemic, First Responders including medical personnel, Law Enforcement and critically fieldworkers used rvs to self quarantine in aries. In iowa, workers have the des moines waterworks utilize 20 rvs for temporary housing. As the assistant chief of smalltown springville iowa i have seen this firsthand an experienced it, and it is an hour communities plan. So with Business Operations of the restricted and Dealer Survey conducted by in early april showed 26 said their Service Parts and accessories business were down 75 or more when compared to the level of business prior to the pandemic. Another 35 said the fixed operations business was down 5074 34 of dealers responded to the survey said rv sales volume was down 75 more when compared to prepandemic levels. 1 said they were down 5074 . With almost no revenue coming in committee dealers were forced to furlough or laugh including ourselves. Because of crushing job losses throughout the country the Small Business administration ppp Long Initiative offered forgivable loans to Small Businesses. At the time of the rvda survey, 92 92 said they either had or planned to apply for ppp long. While my dealership did not apply for the program, its been important to many rv dealers across the country. Since those uncertain days of march and april, americans have made it clear with the increase in business and enthusiasm towards the Great Outdoors that this is an industry that can help heal the nation during times like these. We are now faced with supply chain issues like many dealers in the country for our inventory is down and even more debt after the derecho. He supplied to chain issues have the potential to create a storm after the storm. Rvs cannot get that will lead to a challenge. Because we do not have products in stock. We are watching some areas where washing down the route include access to campus. People need public and private places to camp in an rv or ten. We thank those he voted for the Great American outdoors act which would help modernize and prove the public can grant and the national parks, forests, and other federal lands. Continued Public Investment in Outdoor Recreation is actually afford to her countries future. Since event in that weve seen an increase in denver and firsttime buyers at our dealership and at dealerships across this country. In our conversation with these customers we are finding there are a lot of parents are using the outdoors to reconnect with the families, the want to get away from view of the virus and spend time together as a family unit. Weve been told by Public Officials to get outside, we create responsibly. People hang that message loud and clear. Nature heals our body and mind. On behalf of the 778 billion of the billion dollars after recreation industry and the rv industry which has an Overall Economic impact of 114 114 bn and supports nearly 600,000 jobs, thank you for your support of Small Businesses like mine that help millions of americans enjoy the Great Outdoors. We will continue to be part of Public Health and economic solution in our rural communes across this country. Thank you mr. Ketelsen. We really appreciate it and look forward to asking questions here in a few minutes. So thank you. And then i also now would like to recognize mr. Rembert, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you chairwoman finkenauer, Ranking Member joyce, members of the committee. I name a smart remark on the head of the Rural Innovation Network at the center on rural innovation. Im a regional economist by training with a focus on Rural Development and i spent nearly a decade lead Economic Development efforts in my hometown of wilmington ohio following the great recession. Its a pleasure to be with you to discuss the role of entrepreneurship. Even before the pandemic Rural America faced a crisis economic opportunity. Tracy s february 2020 more than 1200 Rural Counties had not recovered all the job loss during the great recession. This recent history suggests the traditional approaches to worldly velvet have not delivered Economic Prosperity on their own. Addressing the Economic Issues faced by real americas critical but it is not enough. Restoring real america to its prepandemic trajectory only most rural communes will continue to lag behind. Rural America Needs a new economic model. One key factor driving the rural opportunity gap has been the growth of the Digital Economy between 2002 sorry, between 20022016 shared jobs are contagious deals quadruple the 23 . Tech jobs explains one of the fastest job growth rates since 20102016. Yesterday will america has just 5 of the workers in tech even though it is 15 of the total u. S. Workforce. At the center for real innovation weekly Rural Communities to thrive they must participate in the Digital Economy. Building digital economies and rural committees will require scalable tech start of second great digital jobs in rural places. Supporting role Tech Startups require different model and supporting mainstream business of the just like their counterparts come rural startups need access to capital, mentor and Advisor Network and incubated at exhibit programs and a trained Digital Workforce to drop on. Yet most Rural Communities these resources are lacking or dont exist at all. Theres a need for new Economic Development bottles and increased federal support to grow scale entrepreneurship and will committees. I had the pleasure working with 18 role can reduce in 17 states that at the forefront of Building Tech focus entrepreneurship ecosystems and rural areas. Communities like red Wing Minnesota durango colorado waterville, maine, and wilson North Carolina helping to lead the way i demonstrate scalable tech entrepreneurship is possible. The federal government has already played an Important Role in supporting its success to the committees like these. Each community in the network has received Technical Assistance with Sister Organization to have Corporate Green with Economic Development administration. We support these that develop digital Economic Development strategies and then provides a systems they apply for the builder Scale Program which is for movie last year three out of eight committees have written support received a grant to expand the Digital Economy ecosystem. Even though not every Community Wins a grant award the Technical Assistance they received still provides them with a strategy and a foundation from which they can continue to grow. Other federal programs can also help accelerate entrepreneurship in Rural America. That Small Business program has a strong track record of spring job creation to innovation. In theory they should offer a critical source of capital for real tech entrepreneurs. Yet just 3 of the words of the major firms located in Rural Communities. The builder scale and programs illustrate insightful of federal government can play in supporting Tech Partnership in Rural Communities. First, more programs like bill discover support the development of innovation driven entrepreneurship ecosystem. Weve seen firsthand how this program and et cetera the development of entrepreneurs and ecosystems in Rural Communities. Second, federal funding alone is not enough. Without Technical Assistance to access in rural areas programs aimed at supporting steel cant worship are likely to end up concentrated in areas where tech jobs already exist. While theyre still great uncertainty about the longterm effects of the pandemic one thing we know for sure is Rural America cant wait for the next recession to join the Digital Economy. In the age of the there should be no limit for Digital Economy jobs. Thank you. Hanky, mr. Rembert. I know i got excited when he talked about red wing, minnesota. They have great walleye fishing of it. Speaking of outdoor activities, right, mr. Ketelsen . I look forward to ask you some questions down the line to hear more about your expertise and ideas. Peggy, mr. Rembert. Mr. Duff, you are now recognized for five minutes. Thank you chairwoman finkenauer, Ranking Member joyce, and the distinguished members of the subcommittee. My name is jason duff and im the founder of small. Establish 14 years ago in bell found ohio small nation was formed during our nations economic crisis and is dedicated to investing places, spaces and dream for small towns and entrepreneurs. Bell found his account of 13,000 people in logan county six miles northwest of columbus come ,. 5s from the nearest major interstate and it out from the closest metropolitan area. It is like many of the important and valuable courthouse to meet across the country where strong commitment to lines of agriculture, manufacturing and tourism. We are moral and depend on the vibrancy of our local economy and jobs to generate taxes whicd support our local government schools and Opportunities Health and social safety nets. 80 of downtown storefronts were vacant when i begin my journey for teachers ago. Light, crime, arson and opiate abuse plagued her temper working with leaders like human i developed a vision and plan for how to restart our local economy that begin with find unique ways to reduce unemployment by investing in people as well as places. We started buying the kinds of business which a florist include new diner restaurant, coffee shops, hair, shopping boutiques, airbnb, health and well the studios and locally owned relational offices and services. All of these businesses have thrived because the fact they belong to a supportive, growing and innovative Small Business community. That community had to be creative. We were introduced organizations like the Small Business and entrepreneurship council, the local chamber of commerce, Historic Preservation organizations like heritage of ohio and resources and grants from the sba. Covid19 and the ongoing pandemic poses an unprecedented new set of challenges for Small Businesses as they strive towards recovery. Mckinsey estimates between 1. 42. 1 million Small Businesses could probably close and that was based on just the first four months of the pandemic. The disruption is also created a host of new Business Opportunities and industries that small and local businesses can play an Important Role and win against the multinational competitors. Weve seen the creativity of the american entrepreneurs in ways that prepare and deliver food, create and provide education and training and using technology and beat you in ways we never thought were possible. Weve seen how businesses can set up and solve Important Health and safety needs during the pandemic from creating masks, shield a muchneeded ppe, businesses of all sizes are responding and willing to serve. Small businesses are all essential. At the heart of all this are people who listen, solve problems and create solutions and get paid for those solutions. A recent survey shared that 92 of u. S. Small businesses have reinvented themselves during the pandemic and thus as a whole lot about this group of people. Small Business Owners are scrappy gogetters and there is no quit in them. Here are some key recommendations. Lets Work Together to expand programs that support Small Businesses financial resilience. While the pdp program and the eidl programs provide muchneeded relief to many businesses there still so many microbusinesses who have been left out. These microbusinesses need access to capital to sustain, grow and expand. Small businesses need a longterm Recovery Loan Program with low Interest Rates and stable payment terms. Federal policies could incentivize and leverage the success of equity and debtbased crowdfunding to provide a 200 and businesses with sustained source of capital to up and accelerate recovery and boost new business creation. Improved access to rural broadband. Now more than ever we need to find ways to enhance the access, speed and affordability of our world broadband to add one. The next great business idea could happen on the family farm, make maker space by different Specialty Retail store. In last discreet and expand entrepreneur ecosystem to we must continue to support nonprofit to train, advocate and bring entrepreneurs together. Organizations like the Small Business and entrepreneurship council, the u. S. Chamber and the Small Business administration. In closing i want to thank the subcommittee for the opportunity to testify today. Now more than ever we need to find ways to really own and defined what it means to be small. Small is adaptive, nimble and able to respond fast. Its the small ones in the small towns and neighborhoods everywhere i keep not only the economy but the very spirit of our country alive and prospering. Its the mom and pops, the food we eat, the measure of good service and the technology of the future. They are the people who quit the beautiful things, share our knowledge and build bigger, better and stronger communities. Algae for believing, supporting and making smart policies to support Small Businesses. Well, thank you, mr. Duff. I truly appreciate your testimony and hearing from you later today as well. Thank you all for sharing with us. We are now going to begin our question portion. With that i will begin by recognized myself five minutes. My first question is to mr. Nath from grinnell. Mr. Nath, your work and childcare spatially all youve been doing for the last year since you started link and really not involved in the childcare sector, its pretty extraordinary and a you dealt with challenges you are not expecting that has to do with when you took over this endeavor. Can you speak to me about why and why it was important for you to enter the childcare sector, especially at a small town and some of the things that are little bit different when it comes to child care in rural areas versus our cities . Thank you for the question. Yes, its vital. So when we started link we went out to our organizations and they support us. We asked for two years of funding 100 100 donated dollo start up link to provide child care. [inaudible] at the hospital we had been looking for oncology for how long and orthopedics, and the list goes on a different services, and you cant get those individuals in because the schools and childcare are not there to support those individuals plus people want that for the families and help that community thrive. We were fortunate and were able to provide that essential childcare for free because we had those dollars that were donated. In order to have those people focus on the job theyre doing they need to make sure that these other worries are wiped away. And the only way to make community thrive is to make sure that you all those factors in place along with opportunities for your family. And so thats what it was so critical and so important for us to do what we did. Thats so great to hear, i mean, it is high end. Its not just when youre talking about small towns in particular, like you said getting doctors and being able to attract the right talent, so much of that has to do with the childcare that is available, so thank you for recognizing that need an something, i mean, just underscores why this is such an important topic to be talking about Audit Committee like this, roosevelt, making sure making sure we dont have the disparities across the country. One other quick question for you before we move on to mr. Ketelsen. Many of your workers, not many, the folks that work in link and are literally the childcare workforce, they are also essential workers. Could you speak about what hazard pay would mean to your workforce in particular and how that would be helpful or not . Yes, hazard pay would be critical in the situation. A lot of the individuals are in the instant, you need to. So dhs really good about getting background checks and all those types of things back to us really quickly. But we are the front line of the front line. That was the thing that was very challenging was just find a way to make sure that i kept my staff safe and the children safe during covid. Knock on wood, luckily we have not had been instances or anybody has been positive, but we really adhere to some strict standards and made that work very well. So thank you for the question. Thank you. Mr. Ketelsen, so one thing we need emphasize more so that was mentioning chessboard chessplal but of what you flesh out here, supply chain issue that you guys are running into, specifically in your industry in particular. What are some of the factors you see leading to that . And how would you feel and would you find this via household type of thing to make sure that we are i guess drawing the lines together of what needs are out there for manufacturing and industries that are doing well during the pandemic that could benefit from more manufacturing or fixing the supply chain youre running into right now . A lot of our supply chain issues are derived from the fact we went from zero during the covid timeframe, thinking about recreation during those initial times to 120 miles an hour, even the Public Officials say the best way to enjoy your family and recreate is to be outside its difficult for any industry to go from zero to not only way they were not, and then put them into a growth spike. Thats a lot of what that supply chain has created, which is a unique problem, and exciting problem for the future. And i know my time has expired only had that discussion it really did make me start thinking about the fact that as Certain Industries have done well during this pandemic we should be able to close the gap and give more opportunity to some of our manufacturers who may have slowed down in other areas, whether its helping them retool to help them meet the needs of the retina or whatever we can do to bridge that gap and i think we should look at trying to do that because i know youre going, you got hit on top of that with the derecho and so it would be a long road, but im very grateful for just your expertise and everything you talked about here today, so thank you, mr. Ketelsen. I know my time expired, so with that i now yield to dr. Joyce for five minutes. Thank you chairwoman finkenauer. My questions will start with mr. Jason duff. At bellefontaine youthful quite an amazing story. You been able to revitalize your Small Community with a balance of government, nonprofit and private organizations. You talked to us, mr. Duff, about 80 vacancy rate with light and turning that around to develop restaurants and Small Businesses and residents as well. Do you think that your community specifically benefited from a tax base, from an enjoyment of life from the development of new Small Businesses from your ability to turn around a blighted area, and 80 vacancy rate for your numbers come into a prosperous area . Thank you for the question. The beginning of our journey began with recruiting that first business, the first entrepreneur that would take a risk on our town. That happened to be an independent restaurant. Asking the midwhat we felt we are missing to bring that traffic, the energy, life and likely an entrepreneur that made brick oven pizza and had multiple units decided to expand his business in our town. That was a big risk for him. When the pizza place opened up the already 13 of the pizza place in an attempt the end distinct and unique recipe. He provided a unique Customer Experience and we honored the has to work building that and the legacy of the Traffic Energy that had 150 years ago. So that became the catalyst for seeing the energy, that life and that traffic come back to our town. When the restaurant started the other Specialty Retail stores that saw that traffic and so the energy of light and said we want to be clustered around that, too. And then later as people saw the retail stores, the downtown gym decided to open up. People just said we want to live in upper floors of the building. But now in the pandemic what we are challenged with, to answer your question, it did improve the tax base and approved it significantly not only for the employees that were working in the businesses, Business Owners that were developing profitable businesses but the Property Values appreciated. When the Property Values appreciated that a lot more money to go back to local municipalities for schools and for area communities. The challenge in the pandemic is that many of our downtown and individually owned restaurants have been forced to close. That industry in particular has really been challenged and i think we must Work Together to find programs that really help those independent restaurants be able to open back up and get gee employees back engaged and working. I know the ppp program at the eidl program have been two successful measures on being able to do what he can do but theres still more work that has to be done. The thing we are working on right now identifying if restaurants can be slow to come back online, what other native ways we can bring that Traffic Energy and life to our towns and bring that technology, that broadbent, getting our buildings wired up would will be a huge n the right direction. Mr. Duff, what you achieved at bellefontaine, is this a a model for success in other Rural Communities . And are you looking to implement that in other Rural Communities . Absolutely. We believe a model starts with finding ways to buy in and invest in a story building, actively recruit and identify people who are entrepreneur early like it. Those people do exist. They just need those ideas need to be heard and we need to connect those ideas with people, to banks and investors have the resources. Once these ideas come online, those folks need ongoing mentorship, coaching and support. I believe this model is working and can work and help towns all across the country. Thank you for being the conduit for joining those different groups together. My next question is for mr. Chad nath. You mentioned searching for funding through nongovernment sources in donations, and grants and stipends. Approximately how many of your dollars were you able to make up from nongovernment sources . From noncovered sources, we started off actually our local businesses are the ones that actually supplied us with the dollars that we thrived on during that time not thrived but we worked if we did do i Community Block a grant and the ppp, we did not get it in the first phase. And then we had just some of the people that were special staff provided some donations. So those went into donated dollars. We did not assess a fee or process the fee. We allowed them if they chose to get some dollars back and we had a few that did it. We just could not afford to do that. Those are the ways that we made this work. We wrote grants all over the place and from the island women foundation, we look for different ways we could find this to make this work. Luckily, at this point we hope we can see the clearing a little bit. As i said [inaudible] my final question is for mr. Rembert. We talked in this came at length about bridging the Digital Divide for Rural Communities. We are committed to working for that. In your written testimony you mentioned that each community has individual challenges with this task. From the federal level we understand the federal government needs to support these efforts. Without imposing one size fits all approach. Do you agree from your stance, on your perch that a onesizefitsall will not be successful as we continue to bridge that Digital Divide . Yes, i think we find that Rural Communities each have specific assets, specific challenges that have to be addressed in unique ways to be successful in doing this, especially when were talking about building entrepreneur sure ecosystems. I think in our experience, programs that match resources with local Capacity Building that allow the solution to be built from the Community Level up and then are matched with resources that come in into rey build the capacity of the community to advance a strategy is really where we think success can be achieved. Because in Rural Communities in particular capacity will always be a significant constraint, and so to the extent that programs can actually build local capacity based on strategies and ideas that are developed by local leaders, i think the federal government can play a really Important Role in doing that. So in that sense having one solution to every community he felt that isnt necessarily the best. And again we salute your commitment to the rural community. Thank you, chairwoman, and i yield the remainder of my time. Thank you, dr. Joyce. The gentleman yields back and now i would like to recognize the gentlelady from minnesota, congresswoman craig for five minutes. Thank you so much, madam chairwoman. Before i get into my questions about covid19 and economic recovery, i want to recognize you specifically for all of your tremendous work on behalf of your constituents. Station called a nonprofit im proud to have in my district. Redwing ignites Economic Development by working with key sectors of the community and the third innovation by supporting entrepreneurs, businesses and students. As you mentioned in your testimony, and certainly ignite has done this, adapting covid19, theres been adaptations where virtual webinars online mentoring programs and more to support entrepreneurs. However, in this time of internet access, it is essential. Can you talk more deeply about it fits into this work and how novation is working to expand world broadband so more entrepreneurs can access these services . Broadband is the foundational infrastructure required to build up in rural places so it is truly critical. Look at communities to work with, one of the things we look for his do they have broadband infrastructure in place . There are a lot of places with great broadband, redwing being one of them. Many communities are equipped to do this work but there are significant parts of america not connected, not just thats an issue we cannot wait for and needs to be addressed. An organization, we help raise awareness through data and mapping resource about the critical broadband and where there are gaps. The Sister Organization strategies inc. Does do specific work with communities that are developing and need help developing broadband and fixing broadband infrastructure. We definitely encourage congress to focus on the need to bridge the Digital Divide. I just want to stick with these for one more minute, looking at the economic effects of covid19 and comparing it to the great recession. How is this the same house a different . Does it speak to any future of what the recovery and what entrepreneurial opportunities come out of the look like . Its a little too soon to say what its going to look like. It is an evolving situation but what we have seen so far is looks different than the great recession. In one way in particular in the great resection, it is more severely impacted. So far in this economic crisis has been somewhat less impacted probably because they havent necessarily experienced the same outbreaks more urbanized areas have. What will the longterm effect be . I dont think we quite know. An analysis of the most recent data looks like the recovery starting to slow in Rural America before america has recovered jobs lost in february. The fact that Rural America is predominantly has disproportionate employment among Small Businesses and as we saw during the great recession, Small Businesses are more vulnerable to this kind of shock that can have longerterm impact in Rural Communities which is one reason why we think its probably the case that Rural America has not recovered overall. Thank you so much. Im sorry you didnt get to ask a question but it looks like my time is up so i yield back. Thank you. With that, i will recognize the gentleman from ohio, Ranking Member of the Small Business committee for five minutes. You mentioned in one of your priorities, keeping your employees and customers safe and one of the things weve been considering his liability protection. For example, if you have a customer who comes in and test positive and god for bid they perish from the disease, you might have one of your employe employees, comes down positive, they might say he didnt take every precaution but nonetheless, even if you win, you lose with attorneys fees and costs involved. Any thoughts about whether we ought to be doing something in that area to protect Small Businesses like yourself from being targeted of liability either from a customer or an employee . Initially, that was a major concern. What is the liability in the situation . How do we plan that as a company to help mitigate or reduce those risks . People return to obviously did not have clear answers as well either due to it being something unknown. That is an area that comes up that we are constantly discussing as a business and leadership and even the employees on what kind of risk they are willing to take. Considering a second round, thats been a stumbling block because one side thinks we should have these protections in general and the other side things we shouldnt. It is one stumbling block but let me shift over, ive visited 50 plus Small Businesses in my community and trying to see how the ppp work form or how we could have done it differently, how we are getting along. Several were in childcare and one of the things ive heard they are allowed to reopen, the bottom line, they have to have fewer children and they had problem with employees being concerned about their own health and other matters like that. Has that been an issue with you as far as numbers of children you can have quality over time allowing you to listen to the . I guess thats what im asking. The hard part is nobody knows the duration. Basically its just an estimate and it basically lasted two and a half payrolls thats why another round would be beneficial because we did go off that and use the information we have. These emergency guidelines, we were able to give individuals signed on, we ended up with about 22000 in revenue from the program in our staff was about 78000. A shortfall of roughly 56000 but we have local Businesses Supporting us in a way that they say if you need anything, let us know and we will donate. Its a situation with childcare, the businesses, it is hard for them to support and generate revenue that can go to childcare within the community. Thank you very much. One more. Two buckeye here, obviously we had a pretty aggressive governor clamping down on this and trying to keep people safe on masks and how many people can come in in the dining inside and outside, anything you would like to see from here on the could be helpful to your businesses in your community . Based on our covid account here, weve experienced more of an economic crisis has been Damaging Health and every covert case and death is a huge situation but in my county here in april, we were 31 unemployment, thats the highest in ohio by ten basis points. A big part of that is our manufacturing plants support were all closed and so were many independent businesses in our small towns and recreation areas so that cost and the Health Crisis and what we are doing with that is also very significant so i think we need to look at strategies for how we look at health and more of a global perspective the virus is here and we will continue to work on that but i think the work this committee is doing need to be focused on the Health Related crisis and how we can get people safely back to work and to safely reopen. Thank you to all the witnesses. I yield back. Thank you. With self, i dont believe there any more questions for today. We will include the hearing here but i want to say thank you again to all of our witnesses. Thank you. This has been our first Online Official hearing. We did it. It be much better to see everybody in person and we hold out hope here and get everybody going again but in the meantime, having these discussions will be helpful for us as we come through the pandemic to figure out how to stimulate our economy again and also not leave Rural America behind as we do it. Thank you for taking the time to uplift the things youre going to on the ground, your experti expertise, all of these things are important others recreation or childcare or whether its trying to revitalize Small Businesses and the economic side of it as well. This is a helpful discussion, i think the members would agree here and we are very grateful. We remain committed to listening and trying to figure out what we can do more of that works and how we can fix what doesnt and how we can plan for the future here. It is my hope, i continue to uplift my own leadership and all leaders both in the house, senate and white house we can come together here with differences aside and get people out and get together and make sure you keep responding to the needs of Small Business owners, essential workforce in all folks who drink so much for our country right now but are worried every day about what the future looks like. We need to make sure we respond to that and i will continue to urge that as well and i know its a Great Committee to be part of an honor to be the chairwoman of this subcommittee because we do find Common Ground here. This is the way its supposed to work. We are doing our best and we are grateful for all of you on the ground and i just want to say thank you again and stay hopeful for the future even though i know there is a long way to go. With that, we will conclude this hearing and i ask unanimous consent the members have five days to submit supporting materials for the record. Without objection, if theres no further business to come before the committee, we are adjourned. Thank you. Subcommittee holds a hearing on the progress of the Energy Department biological research during the coronavirus pandemic. Watch live Coverage Today 1 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. Online at cspan. Org or listen live on the free cspan radio at. Your calls on this day starts us off. Go ahead. Good morning. A very sad day. Im sad they are not reading the names, it looks like a Beautiful Day in new york and i used to wilive there, its a very sad d. We pray for all the victims, of the 9 11 attacks. Thats it. Thank you. W
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