Senator, great to see it. I know you have had a busy day. Let me just start, we had secretary mnuchin on this morning and we asked him about the ppp, Small Businesses and having oversight into how it is working. He said look, we will get to that discussion later and there is proprietary information that is involved but he gave no headway into what you have been working on it which to get more data and more transparency frankly into that program. What is the state of play as we talk right now . Well, millions of loans have been given out under the ppp program and still have about one and a billion dollars of leeway with ppp loans. The sba and treasury brought this program up as a new program rather quickly and there certainly have been pains in its growth and things that need to be corrected and fixed but the most important thing right now is to get the data to understand how the program is working and then we have to have transparency to make sure that all Small Businesses have opportu
And stockton mayor. I will say a few more words about them in a minute. But he really wanted to start by saying that we are gathering at a time where all as a country, and in particular, leading us as we go through a moment of deep pain and anguish for so many americans. That has come to the floor the last few weeks that it is a product of years and decades and really even centuries of any cool and unfair treatment. The murders of george floyd, breonna taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and many other black americans have shed a harsh light on the systemic racism that is pervasive in our country. People are not safe here. Now when they got their jobs are going to church, not even when they stay in our own homes. And they are too often killed at the hand of place. Black people. Right now our country is suffering of two abuses. One of them, medical professionals are working aroundtheclock theres a global effort to become a common entity. And still so many people are suffering. And dying. And for the
Sen. Cardin well, millions of loans have been given out under the ppp program and still have about one and a billion dollars of leeway with ppp loans. The sba and treasury brought this program up as a new program rather quickly and there certainly have been pains in its growth and things that need to be corrected and fixed but the most important thing right now is to get the data to understand how the program is working and then we have to have transparency to make sure that all Small Businesses have opportunities, including those that are traditionally underserved and under banked. Thats our priority, and we are working on dealing with one notable problem with ppp programs and that is the eight weeks set in the time period and it presents certain challenges because we thought the economy would be performing better than it is. We are all in agreement that we have to give some flexibility on that eight week time period. What have we not gotten right either in the first round of supporti
Pandemic. The paycheckum Protection Program receiving 349 billion and another 310 billion of supplemental legislation. And with accountability are crucial because the moment theti administration became clear for those that needed it most. So we are not taking any other floor and then to take this opportunity for unanimous consent to get Something Real done with bipartisan support and who can be against transparency and otaccountability . Were close to 700 billion of the taxpayers money iso going and unfortunately the publicly traded companies have secured ppe loans putting some Companies Truly Small Businesses however hundreds of thousands of momandpop shops with the Restaurant Owners with the baker and the candlestick maker have been shut out with a standing relationship with a big bank. So when it comes to minority owned businesses with the center for responsible lending 90 percent of africanamerican and latino ownedno businesses are likely to shut out of ppe funding womenowned busin
Which i talked about a while ago. And the president obama had to deal with a real meltdown, it was a fundamental economic crisis. You remember that era. There were major Banking Institutions and lending houses were going under and so on. He had to decide whether it was best to just get it over with as soon as possible and alienate some people who thought he was going to far with the federal government or was he going far enough in punching the bankers and so on and a lot of liberals in the Democratic Party thought hedid not go far enough , that he should have punished the banks. That he should have put these people in jail but he didnt do that. But he does past the initial meltdown and the economy does recover so you have to give him credit for that. He does persevere. He balances principle with pragmatism. He understands taking action was important and he does have an instinct for success in this. One of the things he did which was particularly controversial was he rescues the Auto In