The Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (IHCC) President & CEO, Jaime di Paulo, today issued the following statement regarding President-Elect Biden’s appointment of Isabel Guzman as Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA):
Isabel Guzman embodies the story of the American Dream. As the daughter of a small business owner, Isabel was raised witnessing the power and opportunity of American entrepreneurism. With Isabel’s appointment, President-Elect Biden has chosen a true champion for small businesses to be our country’s next SBA Administrator”, said di Paulo.
Guzman is the first Latina to be nominated for a position in Biden’s Cabinet.
Ms Guzman, 49, was deputy chief of staff at the agency during the Obama administration. She has worked over the past two decades as an adviser to banks and consulting firms, with a focus on entrepreneurship and business development.
The agency has long been one of the government’s primary financial responders during disasters like hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes, and its size and responsibilities swelled in the wake of catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina and the 2008 recession. The pandemic, though, has radically expanded its role in ways likely to permanently alter the agency’s scope and structure.
Simply managing the aftermath of the Paycheck Protection Program — which is expected to make more than $800 billion in forgivable loans, issued by banks but backed by the government — will require years of audits and oversight.
The new administrator will also have to grapple with the agency’s expanded portfolio of disaster loans, which are made directly by the government.
The agency has lent nearly $195 billion since the coronavirus crisis began — far more money than it had previously lent out in its nearly 70 year history — and those loans have a repayment period that can stretch for up to 30 years.