On this episode of Yahoo Finance Presents, SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman sat down with Yahoo Finance's Dani Romero to discuss the recovery of the U.S. economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including how the SBA is forgiving PPP loans, the impact the proposed infrastructure bill will have on small businesses, and new programs at the SBA.

Video Transcript

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DANI ROMERO: Welcome to "Yahoo Finance Presents." My guest today is SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman. Thank you so much for joining us.

ISABELLA CASILLAS GUZMAN: It's my pleasure. Great to be here.

DANI ROMERO: It's so great to have you. And I saw that you've been traveling across the country, meeting with small business owners. What has been the biggest takeaway the agency has learned about giving equitable access to these businesses and in order for them to kind of thrive in this post-pandemic world?

ISABELLA CASILLAS GUZMAN: Well, the SBA has played such a historic role in helping so many of our businesses and nonprofits as well during this economic and health crisis. And really, what we're seeing on the ground is businesses still need assistance.

The SBA has scaled from over $40 billion to now over a trillion in relief, getting out important programs like PPP, which has been so essential for businesses, along with the Economic Injury Disaster loans and the Restaurant Revitalization Fund and the Shuttered Venues for these highly impacted industries. And what we see is hope and opportunity, as well as concern that we need to continue to be vigilant and get the COVID-19 pandemic under control so that they can continue to open up their main streets and small businesses and industrial centers to get back to fully rebuild and recover.

DANI ROMERO: And I'm sure on your trip, you heard that so many small business owners are facing the labor headwinds. Are you concerned on how the road to recovery might change for these small business owners? And how will the agency kind of adapt to that?

ISABELLA CASILLAS GUZMAN: Right. Well, we do-- we still have billions of dollars in relief in our COVID EIDL program. And what we've seen with so many businesses is that they've had to assume additional costs in one, fighting the pandemic and making sure that their businesses were keeping their customers and their employees safe, as well as funding other pivots to e-commerce and other costs associated with their adaptation during this pandemic and that they continue to see those challenges, as we're not fully recovered. Their revenues are not at full capacity.

And then they're-- in addition, it's challenging sometimes in some industries finding workforce. And so as they navigate these issues, they need to make sure that they're-- you know, they're trying to control their debt as much as possible. SBA has some very affordable patient capital through this Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. And so that's positioned some businesses to continue to survive during this time and ultimately position their business for success once we can fully reopen, in some cases, or reopen and rebuild.

You know, and what I'm hearing as well from small businesses is that they've have-- they've had to adapt dramatically during all this time, clearly. But they've also started to collaborate more amongst each other and share information. I think that's one of the most important lessons from all of this-- is that we need to continue to try to connect with our small businesses.

And the American Rescue Plan included the Community Navigators Pilot Program of the SBA. And it's going to be our opportunity to create networks around the country to better distribute this information about important resources to our small businesses.

DANI ROMERO: COVID cases are on the rise across the country, which are hitting Main Street, economy, businesses really, really hard, especially the restaurants. Do you foresee any replenishment in the Restaurant Revitalization Fund? And I know that there's a big push to get that money out the door. But what is your take on that? And what do you see happen in the future?

ISABELLA CASILLAS GUZMAN: The Restaurant Revitalization Fund was a very popular program that we probably stood up quickly, swiftly. We knew that we needed to act fast to help these hard-hit industries. We received 2.5 times the demand of the $28.6 billion that was funded. Obviously, so many restaurants had massive revenue impact and needed support.

So while the funds are no longer available, the program has closed, I know that Congress continues to consider whether or not they will replenish those funds. And so we stand ready to support our small businesses with whatever programs we have.

DANI ROMERO: Yeah. And the SBA has launched numerous programs, like the Paycheck Protection Program, well-known as the PPP. And now that that's winding down, how is the agency making sure that those that are qualified can get those funds forgiven? And do you have an update on that as well?

ISABELLA CASILLAS GUZMAN: Yes. Forgiveness is such a key part of the Paycheck Protection Program, delivering against that promise that if rules were followed that they would be able to get this as a forgivable loan. So the SBA has tried to support its expanded lender network. And we have now over 5,000 participants in the PPP program. And typically, SBA works with just over 1,000.

And we want to make sure that those lenders as well can navigate our system. So we established a direct forgiveness portal, a direct PPP forgiveness portal, for all of the banks to access and thus their customers, really focusing on those forgivable loans $150,000 and under, which is where the majority of the loans are, and make sure that they are able to follow a very easy process. It's about 10 minutes on our direct portal and be able to process that forgiveness. And of course, some of our other banking partners have their own platforms that businesses can go to.

And so we just encourage all of our businesses to process that forgiveness. We want to see all of the PPP's $800 billion get back into the marketplace. We want to see those loans move to forgiveness if they're eligible. And those lenders have that capital to now really lend in the small business community.

DANI ROMERO: You know, one question I heard from a small business owner is that if you got a PPP loan and your business closes, what happens to that loan?

ISABELLA CASILLAS GUZMAN: Yeah. Of course, the businesses have to be operating. But it depends on their specific case and their eligibility if they were actually using those funds according to the guidelines. And so their lender or SBA.gov can support them through that process.

DANI ROMERO: Yeah. And along with that, those that-- another program that was launched was the Shuttered Venues Operators Grant. And I know that the SBA worked really hard to streamline that application process. But for those that were denied and applied for an appeal and were denied again, what's next? What can they do? What do you best advice for that?

ISABELLA CASILLAS GUZMAN: We were pleased to turn that program around. The SBA, just this year, has launched seven new programs nationally at scale. That's tremendous. We've also scaled from the average of 90,000 loans a year to over 16 million loans and grants. It's been remarkable what we've been able to implement, really, thanks to the very committed civil servants of the SBA.

And with Shuttered Venues Operator Grant, that was a new program set up this year. So far we've gotten out $9 billion. And we're continuing to wind down all those applications that are under review. And of course, we wanted to make sure that they could appeal or get a reconsideration for the dollar amount. And so that process is happening now.

And in addition, we'll move to the supplemental grants next week. So rather soon this week, we'll announce soon the opening of that next portion of the portal. You know, we want to continue to try to support these venues. If there was some sort of mistake in the process, obviously, that will come through during this appeals process.

DANI ROMERO: Yeah. But for those that did apply for the appeal and were denied again, what can they do? Should they-- can you appeal one more time? What's the process with that?

ISABELLA CASILLAS GUZMAN: Yeah, we're still considering those-- those applicants. You know, I don't know the specific case. But what I would encourage them to do is to, you know, reach out to their local district offices. They can find their local partners at SBA.gov. Make sure that any specifics on the case can be understood, as well as they can be connected to additional relief that the SBA has to offer.

DANI ROMERO: And along with that, those that were approved and are waiting for their funds-- what do you advise?

ISABELLA CASILLAS GUZMAN: We are trying to process all of these rewards-- awards as soon as possible, as quickly as possible. And so we continue to support an expanded team. We added additional folks to review and as well to process these applications.

As we know, this industry was really hard-hit and is trying to recover and position for reopening. So please bear with us, of course. But we see that those funds are continuing to be disbursed every day.

DANI ROMERO: You know, what can small businesses expect, you know, this year as it wraps up, but also next year? Will there be programs launched that are specific to a sector? We saw like the Shuttered Venue. That was specific to live entertainment and then the restaurant revitalization. So will we see other programs like that that are kind of catered to a specific industry?

ISABELLA CASILLAS GUZMAN: Well, there's no specific grant programs in the pipeline. We do still have, of course, the COVID EIDL program. That's the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. We have both the loans, which I talked about as being very affordable, long-term, patient capital. They're fixed interest rate up to 30 years. And then in addition, there are grants associated with that. And they are industry-agnostic. It's just if you've been impacted and if you're in a low-income community.

But beyond that, of course, there's some key investments that will benefit small businesses in the bipartisan infrastructure deal, as well as in the broader Build Back Better agenda. I think, broadly, investments in infrastructure are going to benefit small businesses, especially as so many of them have moved to e-commerce. And so broadband is really critical now. And to have broadband in every corner and every community will be really important to make sure that our businesses can access markets.

But beyond that, in the Build Back Better agenda, there's going to be key investments in the programs at the SBA, including our capital access programs, our financing, and our investments, as well as around innovation, making sure that all these great, innovative ideas of science-based and technology startups can receive that early funding to survive and thrive.

And then, of course, government contracting. We know that Uncle Sam is the largest buyer in the world. And we want to make sure that our small businesses can connect to those contracts as we make these key investments in the infrastructure, as well as our resilience.

DANI ROMERO: And do you have an update on the Economic Injury Disaster Loan, the Targeted Advance Program, and also the Supplemental Targeted Advance? Where are we with those?

ISABELLA CASILLAS GUZMAN: This is one of the programs that we've-- have been focused on to make sure that we make the key improvements to improve customer service. You know, I've really been focused on making sure that we can be as entrepreneurial as our small businesses and pivot and adapt to this changing marketplace. And obviously, we've done with the scale that we've achieved. But we want to improve customer service, be customer-first in everything we do, and provide-- provide initiatives that are technology-forward so that we can make these interactions easy and also sustainable at the SBA and equitable.

Of course, the Biden-Harris administration has been so committed to ensuring equity across our programs, as we know that underserved small businesses, especially women, people of color, veteran, rural communities, low-income communities, have been particularly hit during COVID-19. And so across these programs, we want to, you know, make sure that we're supporting our small businesses with the relief and the financing and opportunity for growth into the future.

DANI ROMERO: Yeah. And obviously, this is a new era for you. And can you tell us, what is your goal? And what do you want most from this agency as we wrap this up?

ISABELLA CASILLAS GUZMAN: I really would love to see us leverage this moment where so many people are focused on our small businesses and trying to advance opportunities for them. I think it's a time for incredible partnership across the private sector and philanthropy and across governments to work together to create these stronger ecosystems to support our everyday businesses to our innovative startups.

And I think that this is a moment where SBA can leverage the scale it's achieved to continue to support more businesses. We've reached 11 million businesses. I know there are 31 million businesses, but we've never served so many. And I think that more people are aware of the SBA and comfortable with working with us. So we want to be that team to help them rebuild and recover and thrive into the future.

DANI ROMERO: Well, thank you so much, Isabella Guzman, for joining us. You know, I really appreciate everything-- your time, as well as answering these questions. Obviously, I've been covering small businesses. And I've been hearing from them as well as their concerns and challenges as they recover.

ISABELLA CASILLAS GUZMAN: Well, thank you so much for your focus on small business. I really appreciate however we can work together to connect.