Statement of Frank Knapp Jr., president & CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce.
Columbia, SC, December 2, 2020—According to The Washington Post, over half of the $522 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans went to larger businesses that accounted for only 5% of loan recipients. While real small businesses receiving less than $150,000 in PPP loans only received 28% of the total money allocated by Congress.
Even as Congress came together quickly in a bi-partisan way early during the pandemic to provide the financial aid to help small business survive, the Trump Administration bent over backwards to channel the money to deep-pocketed brand name restaurant chains, wealthy campaign contributors to President Trump and corporations traded on Wall Street.
Every dollar that these less than worthy businesses took in PPP loans was a dollar not available to South Carolina’s and the nation’s real small businesses. Every South Carolina business that our state has permanently lost can largely be blamed on not receiving any federal help soon enough or at all. Our sole proprietors and micro businesses, mostly minority and women-owned businesses, made up most of the approximately 84% of our state small businesses that did not receive any financial help.
Contact:
Frank Knapp
803-600-6874 cell