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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

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Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Small businesses still struggling for loans even as $100B is approved

Thursday, April 9, 2020

Categories: ASCF News National Preparedness Economic Security

Comments: 0

The Trump administration has approved roughly $100 billion of the $350 billion allocated for emergency loans to small businesses devastated by the coronavirus outbreak, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told lawmakers on Wednesday.

But the figure has done little to ease the rising fears of smaller businesses still struggling to access the funds - and growing ever-more concerned that the program is tilted in favor of larger enterprises with existing relationships with banks.

The anecdotes of anxiety and frustration are filtering in from around the country, where small business owners - many of them women and minorities - say they're scrambling to access the emergency loans provided under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a new initiative created as part of Congress's recent $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief effort. Instead, they say they've been met with delays, confusion and uncertainty that the funds will ever arrive.

A business adviser in the Greater Philadelphia area went to a community bank seeking $1 million in loans - ranging from $40,000 to $300,000 - for seven clients, the adviser said, and hasn't heard a word since.

"The bank, which had initially said that they WELCOMED the loan applications, has yet to even acknowledge receipt," the adviser said in an email.

Another small business agent, representing a research project management firm in Plano, Texas, encountered similar barriers and is now left wondering if larger businesses aren't being prioritized. Under the program, loans are available to businesses with 500 employees or fewer.

"I only needed $100,000, but was told by my bank that I would be considered later," the agent said. "I only have 10 employees so maybe that is not enough considering the need of others."

The concerns arrive as Congress weighs another infusion of funds for the PPP, which is designed to keep businesses afloat and workers employed through the coronavirus crisis by providing easy-access loans that won't need to be repaid if businesses maintain their payrolls.

Late last month, Congress allocated roughly $350 billion to the nascent relief program; Mnuchin, on a conference call with Democrats Wednesday afternoon, said the administration has already approved $98 billion through more than 3,600 lenders.

The figure, up from $70 billion just a day earlier, both reflects the popularity of the PPP and highlights the pressure facing Congress to replenish its coffers to ensure that all eligible businesses can avail the funds.

The concern from small businesses is simple: they fear the money will run out before they can access it.

Mnuchin is pitching an additional $250 billion for PPP loans, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is hoping to move the measure through the upper chamber by unanimous consent Thursday morning.

Democratic leaders, however, are demanding certain conditions of the new funding, including assurances that businesses without existing relationships with lenders - particularly those owned by women, minorities and veterans - aren't cut out of the program. Democrats also want a stipulation that half of the $250 billion goes through community banks, credit unions and other small-lending institutions.

"A lot of money [is] first-come, first-serve, and many unbanked people who are underbanked or unserved ... don't have banking relationships, sophisticated in a way that others do," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday in an interview with NPR. "So we said for the next $250 [billion], we really need to have a percentage of that - $60 billion - that would go to something called the community development of financial institutions."

Democratic leaders had hoped Republicans would accept those provisions, allowing the package to move swiftly through both chambers this week without having to call members back to Washington amid the coronavirus scare. But Republicans in the Senate and the White House remain cold to the changes, and Pelosi is warning that the GOP bill, as written, "will not get unanimous support in the House."

"It just won't," Pelosi told NPR.

The standoff has raised questions about how quickly Congress can supplement the loan program to ensure that all eligible businesses can access it - and whether they can do so before the current funds run dry. Both the House and Senate are not expected to reconvene until April 20, at the earliest.

Upping the pressure on Republicans, the Small Business Roundtable (SBR) is taking its members' concerns to Capitol Hill, pressing congressional leaders in both parties to ensure that the most vulnerable small businesses - borrowers and lenders alike - are able to use the program before the funding is exhausted.

In a letter sent Wednesday to McConnell and Pelosi, the groups said a lack of guidance for lenders has caused "confusion, under-preparedness and challenges for implementation," hitting women- and minority-owned borrowers particularly hard.

"We are disappointed to hear from many of our members that they have been essentially shut out of the program due to the various challenges from both the implementation and the banking side," reads the SBR letter, which was also endorsed by the the National Association of Women Business Owners, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Black Chambers.

The Senate vote on the additional $250 billion in PPP funds is scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m.

Photo: © Getty Images Small businesses still struggling for loans even as $100B is approved

Link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/small-businesses-still-struggling-for-loans-even-as-dollar100b-is-approved/ar-BB12lGx3

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