SBA Administrator McMahon to visit PR this week
Linda McMahon, the head of the U.S. Small Business Administration will be visiting Puerto Rico this week as part of the agency’s “SBA Ignite Tour.”
The initiative is a national outreach campaign aimed at fueling small businesses with tools and resources to grow their companies and create more American jobs. McMahon will tour more than 60 cities in two years, the agency said.
Puerto Rico is among the first jurisdictions she will be visiting as part of the tour that began June 21 in Salt Lake City. Other cities she will visit this summer include Pittsburgh; Seattle; Portland; Anchorage; Detroit; and Milwaukee.
Throughout the tour McMahon will be listening to entrepreneurs, small business owners and community leaders about tax reform, regulation and access to capital; educating small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs about SBA products and services that can help them succeed; advocating for small business and being the VOICE of small business in Washington, D.C.; and encouraging small businesses to continue driving economic growth by creating jobs and helping the economy thrive.
U.S. Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) applauded McMahon’s decision to travel to Puerto Rico “to observe firsthand what is happening there.”
“It is my hope that other members of the administration and the President’s cabinet follow her lead and also travel to the Commonwealth to gather a better understanding of Puerto Rico’s financial and economic difficulties — and how they are impacting the lives of the 3.5 million Americans living there,” Velázquez said.
“Tackling Puerto Rico’s economic challenges will require a range of tools and the SBA has a number of initiatives that could stimulate entrepreneurship and local economic activity,” Velázquez, the first Puerto Rican woman elected to Congress, said.
“My bill, ‘The Puerto Rico Small Business Assistance Act’, H.R. 2488, seeks to better tailor SBA programs to meet the Island’s need. It would channel capital to small firms operating in Puerto Rico and facilitate their participation in the federal procurement process. I hope to work constructively with the administrator and the SBA to see this bill signed into law,” Velázquez said.
