Ideas to Expand Access to Capital for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs

The COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis had a disproportionately negative impact on small businesses, with thousands closing and tens of thousands more struggling to survive. Public efforts, such as the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans, helped many small businesses stay afloat. Now, those efforts are winding down as we transition from relief to recovery. One challenge that remains is access to capital for many of those small and young companies.

Yesterday, the Bipartisan Policy Center hosted an event on reforms to small business lending programs. As part of the preparation for that discussion, we consulted a handful of experts about small business financing.

We asked them this question: What is the one action that Congress or the Administration could take, and should take, to expand access to capital for American small businesses and entrepreneurs? An abbreviated compilation of their responses is below, followed by each contributor’s full response.