Congress is discussing potentially reallocating unspent funds provided to small businesses throughout the pandemic and using that money to assist with federal pandemic health expenses such as vaccines and therapeutics.
Small business owners are tense as the reallocation of these funds would pull $5 billion that Congress distributed throughout the pandemic that has not yet been spent and this number may increase as some estimates say that there is $10 billions of funds available for reallocation.
Congress’ push for reallocation comes out of concerns to limit the federal deficit amid growing inflation which has now reached a 40-year high. The Biden administration is stuck in a catch-22 as Republicans are pushing for minimizing the deficit but are also one of the leading supporters of small business aid. John Arensmeyer, chief executive of the Small Business Majority, an advocacy group, stated that the proposals are “not in alignment with the professed need of small businesses and the professed desire on both sides of the aisle to help small businesses.”
While the unspent money does shed some light on the necessity of the funding for small businesses, however, continuous supply chain issues coupled with rising prices have shown that overall economic recovery will be slow worrying small businesses across the country.
Source: Wall Street Journal
