President Joe Biden is considering paying “navigators” to help small and minority-owned businesses get coronavirus relief funds, a White House adviser revealed Friday.
White House economic advisor Brian Deese said during the White House press briefing that he met with groups representing “black and brown owned businesses” to improve communications with different minority groups about the challenges that they faced getting relief.
“We discussed the president’s idea of having navigators who are dedicated to help small business owners find the right relief programs,” he said, noting many small businesses do not have the same relationships that bigger businesses do.
The idea of employing “navigators” is a throwback to former President Barack Obama’s efforts for his administration to get more people signed up for Obamacare. The Obama administration sent tens of millions to dollars to nonprofit organizations, some of them leftist community organizers, and even major organizations like Planned Parenthood.
Deese said bringing in navigators would help Biden’s focus on making coronavirus relief for small businesses “equitable.”
“In previous rounds of relief, too much of the support that has been dedicated to small businesses has left out the smallest businesses, mom and pop businesses that don’t have existing connections with a financial institution,” Deese said. “In particular black, Latino, and Native American owned businesses were shut out completely.”
Deese blamed the previous administration for failing to communicate the benefits to minority businesses describing it as “unclear or nonexistent.”
He noted a lot of organizations were already working to help small businesses get the aid they need.
“We’re determined to learn from them and scale efforts nationwide,” Deese said.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.