SBA chief Guzman to visit Wilmington next week

WILMINGTON – U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman will visit local small business owners in Wilmington on Monday, Aug. 2, during a tour with members of the Delaware federal delegation.

Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman | PHOTO COURTESY OF SBA

Guzman, the only Latina to lead a Biden administration Cabinet office, is tasked with supporting the nation’s small business owners with financing, grants and educational resources. She will be accompanied by U.S. Sen. Tom Carper and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester during the visit, according to a department announcement to be made Thursday.

An exact itinerary of the visit was not yet available.

Guzman plans to discuss the SBA programs that have aided Delaware small businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic and hear stories directly from those entrepreneurs, her office said. She also plans on meeting some of the 286 Delaware restaurateurs who were able to secure a Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) grant or other SBA-backed economic aid.

The visit next week is part of a nationwide tour by Guzman to tout the impact of the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and the key role vaccinations have played in getting Americans safely back to work. Since June, the SBA chief has visited Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada and Colorado.

Her tour would mark the second visit of a Biden administration Cabinet member after U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona visited Laurel in March as part of his tour to highlight the response of the nation’s school systems to the pandemic.