America's Small Businesses Need a Marshall Plan

Quite simply, small businesses are too big to let fail.

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What plagues our economy won't heal by summer. The country will not magically re-open one day as if all companies have been on ice and can resume business as usual. Most won't have the resources to hire back 100 percent of their staff, restock shelves or pay their bills. Most also don't have the knowledge or the supplies to do so safely.

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To increase the chances that as many small businesses as possible survive beyond a few more months, this unprecedented pandemic requires unprecedented creativity and courage.

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Pouring an additional $310 billion into PPP alone, as Congress has agreed to do, is not sufficient. We need a Marshall Plan for small businesses that begins with providing federally backed loans that cover what it will cost businesses to reopen and reinvent themselves for the COVID economy. These expenses include things like buildouts in workplaces and retail spaces to accommodate social distancing; regular virus testing for customers and employees; hiring and training; reconnecting or redeveloping supply chains; and converting products and services to meet evolving customer demands.

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Staggeringly long lines at food banks from Iowa to California are just the beginning -- imagine if just 30 percent of all small businesses permanently shut down, taking more jobs with them. The cost of doing nothing will be far greater that the cost of bold decisions now. The economy and the social fabric of our country will be impacted in ways that no generation alive has ever known if we fail to act with the urgency small businesses deserve, and this moment demands.