I've always been skeptical of the Biden administration's claims of being the primary reason for the explosive growth in startups, small-business ownership and jobs over the past few years. But there's one thing that cannot be denied: The president's choice to lead the Small Business Administration (SBA), Isabel Casillas Guzman, has been a great one.

For starters, the woman goes everywhere. In just the past few weeks she's visited small businesses in Durham, N.C., Atlanta, Florida and Puerto Rico; in Michigan’s Detroit and Grand Rapids; and in Maui, where she updated local business leaders on the government's disaster recovery efforts following the island's 2023 wildfires.

Prior administrators spent most of their time in Washington. Guzman, who took office in March 2021, has gotten out of the city and gone to where her constituents — small-business owners — are. Her X feed documents an exhausting schedule of business openings, roundtable meetings, panel discussions, plant tours, speeches, ceremonies — even reading books to future entrepreneurs.

Guzman has also been a tireless advocate for minority and under-served small businesses. Under her leadership, the agency created a new Community Advantage Small Business Lending Company License and Small Business Investment Company accrual license, expanded access to capital for small businesses by modernizing its 7(a) and 504 loan programs and continued the implementation of........

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