maria contreras-sweet is the administrator of the u.s. small business administration. she joins me in studio. good to see you again. the april employment report is out tomorrow. what role does or should small business have in job creation in this country? >> right now we are experiencing small businesses creating two out of every three and that jobs and employment half of the workforce. they are contributing to this 61 months of consecutive job growth them have experienced in the country. cory: you are traveling --mark: you are traveling the country this week. what are small business owners tell you about their success and 80 do they see -- do they see the government as a hindrance or a help? >> they are funding the global economy is available to them. we will be adding 2 billion middle-class consumers and they want to benefit from that. so we are talking trade these days. mark: what are their major concerns? >> there is a small business woman who sells gluten free dog food and the terrace were respecting her business. mark: do they understand the interconnectedness, t

small business administration head maria contrera sweet joins us to talk about the plans and so much more. administrator, it's so good to see you. >> likewise. so good to see you, j.j. i'm delighted to see you lifting small businesses across the country. >> thank you. that's what we do here. before we talk about the celebration, i want to ask you what's going on in baltimore because when i see things like this, my mind always goes first to the small business owners right? and so these people who are losing business because of looting, fires curfew you know, for a big business maybe a day, a week doesn't matter if you're shut down but a small business it can be the matter of life and death of your business. what kind of safety net is there for these people? >> well, out of sba we have a very special office that we call the office of disaster assistance, and we structured the sba just for the reason you outlined. when a governor deems a state emergency, they notify me and we can go in and provide loans. we've done this across the country whenever there was a sudden or natural disaster.

maria contreras sweet gave a keynote address and was on the hand to give the word out about sba's resources. >> we have counseling across the country. we have contracting opportunities. because we direct 23% of the federal spend to small businesses which means billions of dollars going to small businesses contracting opportunities. we make introductions, match-making opportunities in the global economy. >> attendees also got an in depth look at the criteria that investors use and how they identified big opportunities. >> you want a entrepreneur team of founders that is 100% passionate, 100% committed. they work hard but they listen and they also have their own opinions and they're really really focused on execution. and when you don't see that in the very, very beginning, it's really hard to be engaged and excited with the opportunity. >> the need to innovate loomed large at the conference. mary speo founder of a tech company called next galaxy spoke at a session called entrepreneurs building empires. her advice is always look at what's next. >> the next big thing around the corner is virtu

and maria contreras sweet. >> dr. malveau how healthy be small businesses now?think your setup piece said it beautifully, small businesses are having it difficult. small businesses at the periphery often because they are small 75% of them only have one employee so it's really almost self-employment. they are small they don't necessarily have all the resources and they are depending on banks to provide them with lending. the recess hit many of them very hard and some of the things that were raised in terms of wages will hit hard as well.the whole health care issue hits very hard. we should remember these are economic drivers so it makes sense for federal government and the states to encourage or to provide education for small businesses. >> ms. contreras-sweet is that really how the admiration feels or is it a good sound bite? >> no, you are absolutely right. we have seen 60 straight months of consecutive job growth. that is a new record. employing half of the privately workforce indeed it's time to celebrate the contributions that small businesses making and at

with that i want to again thank our sba administrator and introduce maria contreras-sweet. >> thank youour bold steadfast leadership in response to the recent events. but i also want to thank senator cardin for being one of the most forceful voices in america and a strategic ally for us at the sba representing america's small business -- >> you've been witnessing and watching this press conference by the mayor of baltimore, other public officials including miss contreras-sweet, the director of the sba. i want bring in weekend "today" analyst and former prosecutor and ari melber. this is an announcement the sba is increasing grants and loan programs to baltimore. what's it going to really mean? >> well look what this means is you have a community that continues to try to rebuild. there's a financial component to that, which youing some of the grants from the federal government which is why you have the federal officials and senator cardin there. more big picture, this is an issue that will obviously still turn on the outcome of the case against those officers. we've seen the police offic