[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]




 
       FROM NOTHING TO SOMETHING: THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               before the

                      COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
                             UNITED STATES
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                              HEARING HELD
                           FEBRUARY 28, 2023

                             
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
                               

            Small Business Committee Document Number 118-002
             Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
             
             
             
             
                               ______
 
              U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 
 51-185               WASHINGTON : 2023          
             
             
             
             
             
             
             
             
             
                   HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS

                    ROGER WILLIAMS, Texas, Chairman
                      BLAINE LUETKEMEYER, Missouri
                        PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
                        DAN MEUSER, Pennsylvania
                         BETH VAN DUYNE, Texas
                         MARIA SALAZAR, Florida
                          TRACEY MANN, Kansas
                           JACK ELLZEY, Texas
                        MARC MOLINARO, New York
                         MARK ALFORD, Missouri
                           ELI CRANE, Arizona
                          AARON BEAN, Florida
                           WESLEY HUNT, Texas
                         NICK LALOTA, New York
               NYDIA VELAZQUEZ, New York, Ranking Member
                          JARED GOLDEN, Maine
                         KWEISI MFUME, Maryland
                        DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota
                          GREG LANDSMAN, Ohio
                       MORGAN MCGARVEY, Kentucky
                  MARIE GLUESENKAMP PEREZ, Washington
                       HILLARY SCHOLTEN, Michigan
                        SHRI THANEDAR, Michigan
                          JUDY CHU, California
                         SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas
                      CHRIS PAPPAS, New Hampshire

                  Ben Johnson, Majority Staff Director
                 Melissa Jung, Minority Staff Director
                            C O N T E N T S

                           OPENING STATEMENTS

                                                                   Page
Hon. Roger Williams..............................................     1
Hon. Nydia Velazquez.............................................     2

                               WITNESSES

Ms. Zan Prince, Chairman of the Board, First Bank Texas..........     5
Mr. Drew Davis, Founder and Owner, Crippling Hot Sauce...........     7
Mr. Roy Heim, President, Heim Construction Company...............     8
Ms. Corrine Hendrickson, Owner, Corrine's Little Explorers.......    10

                                APPENDIX

Prepared Statements:
    Ms. Zan Prince, Chairman of the Board, First Bank Texas......    35
    Mr. Drew Davis, Founder and Owner, Crippling Hot Sauce.......    38
    Mr. Roy Heim, President, Heim Construction Company...........    39
    Ms. Corrine Hendrickson, Owner, Corrine's Little Explorers...    43
Questions for the Record:
    None.
Answers for the Record:
    None.
Additional Material for the Record:
    None.


       FROM NOTHING TO SOMETHING: THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

                              ----------                              


                       TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2023

                  House of Representatives,
               Committee on Small Business,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in Room 
2360, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Roger Williams 
[chairman of the Committee] presiding.
    Present: Representatives Williams, Luetkemeyer, Stauber, 
Meuser, Van Duyne, Mann, Ellzey, Molinaro, Alford, Bean, Hunt, 
LaLota, Velazquez, Mfume, Phillips, Landsman, McGarvey, 
Gluesenkamp Perez, Scholten, and Davids.
    Chairman WILLIAMS. Opening prayer and pledge. Please bow 
your head. Heavenly Father, God of all people, help us, give us 
the strength today and energy to make a difference, not only 
for our districts, but for this great country. In your name, we 
pray, amen.
    Would you please join me in the pledge?
    Okay. All right. I now call the first hearing of the 
Committee on Small Business for the 118th Congress to order.
    Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a 
recess of the Committee at any time.
    I now recognize myself for my opening statement.
    I want to thank our witnesses for being here today and 
understand that all of you have traveled a long way to share 
your stories. We are extremely grateful that you chose to give 
us your most precious resource, which is your time, to share 
your firsthand experiences to inspire others to pursue the 
American Dream.
    As I have said before, this Committee seeks to be a voice 
for main street America in Washington. And the goal today is to 
learn more about the current state of small businesses from the 
people who know it best: our country's entrepreneurs. And as 
job creators, you are the driving force of our nation's 
economy, accounting for more than half the payroll of this 
entire country. More importantly, you have the backbone of your 
local communities, though many of your struggles often go 
unnoticed.
    I've been carrying on my family business for over 50 years 
and I understand the highs and the lows of being your own boss. 
America's entrepreneurs have confronted numerous historic 
challenges over the past few years. The COVID-19 pandemic, out-
of-control inflation, broken supply chains, high interest 
rates, and a national labor shortage. But as the small 
businesses have done countless times before, they endure.
    Here on this Committee, we will work to create an 
environment where businesses can thrive. Small business owners 
dedicate their lives and finances to the products and services 
they bring to the marketplace. An extra hour of paperwork is 
one less hour they can tend to their business. Every inflated 
tax is an extra dollar that could have been reinvested back 
into the business and their community. Every job vacancy is one 
more role a small business owner must cover themselves.
    As we listen to these firsthand accounts, we salute the 
small businesses who continue to fight and give selflessly back 
to their communities. We are eager to enact policy solutions 
that will help have a path toward success for both now and 
success in the future.
    I wanted to have this hearing on the American dream first 
so we can celebrate the risk takers here today and across the 
country who have worked countless days and nights to make their 
dream a reality. I am excited to have all of you here today 
with us, and I am very much looking forward to today's hearing.
    With that, I want to yield to our distinguished Ranking 
Member from New York, Ms. Velazquez.
    Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to 
welcome all of the witnesses for being able to be here and 
share your experiences.
    I would also like to welcome all of our new Small Business 
Committee Members and welcome back those returning from the 
117th Congress. The story of the American dream has been the 
story of our nation's independent business owners, those who 
take the reins of their own destiny, and bring ideas to life in 
the marketplace. From the corner store to the tech start-up, 
these risk takers embody the ingenuity and determination to 
achieve the highest of American ideals. Not only do they serve 
as essential economic anchors, providing the foundations of our 
communities, they serve as the bedrock of our sprawling 
democracy. They help distribute wealth and power, promote 
competition, and provide opportunities for individuals to 
achieve financial independence.
    Over the past 3 years, the COVID-19 pandemic defined the 
small business economy and presented numerous hurdles for our 
nation's entrepreneurs. Congress recognized these firms as a 
top priority and knew that there would be no recovery without a 
robust small business economy. In the early days of the 
pandemic, we created the Paycheck Protection Program and the 
COVID EIDL program, providing small firms with the support 
needed to maintain operations and protect jobs. A year later, 
we passed the American Rescue Plan, which expanded upon these 
programs and created new ones, like the Restaurant 
Revitalization Fund. These policies help ensure that main 
street will lead the way in our economic recovery.
    Now, nearly 4 years after the pandemic struck, we are 
seeing the fruits of this historic investment. GDP has returned 
to its pre-pandemic trend, up 6.7 percent over the past 2 
years. Unemployment is now the lowest it has been since 1969, 
with over 12 million jobs created under the Biden-Harris 
Administration and over 500,000 created this January alone. 
Small business has been driving the robust labor market scene 
over this past year. According to the Wall Street Journal, 
while large businesses lost nearly 800,000 net jobs since April 
2020, small businesses created a net 3.5 million. Most 
importantly, more and more Americans are turning to 
entrepreneurship. After 40 years of decline, small business 
applications shot up, with over 10 million submitted over the 
past 2 years. This trend is encouraging, and it signals the 
determination and resilience of the American people in the face 
of crisis.
    This goes to show, when you prioritize building the economy 
from the bottom up and the middle out, American entrepreneurs 
respond with results.
    However, the road to recovery has had its share of bumps, 
to say the least. It is no secret that, despite encouraging 
trends in recent months, the costs of running a business remain 
high. The pandemic, alongside geopolitical conflicts, induced 
enormous global economic challenges that have affected 
businesses, large and small. Supply chain disruptions and 
ongoing labor shortages have created headaches for business 
owners across the country.
    Additionally, surging energy prices due to the conflict in 
Ukraine and the price-gouging by some of our nation's most 
profitable businesses, helped push inflation to a 40-year high. 
Early retirement during the pandemic and lack of immigration 
over the past four years has also decreased the pool of skilled 
workers from which small businesses can hire. Democrats tackled 
this problem head on by lowering energy costs through the 
Inflation Reduction Act and bolstering supply chains with 
legislation like the CHIPS and Science Act. Additionally, the 
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law made massive strides toward 
making government contracting by small minority-owned firms 
more attainable.
    We have made great progress over the past 2 years, but our 
job is far from over. I look forward to working with our 
Members on both sides of the aisle to address the challenges 
small firms face and ensure they remain the top priority of our 
economy.
    With that, Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this 
important hearing.
    Chairman WILLIAMS. Thank you. Now, I will introduce our 
witnesses.
    It is my honor today to introduce Zan Prince to today's 
hearing. Ms. Prince has had a long and distinguished career in 
the Texas banking industry. Since 1990, Ms. Prince has worked 
at First Bank Texas, a locally owned business that traces its 
founding all the way back to 1880. For 33 years, Ms. Prince has 
served the community in which she also calls home, eventually 
ascending to her current role as Chairman of the Board in 2015.
    In addition to her work at First Bank Texas, Ms. Prince has 
been an integral part and active Member of her local community 
through her involvement in numerous nonprofits, chambers of 
commerce, and the Parker County Health Foundation. Her 
extensive career and knowledge in local banking make Ms. Prince 
a tremendously well-informed expert today about the issues 
facing small businesses and main street communities today.
    So, Ms. Prince, thank you for being here today and joining 
the Committee, and I am looking forward to today's 
conversation.
    I now recognize my colleague, Congressman Luetkemeyer, for 
1 minute to briefly introduce his constituent, who is appearing 
before us today. Congressman.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Our next witness is Drew Davis, a native of Hillsboro in 
Missouri's Third District, Drew is here today as the owner of 
Crippling Hot Sauce.
    Drew is a unique witness for a couple of reasons, first 
being that, as a small business owner, he is still actually in 
high school. He is only 17 years old. Drew also has cerebral 
palsy, a disability that inspired his brand's name and poses 
various challenges for his day-to-day life. But Drew has never 
let his circumstances keep him from pursuing his dreams. He set 
his mind to starting a business, and Crippling Hot Sauce was 
born with a sense of humor.
    Crippling Hot Sauce is made from all local products, from 
the vegetables to the labels, and Drew's business has continued 
to grow, selling thousands of bottles from his website and 
retailers across our State. Not only is Crippling Hot Sauce a 
local Missouri-made business, but it is also a small business 
with a cause. Five percent of the proceeds from every bottle 
goes to cerebral palsy research.
    I am very proud of this young and determined entrepreneur 
that calls the Third District his home and even prouder to 
introduce him to this Committee.
    Thank you for making the trip, Drew, and thank his parents 
for being here as well today and their support for their fine 
son's entrepreneurial activity.
    I also want to thank the rest of the witnesses for being 
here as well.
    And with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Chairman WILLIAMS. Thank you, Mr. Luetkemeyer.
    I now recognize my colleague, Congressman Meuser, for 1 
minute to briefly introduce his constituent, who is appearing 
before us today.
    Mr. MEUSER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    r next witness is Mr. Roy Heim. Mr. Heim is the founder and 
owner of Heim Construction Company, headquartered in 
Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, in the heart of my Congressional 
District.
    In 1990, Mr. Heim founded his initial business, Roy A. Heim 
Construction, hiring just three employees, who still work with 
Heim Construction today. After marrying his wife, Deborah, they 
founded Heim Construction in 1994. Today, Heim Construction is 
a full-service general contracting, design, build, and 
construction management firm that builds commercial, 
industrial, institutional, and residential facilities. Thanks 
to their hard work, Heim Construction has gone from hiring just 
a few employees to now serving as the livelihood of 65 
dedicated and hardworking Pennsylvanians. Heim helps build 
everything from dams and streetscapes to hospitals, surgery 
centers, and dormitory for Penn State, and I have seen some of 
the work. Heim Construction is also involved in road and 
infrastructure projects throughout Pennsylvania. You could say 
Mr. Heim's business has literally become a pillar of the 
community.
    Roy embodies the spirit of the American entrepreneur and 
has spent over 30 years building his successful business in 
spite of the many challenges small business feels along the 
way.
    With his diverse set of projects and decades of experience, 
Mr. Heim notes firsthand how today's economic headwinds are 
impacting small businesses like his across America and will 
provide valuable insight into the current state of main street 
America.
    I want to thank Mr. Heim very much for making the trip here 
and to all of our witnesses for testifying before this 
Committee, and I look forward to today's conversation.
    Appreciate it.
    Chairman WILLIAMS. Thank you, Congressman.
    Mr. MEUSER. I yield back.
    Chairman WILLIAMS. Thank you. I will now recognize the 
Ranking Member, Ms. Velazquez, for 1 minute to introduce the 
last witness.
    Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Our final witness today is Ms. Corrine Hendrickson. Ms. 
Hendrickson has owned and operated Corrine's Little Explorers 
Family Child Care Center in New Glarus, Wisconsin, since 2007 
and has been a registered, certified mentor, trainer, and 
consultant for early childhood educators and business owners 
since 2018. She has served on the Wisconsin Early Childhood 
Education Board from 2015 through 2021, including serving as 
the Board's president in 2020. Additionally, she won the Terri 
Lynne National Childcare Teacher Award in 2020 and the 
Wisconsin Family Child Care Provider of the Year award in 2017.
    She currently serves on the Main Street Alliance leadership 
team and as secretary for the Green County Childcare Network 
since 2012. She holds a degree in Elementary Education and is 
currently pursuing a master in Infant and Early Childhood 
Mental Health through UW Madison.
    Thank you, Ms. Hendrickson, for joining us, and we look 
forward to hearing your testimony.
    Welcome.
    Chairman WILLIAMS. Thank you, Ranking Member Velazquez.
    And we appreciate all of you being here today, all of you 
are winners, and thanks for taking time to be here with all of 
us today.
    So, before recognizing each witness for their testimony, I 
would like to remind them that the oral testimony is restricted 
to 5 minutes. If you see the light in front of you turn red, 
that is a danger sign in front of you. It means your 5 minutes 
have concluded, and you should wrap up your testimony. There 
are no such restrictions on your written testimony, all of 
which will be submitted for the record.
    I would now like to recognize Ms. Prince for her 5 minute 
opening remarks.
    Ms. Prince.

  STATEMENTS OF ZAN PRINCE, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, FIRST BANK 
TEXAS; DREW DAVIS, FOUNDER AND OWNER, CRIPPLING HOT SAUCE; ROY 
      HEIM, PRESIDENT, HEIM CONSTRUCTION COMPANY; CORRINE 
         HENDRICKSON, OWNER, CORRINE'S LITTLE EXPLORERS

                    STATEMENT OF ZAN PRINCE

    Ms. PRINCE. Good morning, Chairman Williams, Ranking Member 
Velazquez, and other Members of the Committee, thank you so 
much for the opportunity to share our story with you today.
    First Bank Texas is a family-owned community bank, the 
fulfillment of the American dream of Joe Sharp, a man with a 
strong foundation of hard work and an entrepreneurial spirit 
from West Texas dry land cotton farmer roots. He was a product 
of strong faith, family values, and a public education.
    First Bank Texas mission statement is to achieve high 
performance through our employees to partner with bank 
customers and our community to make this a better place for our 
families and businesses while demonstrating a kingdom purpose. 
For us, that means we take God-given talents coupled with 
American opportunities to make a difference.
    Joe Sharp led our family and a group of investors to Baird, 
Texas, in 1982 to acquire a very small community bank. That 
bank has grown to a billion in assets, with 14 locations. Our 
bank is a small business that has grown and prospered despite 
ever-increasing regulation and requirements to be fair.
    In 1982, bank documents were simple. Over time, we have 
added layers of consumer protection that do little to protect 
consumers. Fiscal and regulatory policy are important. The 2017 
tax cuts, really all tax cuts, benefit both the bank and 
customers.
    But there are still threats on the horizon. The proposed 
CFPB Rule 1071 to collect small business loan data to ensure 
fair access to credit by all small business owners 
misrepresents the lending market. There are no two small 
businesses that are alike. If enacted, the process for lending 
to small businesses will be bogged down in technicalities that 
ignore creative entrepreneurial plans to establish or grow a 
business.
    Our organization is grounded in providing access to 
products and services without regard to gender or ethnicity. 
Please remember that every bank crisis has had adequate laws to 
hold those accountable, yet every crisis brings more laws and 
rules.
    The 2008 response to the financial crisis is a textbook 
example. It should have focused on the cause, big banks, but 
instead imposed costly regulations on community banks.
    We have been blessed to be able to serve our communities in 
ways that would have never been considered in 1982. We have an 
amazing family of employees that are not only committed to our 
customers and communities, but committed to individual growth 
through bank-sponsored education and training. Our bank has 
weathered all kinds of financial conditions since 1880, and 
through those trials, we worked with people to survive the 
challenge. Some businesses talk about high touch--we live it.
    Community banks provided 42 percent of the PPP loans that 
gave direct stimulus to main street, and the bank was honored 
to participate in that.
    Community banks serve the financial needs of small 
businesses who employ almost half of the American workers. 
Small businesses and community banks are the backbone of the 
community. They need reasonable regulations, fair tax code, and 
access to credit to provide products and services to their 
customers. We have all experienced ups and downs in the 
economy. Today, many businesses struggle with the lack of 
labor, increasing expenses, and supply chain issues.
    I would like to introduce you to a couple of small 
businesses in our community. The first is run by Sherry 
Watters. She does hand-painted items on all sorts of things and 
sends those not only to customers in Weatherford, but all over 
the country. The second business was run by Debra Smith, who 
recently retired after building and servicing pools in our area 
for decades. She employed as many as 110 people, creating 
opportunities for both the company and her employees. Both 
ladies have built their businesses on hard work and 
entrepreneurial spirit, integrity, and excellence that makes 
our community great.
    Community banks provide 77 percent of all agricultural 
loans and over 50 percent of small business loans. We provide 
community partnerships that help schools, charities, and all 
the businesses that make our communities thrive. Without 
community banks and small businesses, who fills the gap? Who 
makes a difference in our community? Who provides that which is 
unique to who we are today? I encourage you to focus on an 
environment that creates opportunities for these small 
businesses and community banks.
    The United States is the best place in the world to live 
and work. I, like you, are dedicated to preserving that which 
makes America great.
    Thank you for your service to our country and your time 
today. I look forward to your questions.
    Chairman WILLIAMS. Thank you, Ms. Prince.
    Next, I would like to recognize Mr. Davis for his 5 minute 
opening remarks.

                    STATEMENT OF DREW DAVIS

    Mr. DAVIS. Thanks for having me today.
    My name is Drew Davis. I own Crippling Hot Sauce. What 
originally started as a school project quickly became more than 
that. Crippling Hot Sauce was presented as a business project 
in my business class in my junior year. I only got an 82 
percent. So, like any straight A student would do, I went up 
and asked the teacher at the time, why? That is why, when he 
said, I thought it was a great idea, just a little unrealistic. 
So, instead of getting mad that day, I went home. After 1,200 
hours and $3,000 in my own money saved up between Christmas and 
other occasions, I launched Crippling Hot Sauce.
    I started Crippling Hot Sauce with a mission to help break 
the stigma between people with disabilities and the able-bodied 
community, and show people that we could do whatever we put our 
mind to, same with all of you guys. So, after all of that, we 
launched and fast-forward to today, 7 months later, we have 
sold more than 16,000 bottles and now more than 96 retail 
locations across Missouri.
    That being said, many small businesses face challenges. 
Because of my age and my situation, I have been forced to adapt 
with many challenges, one of those being banks. Because of my 
age, even though I had an LLC, it was most difficult to set up 
a business account and what you need. I had to call every small 
bank in my area just to find one that would set me up a 
business account, even with a writer.
    Another challenge was manufacturing. Because I only had 
$3,000 to my name, finding one with a low enough order quantity 
was difficult. I had to call about 15.
    The third challenge was just networking, but I have been 
fortunate enough to been introduced with a bunch of groups, 
such as the Missouri Grocers Association and more.
    The fourth challenge, of course, was inflation. Inflation 
has affected the grocer industry significantly. For example, it 
has forced my bottles up more than 25 percent since I started. 
I have been fortunate enough to grow more, so I have just 
offset that cost with higher order amounts. But for many small 
business owners that are not as fortunate.
    That being said, this opportunity has been really great for 
me because learning and bringing myself out of this bubble. And 
thanks for Google, thank you, because I wouldn't ever been here 
without Google and being able to research what I did in such a 
short amount of time.
    And thanks for this opportunity, guys. I really appreciate 
it.
    Chairman WILLIAMS. Thank you.
    Mr. DAVIS. They call me Sauce Boss.
    Chairman WILLIAMS. We appreciate it. Thank you.
    I now recognize Mr. Heim for his 5 minute opening remarks.

                     STATEMENT OF ROY HEIM

    Mr. HEIM. Good morning, Chairman Williams, Ranking Member 
Velazquez, and Members of the U.S. House Committee on Small 
Business.
    First of all, this is not my testimony, but I would like to 
say congratulations, and great job. I was not a straight A 
student, by the way, so you did good. You are better off than 
me.
    So, thank you for the invitation to testify this morning to 
discuss the opportunities--or, excuse me--thank you for the 
invitation to testify this morning and for the opportunity to 
discuss the American entrepreneurship and how I started and 
grew my business. I would also like to thank all of you on the 
Committee, all of you Committee Members, for the hard work you 
do on behalf of the small business owners like myself.
    My name is Roy Heim. I am the president of Heim 
Construction Company, headquartered in Orwigsburg, 
Pennsylvania, a small rural town in Eastern PA. Also born and 
raised there, I am an elected School Board Member and an 
appointed Vo-Tech Board Member for the Blue Mountain High 
School District in Schuylkill County, PA. I am also a Board 
Member of several associations, including the Associated 
Builders and Contractors, the Association of General 
Contractors, and the Associated Pennsylvania Contractors, which 
is heavy highway contractors.
    I attended K through twelve and graduated Blue Mountain 
High School. During high school, I was also a carpentry student 
for four years at the Schuylkill Technology Center, a Vo-Tech 
School that I am still involved with through the School Board. 
I spent most of my senior year in high school in a co-op 
program, where I have gained knowledge on many aspects of my 
job in the construction industry.
    After high school, I took a job working on infrastructure 
projects in Pennsylvania. A few years before, I was given the 
opportunity to move to Homer, Alaska, to work on the Bradley 
Lake Hydraulic Project. The Project, which is still an active 
energy producer, involved in boring a 3.5-mile tunnel with a 
diameter of 24 feet and constructing a brand new 610-foot long, 
125-foot high, concrete-faced and rock-filled gravity dam, all 
at the bottom of a glacier. I spent approximately 2 years on 
the project, gaining invaluable experience.
    Upon returning home, I worked for a concrete contractor for 
approximately 6 months before leaving to start up my own 
business as a small general contractor in 1991.
    Heim Construction started with two to three employees and 
has been growing ever since. Today, Heim Construction is a 
construction management, design builds, construction general 
contractor, concrete service company that does millions of 
dollars of public and private work, including many state, 
federal, and federally assisted, funded projects. We have been 
in business for 30 years and currently employ approximately 95 
wonderful men and women.
    Over many years that we have been in business, the number 
of federal and state regulatory requirements surrounding the 
construction industry has also grown significantly. We spend an 
enormous amount of time and money to stay compliant, employing 
15 full-time employees in our office who work countless hours 
to ensure we remain in compliance with the forever-changing 
regulations. Many of these laws and regulations, while well-
intended, make it much more difficult, if not impossible, for 
small businesses to comply, complete, and survive, let alone 
profit.
    Another issue threatening a small business like mine is 
tying of state and federal construction funding to special 
interests. Today, the merit shop contractors, which would be 
non-union labor forces employ more than 88 percent of all 
professionalisms in the construction industry. For example, 
when the federal government issues Executive Orders or passes 
regulations mandating or prioritizing PLAs, which are project 
labor agreements, it can tie the federal funds to use of union-
only labor and discriminates against nearly 88 percent of the 
contractors whose workers have made a decision not to join a 
union. This eliminates a fair and open competition among 
contractors, harmful to the construction industry, its workers, 
and ultimately taxpayers who pay more because of the limited 
resources and competition. That 88 percent is the heart of 
small business community in the construction industry that you 
are here to protect and help and thrive.
    I have a relationship with the unions. I hire them, they 
hire me. We do jobs across the state together. There is no 
reason to mandate union-only labor when we can compete and work 
together with each other.
    An additional issue facing a small business like mine is 
the Build America, Buy America Acts. While we fully support the 
intentions behind the Act to keep jobs and manufacturing in our 
country, the recent modification and amendments and legal 
decisions and the Executive Branch actions surrounding these 
Acts have left even the federal officials confused on how to 
get the projects completed and to ensure compliance. The law 
fails to consider the limitations on supply chains' ability to 
supply all the components needed to construct federal 
construction projects. All of us have felt how fragile the 
supply chain can be through COVID. The contractor's ability to 
fully comply with these Acts will require transitioning from 
global supply chain to a U.S.-based one that is not fully 
capable of handling the demand. Congress and the Biden 
Administration need to act immediately to add flexibility to 
the form of exemptions.
    And I know I am running out of time, Chairman, but I will 
skip over.
    So, while these are just some of the implications of each 
regulatory obstacle, I have attached a non-exhaustive list of 
federal and state regulatory requirements that impact 
construction industry jobs created.
    So, I want to thank you again for the opportunity to serve 
as a witness, and I look forward to answering any of your 
questions you may have.
    Chairman WILLIAMS. Thank you.
    Now, I recognize Ms. Hendrickson for 5 minutes.

                STATEMENT OF CORRINE HENDRICKSON

    Ms. HENDRICKSON. My name is Corrine Hendrickson, and I have 
owned and operated Corrine's Little Explorers Family Child Care 
in rural New Glarus, Wisconsin, for about 15 years. I have been 
a Member of Main Street Alliance for 2. Thank you for inviting 
me to speak to you today about my small business and not only 
my American Dream, but the ability of those I work with to 
achieve theirs.
    The only reason I can be here today is because I was able 
to hire a couple of substitutes last year utilizing federal 
rescue fund dollars, thereby increasing the wage I could offer 
by $3 an hour and a monthly bonus of $250. This allows me to go 
to appointments, take classes, and appear before you today 
without closing my business, subsequently allowing parents to 
work. However, my one substitute finished her Master's in 
Social work, and my second one has been offered a full time 
manufacturing job that pays substantially more than I can, with 
benefits. So she gave her notice. I cannot compete.
    I began my American dream wanting to become a teacher. 
After I graduated with a teaching license into a 2001 recession 
job market, I substitute taught and worked in retail so my 
fiance and I could buy a home. It was possible then because we 
had one very minimal student loan to pay off with 3 percent 
interest that went down if you paid on time, and homes were far 
more affordable compared to starting career wages. Compare that 
to today, when large corporations and investors have driven 
prices up exponentially, increasing our home value this year by 
about 15 percent or $50,000.
    In summer 2007, when our son was 6 months old, some friends 
and I were together for our usual Monday evening dinner while 
our volunteer firefighter husbands were at meetings. And the 
three of them were very pregnant and unable to find care only 
wait lists. I was now the head store manager and offered to 
quit and start a family childcare business.
    Because of the parents' lack of access to paid family 
medical leave, I opened my business only 6 weeks after the 
first two were born and 2 days after leaving my retail job. Had 
we been renting, my dream most likely would have ended before 
it started. Due to liability reasons, most landlords don't 
allow family childcare in their rental. Liability insurance is 
expensive and becoming more difficult for licensed group and 
family childcare businesses. Over the last 2 years, prices have 
risen drastically or non-renewal notices are being sent instead 
of bills.
    Furthermore, childcare as a business plan has a notoriously 
low profit margin, so purchasing a home would have been 
impossible without any access to capital. On average, parents 
pay more than college tuition for one infant or toddler 
enrolled in care. Moreover, for 2 or more children, it is more 
than their mortgage or rent because fixed costs for food, 
liability insurance, rent, utilities, toys and books that need 
to be replaced, continuing education, licensing costs, et 
cetera, are extremely high for childcare businesses. This 
leaves little left for profit or wages. Many of those fixed 
costs are increasing due to the lack of enforcement of our 
price gouging and anti-monopoly laws enabling corporate 
concentration by pushing out competition, lowering quality, 
while raising the prices.
    Early care and education businesses are the corner for all 
other small businesses as key to workforce development and the 
economy both today and in the future by caring for and 
educating young children while parents work, continue their 
education, and pursue their American dreams.
    Secondly, my business product is children. We create 
tomorrow's workforce and future business owners. The first 5 
years of a child's life are when 90 percent of brain 
development happens, laying the foundational skills of self 
esteem, self awareness, self control, critical thinking, 
creativity, collaboration and curiosity by curating, play based 
environments that are child centered and teacher supported--all 
skills that my fellow small business owners state they need in 
our workforce and are lacking. This is detrimental to the 
future ingenuity and competitiveness necessary to pursue the 
American dream.
    By investing in childcare, our rural economy's decline can 
be reversed drastically and replace the 90,000 family childcare 
businesses lost between 2010 and 2019. Since COVID, investments 
to all small businesses and to parents in the form of increased 
tax credits and deductions increase the affordability of having 
children. Without the PPP, I probably wouldn't still be in 
business. Increased investment in childcare due to COVID has 
increased wages and viability for childcare businesses. 
Significantly raising wages without also raising tuition has 
been possible.
    Empty classrooms are reopening since our employees are 
staying and coming into the field. However, once the federal 
ARPA funding runs out, if the state and federal government 
refuses to continue investing, I will be raising my rates 25 
percent a week per child. This means parents will have to 
either receive significant pay raises from their employers, 
remove their child from regulated care, or be unable to find 
work. If tuition gets too high, more childcare businesses will 
close due to lack of enrollment. Additionally, we are still 
down about 80,000 employees, leaving exponentially more parents 
unable to work since their child is on wait list instead of in 
care.
    Nationally, the lack of infant and toddler childcare costs 
our economy at least 122,000,000,000 annually.
    In conclusion, from the perspective of small businesses, 
our government is choosing to focus on big business and 
corporations ignoring the dire needs of small businesses around 
the country, eliminating the opportunity to truly live up to 
the American dream.
    Thank you.
    Chairman WILLIAMS. Thank you.
    And I would just like to tell our witnesses, you see people 
moving forward and backwards. There is a lot of voting going 
on, different committees, so you are going to see people coming 
and going.
    So let me start out by saying the banking industry is 
critical to the health of main street America. Whether it is 
getting a loan, starting capital, developing a revolving line 
of credit to keep up with expenses, everyone needs a good 
relationship with a banker. We saw firsthand how important it 
was at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, where businesses 
with existing relationships had a much easier time getting 
their PPP loans than their counterparts that had not made that 
connection.
    And as we have heard today, inflation is impacting many 
businesses across our country. This has caused the Federal 
Reserve to raise interest rates at a pace we haven't seen since 
the 1980s.
    So my question, Ms. Prince, as a community banker, can you 
talk about what you are seeing on the ground as it relates to 
the increasing interest rates and the effect they are having on 
the businesses you serve?
    Ms. PRINCE. Absolutely. Thanks for asking.
    Many businesses today that were very profitable, very 
viable in the lower interest rate environment are finding 
themselves with an interest expense that is probably 
unsustainable. And with the focus on additional increases, that 
puts people that were on the bubble not really able to get a 
loan and to service that loan. So interest rates have had a 
huge negative process in our community.
    We do lots of construction loans, we do lots of real estate 
loans, and those have slowed down substantially with the 
increase in cost. Most of those people that are buying a first 
mortgage today don't remember the 80s, but an 8 percent, a 7 
percent, a 6 percent mortgage is just insurmountable for them. 
So interest rates are huge.
    Chairman WILLIAMS. Thank you.
    Mr. Davis, your passion and drive to be successful should 
be an inspiration for all Americans. And too many people see an 
obstacle as too big and simply give up without even trying. And 
you were brave enough to put yourself in the game rather than 
just sit on the sidelines. And before your 18th birthday, you 
have already overcome many unique challenges that many seasoned 
business owners have never previously had to navigate through 
until the last few years. So I hope you keep working with this 
so one day you will have too many employees working for you at 
the hot sauce company to come before the Small Business 
Committee.
    Now, there is something I heard that really impressed me in 
listening to your story. When you are a business owner and you 
make a profit, you do not just sit on that money. You hire an 
additional worker, you invest in new equipment, you think of 
ways you can give back to the community. And so for some 
people, giving back is an afterthought once they have already 
built a successful business, but for others, it is ingrained 
into the DNA from the start.
    So question is, can you share with the Committee how you 
give back to the cerebral palsy community through your 
business?
    Mr. DAVIS. Yes. Five percent of our profits go to the 
National Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation. And this is 
important because not only will this research go towards ways 
to make people better live with cerebral palsy, but since 
cerebral palsy is a brain--it is basically a fancy word for 
brain damage, the research could also further affect the people 
that also have paresthesis and like are paralyzed and not just 
the 764,000 people a year that struggle with cerebral palsy.
    Through stem cell transplants, as well as other things, I 
believe as we further increase profit, that could substantially 
help our contributions, which could further speed up the rate 
in which we are able to give, which will maybe eventually help 
more people into the workforce, which will generate even more 
revenue for us, which will help the wonderful economy that the 
United States has.
    Chairman WILLIAMS. Thank you.
    In the brief time the time that I have. Mr. Heim, your 
industry has been one of the most impacted by supply chain 
disruptions. So can you talk briefly about how the pandemic 
shifted your view and where you sourced materials? And do 
American businesses currently have the capacity to meet your 
needs?
    Mr. HEIM. So sure. Thank you.
    So I could just tell you about the last project we just 
had. It was a 3 year project. We bid the project before the 
COVID and COVID came into play. We waited approximately a year 
and a half to 2 years just to get air conditioners. There is 
still today--if you want to buy an electrical panel, you are 
going to wait a year to just find an electrical panel. So today 
it is very, very difficult for us to plan to try to understand 
how to price. So----
    Chairman WILLIAMS. My time is up now. Thank you for that.
    With that, I yield back.
    And now I recognize the Ranking Member of New York for 5 
minutes for questions.
    Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Ms. Hendrickson, many small businesses like yours are 
facing increased costs during this period of high inflation. 
One potential source of this inflation is the continued 
concentration of market power over the past several decades. 
How has the concentration in certain industries affected the 
price you pay for basic supplies for your business?
    Ms. HENDRICKSON. Thank you.
    So for me, as a family child care provider, I am not able 
to buy things at scale or go through larger corporations and 
things like that to purchase. So I have to go to the store to 
get things myself or purchase online.
    A few years ago, Office Max and Office Depot were allowed 
to merge. Since then, my prices for paper, ink, et cetera, have 
gone up exponentially and have not come back down along with 
the quality. My paper frequently jams. I have gone through 
several printers and things like that, and it is very 
frustrating because when I purchase something I want it to be 
higher quality. And with that corporate concentration, it gets 
rid of competition and takes away that ability for people like 
that.
    Same thing with companies like Amazon that have taken over. 
You now auto reorder. I don't have a lot of time, but I have 
noticed those prices have actually gone up more than if I were 
to purchase from the original proprietors and.
    Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Funds from the American Rescue Plan and 
reimbursement from the USDA gave you some much needed breathing 
room with respect to hiring staff and higher wages. Can you 
speak more about the importance of maintaining those funds in 
fixing our country's broken childcare model?
    Ms. HENDRICKSON. Yes.
    So because childcare has such a low profit margin, we are 
only able to charge what parents can pay, unfortunately, which 
isn't a whole lot when you are looking at people at the 
beginning of their careers. And so we look at the average 
market rate really isn't comparative to what it actually costs 
to have a childcare business. So we actually are able to use 
government supports. Finally, the first time in my entire 
career, I have had money that I knew was coming in every single 
month, and I was able to take that money and pay my operational 
costs, raise my own wage, and also hire people, which has been 
a breath of fresh air for all of those families as well.
    Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Thank you.
    Ms. HENDRICKSON. The USDA food program has increased to one 
tier, and if we were to make that permanent through the USDA 
Farm Bill, that would help offset cost to parents about $15 a 
week. Group centers, unfortunately, aren't always eligible, and 
so getting them into that as eligible, no matter what, would 
also help offset those costs for those centers so they would be 
able to pass those savings on to families or increase the wages 
so they can recruit and retain highly qualified staff.
    Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Thank you.
    Mr. Heim, it is well known that the construction industry 
has been having difficulties in finding skilled workers. Has 
that been your experience?
    Mr. HEIM. Yes, very much so. So, right now, our industry 
nationwide is short about 460,000 people. We are all fighting 
for people left and right. I have got on the school board and 
now work with the technical school board. In our county alone, 
we have 197 children on a waiting list to try to get into the 
technical school, which only compounds our problems that we 
can't grow and we can't get better.
    Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Do you think that common sense bipartisan 
immigration reform could increase your ability to meet the 
current demands for work that you are taking on?
    Mr. HEIM. I do.
    Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Okay. Thank you.
    Mr. Davis, thank you so much for being here. It is an 
incredible story of resilience.
    Can you talk to us about how this work has helped you to 
gain more self confidence to hire other people and then to give 
back to our community and your community?
    Mr. DAVIS. Yes. So through COVID, I really got reserved and 
stopped talking to people. But when I started Crippling Hot 
Sauce, it kind of helped me break out of my funk and go out 
there and talk to people. And has increased my social skills a 
lot. And I have also learned a lot through it, through having 
to talk to people and, you know, kind of screwing up on 
business pitches. And I just take everything as a learning 
experience and say I will get them next time. And if that ever 
happens, you know, at least I tried. But I have consistently 
gotten better through the last 7 months, and I am just happy to 
kind of be that representation in the disabled community, 
because not many people have that.
    Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Chairman WILLIAMS. Thank you very much. Thank you very 
much.
    The gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Luetkemeyer, is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. Davis, thank you so much for your testimony today, and 
you are an inspiration to all of us. You know, if I was the 
teacher who gave you 82 percent on your business plan, I think 
I would have a problem. So did you go back to the teacher and 
say, hey, you know, look what we are doing now, and see if he 
would reconsider your grade? Or was it too late?
    Mr. DAVIS. I mean, they didn't renew his contract for the 
next year. I think says something.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. I think it does too.
    Mr. DAVIS. I actually was told that he ended up buying it, 
which I thought was kind of funny. And he is like, it is really 
good. And I am like----
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Very good. Well, again, you are an 
inspiration to all of us.
    You know, everybody has an impetus for starting a business, 
and yours was to show that you had a good plan. If you just put 
your hard work behind it, look what can happen. And I think 
that all of you here this morning have got that same story.
    Mr. Heim, your testimony on all the different community 
projects and community things that you are involved in is a 
testament, I think, to small businesses. Our communities don't 
grow unless our small businesses are there and our small 
businesses don't grow unless our community is there. And by 
participating in the community, you make sure the community 
grows so that your business can grow. It is a symbiotic 
relationship there that has to be there, otherwise, neither one 
happens. And so you are a perfect example of that. So thank you 
for your community involvement. Yeah.
    Mr. HEIM. May I comment to that?
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Sure.
    Mr. HEIM. So, I didn't list all the stuff I do. I am a 
Little League coach and basketball coach and so on. But the one 
thing that we do miss is we need leadership with our youth 
today. And being in this business, hearing me create, being 
around other business leaders, help me get that leadership that 
then you can transfer to your community and to the children, I 
think that is very important.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Very well said. Very well said. Mr. Davis, 
I would like to ask you a couple of questions about your 
business, your business model. You talked about inflation 
affecting it. I know in your written testimony you say you 
absorb the price of some of the--or some of the cost of some of 
the fluctuations. Do you continue to absorb all of it? Do you 
pass some of it on? How are you looking at your business model?
    Mr. DAVIS. So considering we are on the premium hot sauce 
spectrum, I have just been ordering more to further offset 
those costs because with hot sauce, there is a very large 
fluctuation on what it can cost. And our goal for the next 
couple of years is get as many people to try it as they can. 
And since many people are struggling with inflation, we just 
want to keep prices down as low as possible to get people to 
try and contribute to the cause, no matter the profit margin. I 
know I haven't taken anything as far as I wasn't around with 
the PPP or anything like that. It has all been my own money, 
which has helped because I don't have interest rates following 
me.
    But I think to add to that, to further help representation 
in the disabled community, getting more grants and tax 
subsidies towards underprivileged people, I think would 
substantially help the economy because the disabled community 
is a large part and not many people have access because of cost 
that it costs to have a disability.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Appreciate that. I think that is extremely 
important. One of the things you talk about in your testimony 
here is that permitting and licensing process that you had to 
go through. Everybody, all small businesses here this morning 
going to talk about government rules and regulations. Can you 
give us a little idea of the cost? Do you have an idea of what 
the cost is or percentage of cost that is in your pricing of 
your product for rules and regulations just off the top of your 
head?
    Mr. DAVIS. Not exactly, but I would estimate it is between 
10 percent, because a lot of that is through my manufacturer 
and I know a lot of those things are per county. So there is 
not, like, a thing that is like you get this for the State of 
Missouri and you are good for all counties. Each county has 
their own health department. And that really makes it confusing 
because you have to have this for this county and that for this 
county. And I think if we kind of fast-line the application 
process and the licensing process, more people would get into 
the grocer industry, which would make it to where there would 
be more competition for the big corporations.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. I am running out of time. I got one more 
really important question here. In Missouri, they allow you to 
have a personalized license plate. Does your personalized 
license plate read Sauce Boss?
    Mr. DAVIS. That is a good idea, though.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Thank you for your testimony.
    Mr. BEAN. [Presiding] Thank you very much. The gentleman 
from Minnesota, Mr. Phillips, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. PHILLIPS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and greetings. I 
think the world of all of you. I am a business person myself. I 
know how tough it is to run a successful business during the 
best of times and how tough, tough, tough it is during the 
worst of times, which, of course, the past 3 years have been.
    And also, I love the mosaic here because it is this great 
ecosystem of business. Now you have a lender, a builder, a 
product maker, and a service provider. And I want to thank you 
for being part of this extraordinary ecosystem.
    I do a series at home called ``On the Job with Dean,'' 
where I visit small businesses every week I am back home, and I 
do a 2- or 3-hour shift. I don't get paid, which means I am 
being paid what I am worth. And it is probably the most fun and 
illuminating part of this entire service.
    So my question to each of you is, if you had your Member of 
Congress join you at your business for just a day, for an 
afternoon, what specifically would you like them to take back 
to this Committee about their experience?
    Ms. Prince, maybe you can start.
    Ms. PRINCE. Sure. Thank you. I think I would invite 
Chairman Williams to our loan committee so that he understood 
what it takes for the small business to put together a package 
and present it to a bank and to go through the entire process. 
So, it is not very simple. It used to be, it is not anymore. 
But I think it would be eye-opening to see the amount of 
information that they have to provide, that the bank has to 
require in order to make a sound credit decision going forward.
    Mr. PHILLIPS. I appreciate it. Thank you. Mr. Heim?
    Mr. HEIM. So, I think I would ask Mr. Meuser to spend the 
afternoon and then quite a few evenings going to municipal 
meetings, dealing with EPA and DEP and trying to get a permit 
approved that could take us up to a year to get done. So, that 
process is something that, unless you do it, you really don't 
understand it.
    Mr. PHILLIPS. Yeah, permitting reform.
    Mr. HEIM. Correct.
    Mr. PHILLIPS. Yeah, thank you. Mr. Davis?
    Mr. DAVIS. I mean, my industry is kind of unique because I 
could basically take any of you guys and show you how 
complicated some of the paperwork and stuff has to be. And I 
think each of you would have the same kind of mindset going out 
of it that it is really hard and both on the state and federal 
level. Things can be done for any state because, like I said, 
there is 50 states and each of them have their own rules and 
regulations.
    Mr. PHILLIPS. Yeah. Thank you. Ms. Hendrickson?
    Ms. HENDRICKSON. I would invite you to start your day with 
me at 6:30 in the morning, cleaning and prepping for all of the 
children to show up, and then having those few conversations 
with parents about what their night was, what I can expect that 
day, and then enjoy spending time with the children, but then 
also seeing how many different things I am doing at one time, 
between diapering and feeding and, you know, navigating between 
the children that are playing really well, but then somebody 
wants to come in and hasn't quite learned yet how to ask to 
play and how important that is. Because even we notice that the 
adults sometimes don't know how to ask to play nicely either. 
And I think that would be something that would be great to take 
back with.
    And then, also, then getting them all down--like getting 
lunch ready, getting them fed, getting them down for naps. 
While they are napping, I do my paperwork and my meetings. And 
you could learn how to do the USDA food program and all those 
other things that I have to try and keep track of, enter my 
receipts and all the things I have to do as my own accountant 
because I don't have--there aren't enough accountants out there 
that actually understand the implications of family childcare 
and all of the different various tax write-offs that we have 
that we should be getting. And that leaves a lot of money on 
the table.
    And then the children start to wake up. And so then we do 
bathroom and diapering and everything, and then we go outside 
and play. We have done that a few times by now. And then the 
parents come and pick up. I let them know how their day was. 
The children leave.
    I now have to do laundry, dishes, do all kinds of other 
things, paperwork. My own children that are 16 and 14 deal with 
their things. And then sometimes I am still on meetings and 
classes and running meetings, mentoring until about 7, 8:00 at 
night, and then you could go home.
    Mr. PHILLIPS. Wow. By the way, I have to say, I think my 
colleagues can relate to adults that don't play nicely together 
sometimes.
    With my brief time left, you know, during the pandemic we 
passed some legislation to help small businesses. It was 
imperfect. There was some fraud, of course. But just quickly, 
if I might just add, I know, Mr. Davis, you indicated you 
didn't secure a PPP loan because you started your business. Ms. 
Hendrickson, did you----
    Ms. HENDRICKSON. Yes.
    Mr. PHILLIPS.--see any support?
    Ms. HENDRICKSON. Yes, I did, actually. I was able to 
through my small community bank. They reached out and worked 
with me very, very much. And I actually then helped other 
people who are unable to access the PPP through their larger 
banks because they were not prioritizing them, get that PPP 
through my bank.
    Mr. PHILLIPS. Terrific.
    Ms. HENDRICKSON. So, it was fantastic.
    Mr. PHILLIPS. Nr. Heim?
    Mr. HEIM. Yes, we did. So, because we do medical work in 
the State of Pennsylvania, we were allowed to continue working, 
so it did keep us working.
    Mr. PHILLIPS. A PPP loan or?
    Mr. HEIM. A PPP, right.
    Mr. PHILLIPS. Terrific.
    Mr. HEIM. And then what we did is there was a few crews 
that worked for the Department of DOT, and they could not work, 
so we kept them employed and we actually did community work. We 
did a ballfield. We went and we did a ballfield over for the 
local town, but we did everything we could to keep them working 
and make sure they were employed.
    Mr. PHILLIPS. Terrific. And my time has expired, but Ms. 
Prince, I was going to ask you about how we could have done 
that better as someone who clearly----
    Mr. BEAN. And, Ms. Prince, let us come back. In fact, I 
will pick you up with that question when it comes to my turn--
--
    Mr. PHILLIPS. Perfect.
    Mr. BEAN.--so stay right there.
    Mr. PHILLIPS. Thank you all very much.
    Mr. BEAN. Well done.
    Mr. PHILLIPS. I yield back.
    Mr. BEAN. Mr. Phillips, thank you very much. Let us go to 
the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Meuser, who is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
    Mr. MEUSER. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you 
very much to our witnesses, to my friend Roy Heim, for making 
the trip again, and to all of you.
    So, yeah, I spent most of my adult life in small business 
and growing into, fortunately, a larger business. And all my 
customer base for small businesses certainly know the trials 
and tribulations that many of you are expressing and all that 
you do give along with employing 95 percent, in my district 
anyway, or make up 95 percent of the businesses, employ almost 
75 percent of those who are employed. In my district over 
100,000 people work for small businesses. And yet small 
businesses tend to be under the gun from energy costs that have 
risen. And many small businesses work with the energy industry, 
which hasn't been--particularly natural gas in Northern 
Pennsylvania, which hasn't been--which has been kind of under 
fire as well, the inflation, the regulations, the interest 
rates, the access to capital, the supply chain issues, the 
workforce. So we know the issues that you have, this committee 
is about trying to find solutions.
    So, Mr. Heim, I am going to start with you, if you wouldn't 
mind. Well, first of all, what you brought up about all the 
giving that small businesses do, that is just so very 
important, how main street does pay for the Little Leagues and 
are usually the most charitable and involved in communities. So 
that should always be noted, that level of continued value-add 
or additional value-add. But in your testimony, you submitted 
an exhaustive list, or a nonexhaustive list, nearly 50 pages 
long with details of regulations that your construction 
business contends with.
    Now, how long was that list 30 years ago when you began 
your business? Was it the same? Was it a lot shorter?
    Mr. HEIM. Due to a lot of ignorance and not really 
understanding, I couldn't tell you how long ago that--how big 
that list was. But, yes, in all honesty, in the last 10 years, 
that list has grown quite a bit and became more stringent. So, 
there might have been policies in place, but they have gotten 
tighter and tighter over the last 10 years.
    Mr. MEUSER. If you were trying to start a business to yours 
similar today as you did 30 years ago, would it be possible? 
How much more difficult would it be today for a small business 
to start like yours, because that is the business you know 
best, versus when you started 30 years ago?
    Mr. HEIM. So, to start the business, probably not that 
hard. To be compliant and do it correctly and grow, very 
difficult. Very difficult.
    Mr. MEUSER. Very difficult.
    Mr. HEIM. Because I can tell you, unless you have an 
attorney, an accountant, and everything, and spending that 50- 
to $100,000 right up front to understand all the rules and 
regulations that you must abide by?
    Mr. MEUSER. Twice as difficult? Three times more? How much 
more difficult today than 30 years ago?
    Mr. HEIM. I would say three times more.
    Mr. MEUSER. Okay. And that is due to, not taxes, it is due 
to bureaucracy and regulations.
    Mr. HEIM. Correct.
    Mr. MEUSER. Added regulations.
    Mr. HEIM. Correct.
    Mr. MEUSER. Okay. So what about inflation, the costs that 
you have been contending with? If you were doing a project 3 
years ago that cost $5 million, what would that project cost 
just 3 years later?
    Mr. HEIM. So, today, and I can only tell you this to try to 
make things simple, if you did a typical office facility today 
that 2 years ago might have been $125 a square foot, today you 
are looking at $250 a square foot.
    Mr. MEUSER. So, perhaps double?
    Mr. HEIM. Of course.
    Mr. MEUSER. Double in a 3-year period.
    Mr. HEIM. A lot of it, you know, it is labor, it is 
material, it is, quite frankly, not being able to understand if 
you can get the material and people are charging more.
    Mr. MEUSER. And, you know, like you, I respect unions. I 
respect all workers. I respect all Americans, for that matter. 
And you can understand the joining a union doesn't label 
anybody anything other than they are part of a union. We 
support unions.
    But when you are expressing it related to PLAs, should the 
requirement be to have an opportunity to bid for a contract, be 
that you are a union, that you only employ unions? That 
certainly limits the competition, but also excludes you and 88 
percent of the workforce, as you stated.
    Mr. HEIM. Right. I don't believe the government should put 
any impediments in front of anyone to able to procure work. So, 
we do Penn DOT work. They want to put a PLA or the federal 
government wants to put it. We are all prequalified. We are all 
bonded. We all do the work. I work with unions every day. I get 
hired by unions. I hire union contractors so we can be fair and 
we can work together. And I have a great relationship with 
them, but there is no need to single people out.
    Mr. MEUSER. Thank you for your testimony. I yield back, 
Chairman.
    Mr. BEAN. Thank you very much. Let us go to Kentucky where 
Mr. McGarvey is standing by. He is recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. MCGARVEY. Thank you. It is great to see everyone. I 
echo the comments of Mr. Phillips. It is great to see so many 
people in so many different capacities and to hear your all 
stories echo so much of what we saw. I was in the state 
legislature in Kentucky when the pandemic started, and so I was 
on the ground. And from the people who received PPP loans or 
from all the community bankers in Kentucky, we heard, who were 
sleeping in their offices to make sure that business had access 
to capital, to the people who were trying to build things and 
keep things going, to the number of Americans who started new 
business as a way to deal with some of the pressures of the 
pandemic. It is really great to see all of you here and to hear 
your stories.
    To make this, if I ask my questions, you know, one of the 
things I did yesterday before coming to Washington was drop my 
4-year-old off at her childcare facility. And as the parents, 
working parents of three young kids, I know how vital 
affordable and accessible childcare is for every young family 
in this country.
    Unfortunately, like a lot of places in the United States, 
Kentucky is facing a childcare crisis. And we have a Kentucky 
Center for Economic Policy that says that over half of the 
Commonwealth of Kentucky is a childcare desert right now. That 
means little or no child care is available. Almost half of the 
childcare centers have closed their doors over the last decade. 
And when parents are able to find child care, I know this 
firsthand, it can cost almost as much as a year of tuition at 
the University of Louisville.
    This is something we have got to get right. In my state, 
over 100,000 women alone have left the workforce and not 
returned to the workforce because of what we are facing in 
child care.
    So, my question is for Ms. Hendrickson. You know, we hear a 
lot from small business owners about that there aren't enough 
qualified workers, that there is a lot of pressures. How can 
continued investment in child care and childcare centers by the 
federal government help with providing child care with 
childcare providers and also help with the labor force as a 
whole?
    Ms. HENDRICKSON. Well, we are the workforce behind the 
workforce. Without us, people can't work. And without us, the 
children will not be ready to work. Because, again, that brain 
development starts at birth, not when they are five or four or 
three or whatever magical age school officially starts. And we 
can also meet the diverse needs of our community with the hours 
that are needed. So, people who work late at night or second 
shift or third shift or weekends, our small businesses are 
there for them to help meet those needs.
    However, because of the fact that we can only charge so 
much, we cannot pay that in wages because that is the piece 
that is missing is that wage piece. Our military currently does 
fund childcare that way. The rest of the OECD countries fund 
childcare at .76 percent of GDP. The United States is second 
from the bottom, only above Croatia at .35. If we even get that 
up to the average, it would be enough to get childcare off of 
the ground. Subsidized, we would have high-quality educators 
who can stay in the field. Right now, three out of four people 
with a degree in education, early childcare education do not 
work in the field. We are highly sought out by other people 
because they know we have people skills. They know that we are 
educated. They know that we have patience and that we have a 
lot of passion. So by funding those core pieces of that wage so 
that we can get the wage rates up from about $12 an hour to a 
sustainable living wage even, let alone can measure it with our 
other very valuable small business owners and employees that 
normally are making at least 18-, 20-, $25 an hour with health 
care, with paid family medical leave, and with retirement. We 
can't even offer any of those things.
    My retirement right now is about $3,000 besides what I have 
with my husband. And that is because he has a great job. And 
so, you know, right there, that investment would make the world 
of the difference for us and our people and all of the other 
small businesses that rely on us and employers that rely on us 
in order to have a workforce.
    Mr. MCGARVEY. I really appreciate that you even answered 
some of my other questions in that really good response. But I 
love how you said the workforce behind the workforce, which is 
so important. I think it shows why continued investment and 
making sure we have quality, affordable childcare is important 
to every small business in this country.
    Mr. Davis, I do want to ask you a question. I am a MSSU 
alum. I married a Jeff City girl. So, it is great to see you 
here. It is great to see your success story.
    I also want to point out I got on your website while we 
have been sitting here, your sense of humor doesn't stop at the 
name of your business. The sauces themselves, Just For the 
Parking--Mild Crippling Hot Sauce, Limping Medium, and then 
Crippling Agony. It is great to hear your success story.
    And as we see individuals with different abilities that are 
less likely than their peers to participate in the workforce, 
as you noted, they face greater barriers to starting their own 
businesses. How can the federal government do a better job of 
helping job creators who do have different abilities?
    Mr. DAVIS. Yeah, it is just grants and tax credits and 
things of that nature because we don't have as great as an 
opportunity, a lot of us, to get in the workforce, because as 
much as it has gotten better, there still is a lot of workplace 
discrimination against people with disabilities and other 
underprivileged individuals. And I think that people with 
disabilities statistically make less than even women do on 
average. That is not necessarily right because a lot of us, 
like I said, do have the same intellectual capabilities. And it 
is just going back to thinking how they did in the early 1900s 
where disabled people were only in the life skills classes and 
stuff like that. But it has gotten way better, and I am just 
here to help push the envelope even further and show everybody 
what can be done in such a situation.
    Mr. MCGARVEY. Thank you. And I am out of time, but thank 
you all.
    Mr. BEAN. Thank you very much, Mr. McGarvey. Let us go to 
Texas, where Mr. Ellzey is recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. ELLZEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all for 
being here today.
    And I am going to echo Mr. McGarvey on the sense of humor, 
Drew, that you have. And I can only imagine how many times you 
have gone up to a place that has some parking and you might see 
somebody get out that has got the placard. And I think that 
that is a nice shot across the bow, that Just For the Parking 
Hot Sauce clearly is from experience.
    To your parents, would you raise your hands, please? You 
have got to be exceptionally proud of this young man who 
doesn't sound like he is 17. He sounds like he is 37, 47. The 
wisdom in this young man is vastly beyond his years. You have 
to be exceptionally proud, and I guarantee you that that is the 
first young man in his class who is going to be a 
multimillionaire.
    And my hope is, is that at the age of 25, you sold out to 
somebody much, much bigger for a billion dollars, and you and 
your parents can go do whatever the heck you want or start 
another multibillion-dollar company. So thank you for your 
stubbornness, for your sense of humor, for the points that you 
have made here today.
    As you have been talking, I have watched everybody else 
around here nod their heads. So you not only speak for your 
family, for yourself, for your company, but you speak for many 
other people throughout this country. And I see a much bigger, 
brighter spotlight for you in the near future, but you got to 
get out of high school first. I am sure that is probably part 
of the priority. So, thank you for building this business and 
thank you for coming to us today.
    Ms. Prince, as a fellow Texan, I would just like to ask 
you, and it may have been briefly brought up today, as we know, 
the CFPB, the funding structure for the CFPB is before the 
Supreme Court right now. And it is going to be interesting to 
see what happens, if that is struck down, their funding 
structure, which, of course, comes from the Federal Reserve 
instead of the appropriations process of the United States 
Congress, which means there is really no mechanism for 
constitutionally the Congress to regulate what the CFPB does. 
So, I am curious to see what happens with rule 1071. Of course, 
that won't come out until, I think, September of next year. But 
how much more time is your company having to spend on meeting 
the restrictions or the requirements of 1071 and who does 1071 
help?
    Ms. PRINCE. So, 1071 hasn't been enacted yet, so we are not 
currently collecting the information. But if enacted, we would 
be collecting information as though you were doing a real 
estate, a home mortgage. We would do all the demographics, the 
income, all the different pieces on every small business loan 
as though a small business loan can be put in a box and that 
all are alike, which just isn't true.
    So, if you look at the people here, the demographics, the 
needs, the supply chain needs, all the labor needs, all of 
those things go into what make a small business unique. And so, 
going forward, we would hope that there is no inaction of 
CFPB's 1071 rule, which really just creates a whole other layer 
of regulation and reporting, such as HMDA for real estate 
mortgages.
    Mr. ELLZEY. Does it help anybody get a loan?
    Ms. PRINCE. It doesn't help anybody get a loan.
    Mr. ELLZEY. Okay.
    Ms. PRINCE. It may, in fact, hinder people from credit 
access because if you are just looking at a statistical 
representation of the small business, you are not looking at 
their business plan, you are not looking at their creativity, 
you are not looking at their passion, you are not looking at a 
young man who decided that he would go to multiple small banks, 
to multiple manufacturers, to multiple sources before he got 
what he wanted and before someone recognized that that young 
man had a vision, he had a business plan, and he had something 
that would work.
    So it is really important that we leave some of the 
business decision-making in the hands of loan committees and 
the business access, loan access to really people who have an 
entrepreneurial spirit and are creative in their plans.
    Mr. ELLZEY. Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate what community 
banks do. I started out with a big national bank, and I love 
that a community bank set up people I know, people who I can 
contact. And thank you for your service in providing for our 
country's finances.
    Ms. PRINCE. Thank you.
    Mr. ELLZEY. Real quick, Mr. Heim, thank you for building 
America. I don't have any questions for you, but I know this is 
a tough business to be in right now.
    And finally, Ms. Hendrickson, thank you for being here and 
thank you for taking care of the children while the rest of 
America works. I know it is a struggle from time to time, and I 
hope things turn around very quickly for you and would like to 
see how we can help. So, thank you all very much.
    I yield back my time, Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. BEAN. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Ellzey. We 
are in the city of Washington, but now we are going to the 
State of Washington, where Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez is standing by 
and she is recognized for 5 minutes.
    Ms. GLUESENKAMP. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you so 
much to all of our witnesses for being here.
    Mr. Heim, in your testimony you mentioned your involvement 
in trying to get high schoolers in the trades and your early 
involvement in high school. You know, and I know I am part of 
the generation where all of our best trade schools got turned 
into--or trade programs got turned into computer programming 
classes instead of the auto shop. I work and own an auto repair 
shop myself, work in the trades. And our kids are being told 
directly and indirectly that basically you did something wrong 
if you ended up working with your hands for a career. And 
right, we are seeing the consequences of that. We are short, 
what, 350,000 workers in the construction trades alone.
    And so my question to you is, what do we do to restore the 
prestige and sort of the dignity back to working in the trades 
in your perspective?
    Mr. HEIM. So, that is great because you are right on 
target. Six years ago, I worked with a state rep by the name of 
Michael Tobash, myself and a few other people, and we started--
in Pennsylvania, they passed a law where eight teachers can now 
get continuing ed credits by going out to industry. Instead of 
just doing other stuff, they actually go to industry. And the 
results out of that was tremendous. They didn't understand what 
the local community, what the local business has done. They 
didn't understand how much money the people were making, so on 
and so on. So, we have done that.
    And I can tell you, our local school, we have done open 
houses with industry involved. We have changed the whole 
concept of how we teach. And like I said, there is 197 
children. Our local school that graduates 240 students, we had 
88 eighth graders apply for the ninth grade to go to technical 
school.
    Now, the unfortunate part about it, because there is no 
funding and the school is not big enough, only about 15 percent 
of them got in. But that perception, I think, is changing along 
with what is going on and when it costs $150 to get your toilet 
looked at and it is not fixed yet, that is also making parents, 
I think, look at it a little different now.
    Ms. GLUESENKAMP. Yeah. Thank you so much.
    Ms. Hendrickson, I really appreciate you being here. Thank 
you so much for the work you do. I am a mother of an 18-month-
old, so I was on all those wait lists. I live in a childcare 
desert. It is about 4 hours of driving every day that my child 
goes to daycare. So, thank you for sticking it out. Thank you 
for your persistence and to your employees who choose to work 
in an underfunded, underpaid job. I would not be here without 
folks like you and your team. So I guess my question is, well, 
first, could you kind of speak to the challenges of 
recruitment? And could you also talk, like, what can we do in 
Congress?
    Ms. HENDRICKSON. So, the number one challenge is the wage. 
We cannot pay anything. Wisconsin was about $10 an hour on 
family childcare. We make less than minimum wage by the time 
you put our hours in. And so we really need to be able to get 
those wages up without pricing parents out. So, we have to have 
some sort of system where the money goes directly to the wages.
    In Wisconsin, we took our ARPA funding and we actually put 
it into two pots. Every single program is eligible every single 
month to get money. One part is for operational costs, the 
other part goes directly to the teachers. And we fought for 
that as a group within our state and worked with our state 
licensing agency to make that happen. And that is what we are 
continuing to try and do because it really comes down to those 
wages.
    And we also need some more health care and paid family 
medical leave and other things that all of us really small 
businesses cannot access because we cannot afford to provide 
those things for ourselves or for our employees. And so that 
way if we had it more--took our taxes and more equitably 
distributed them, we would then be able to help encourage all 
of our people to be able to do what they love and not have to 
worry about being tied to a different employer because they 
need health care.
    That is also why a lot of parents actually aren't able to 
stay home with their children longer. They have their baby and 
they have to drop off after 6 weeks because they don't have any 
paid medical leave. That would also help offset some of those 
crunches for infant care, especially because if a parent is 
able to stay home longer, they don't need care for longer. And 
so those spots won't be as filled with those infants and 
toddlers, which I am all for health and safety requirements, I 
do not want ratios. Imagine having six babies, all of you, 
while you are trying to, you know, interact with each of them 
and meet their needs.
    Ms. GLUESENKAMP. Thank you so much. And finally, Mr. Davis, 
I am just so impressed with your entrepreneurship and that 
spirit will carry you so far, and I think it is great.
    One thing that I have heard from other entrepreneurs is 
that people who rely on SSDI or SSI or other federal support 
sometimes choose not to take on that risk and, you know, risk 
their benefits as they start a business. Do you have thoughts 
on that quickly?
    Mr. DAVIS. So, I never took SSI. I never really believed in 
it just because I want to save it for those that really need it 
because I know plenty of people that don't really need it, but 
are eligible for it. And those that clearly do need it, need a 
very comprehensive proof when it is pretty obvious, which I 
think is kind of contradictive. But, yeah, I never really 
believed in it. So, my parents did a good job of instilling 
that in me at a young age that you could work, so you are going 
to work. So, yeah, I had that by them and I thank them for that 
every day.
    Mr. BEAN. They are giving you the thumbs up behind you, 
too, Drew. Thank you very much.
    Ms. GLUESENKAMP. Thank you so much. Thank you.
    Mr. BEAN. Very good. We are going to Missouri, where Mr. 
Alford is recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. ALFORD. Thank you, Chairman. What an honor to be here 
today. Thank you to all of our wonderful witnesses today. Drew, 
I think you need your own reality show. That would be some 
reality show.
    Thank you, Chairman and Ranking Member, for holding this 
important hearing today. I am really honored to serve on the 
Small Business Committee, especially having been a small 
business owner myself in the State of Missouri. Small business, 
it really is the fabric of America, businesses that contribute 
greatly to the American economy, our way of life. Making 
America great is simply reclaiming the hope of the American 
Dream for everyone and really setting us on a renewed course of 
achievement, prosperity, patriotism, and unity for our country.
    Today, as we have all recognized here today, businesses are 
plagued by rampant inflation, ongoing supply chain issues, 
unwavering workforce shortages, overregulation in a lot of 
cases, we have talked about that. And I really believe that our 
nation is great because of small businesses. And I am honored 
to be here today with this Committee and other Committee 
Members to hold the Biden administration accountable, to create 
a business-friendly Small Business Administration and once 
again unleash the American Dream for all Missourians and for 
all Americans. It is so important.
    We have a lot of small businesses to be proud of in the 
great State of Missouri, in our Fourth District, like the 
Stanton Brothers. They are a family farm located in Boone 
County. Much like your story, Drew, they started their business 
out of a first grade project. They have grown it to a business 
producing 42,000 eggs per week on their fifth generation family 
farm. So, we are very proud of them. And it is really our job I 
see it, Mr. Chairman, as our job of this Committee to work 
together so that many more Americans can achieve the American 
Dream, just like the Stanton Brothers did and just like you 
have done, Drew.
    And I want to start with you, Mr. Davis. You are really an 
inspiration for us. I don't say that lightly. I thank you for 
being here, for representing Missouri and America. I kind of 
see it as our job to help you grow. And aside from the things 
that you have brought up, the grants and tax subsidies, what 
else can we do to make it easier for you to grow your business, 
hire more people, and really become a rich part of the fabric 
of America?
    Mr. DAVIS. So, for the grocer industry, that is one word: 
distribution. Getting more connections to the distributors is 
huge because you need a distributor in the grocer industry to 
really grow. And there is a lot of connections out there, but 
not enough for the amount of people there are wanting to launch 
these small businesses. And there is a lot of great small 
businesses in the grocer industry that hasn't been as fortunate 
as I was getting a bunch of the media attention that allowed me 
to get some of these connections and distribution. So, it is 
more making those well known so that we can have more lower 
priced goods for consumers.
    Mr. ALFORD. More competition. That would be great. Would 
you like a little competition for your hot sauce?
    Mr. DAVIS. Mainly it is for those big corporations that 
like the price gouging and stuff because that really affects us 
small businesses because people look at, you know, the franks 
that are made in overseas manufacturing facilities with, you 
know, child labor. And they are like, why can I buy franks for 
$2.99 and here is a 6.99. So, it would really help us with the 
competition and getting more higher quality goods on the 
market.
    Mr. ALFORD. I want to talk a little bit about supply chain 
issues because I know, especially 2 years ago, getting bottles 
made was a difficulty. The wine industry faced that. All sorts 
of bottling issues going on. Are you facing that now with the 
supply chain issues, with bottle caps, labels, that sort of 
thing? Talk about that. We got 40 seconds left.
    Mr. DAVIS. Yeah, the lead time for those things are more 
substantial than ever. I know I tried to put in an order for 
one of my flavors for just like 6,000 bottles and they are 
like, sorry, we don't have that in our warehouse right now.
    And same with plastic caps. I mean, they are like, well, do 
you want just black or will you settle on white and black? I am 
starting to have to do different colors. It is going to look 
like the United States flag, which I love the United States, 
but it confuses the consumer. They think it is different 
flavors and stuff like that.
    Mr. ALFORD. Got 10 seconds left. Where can I sample your 
product? Did you bring some today?
    Mr. DAVIS. I did.
    Mr. ALFORD. All right, let us break it out. It is almost 
lunchtime. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you and God 
bless you all. I yield back.
    Mr. BEAN. Thank you, Mr. Alford. Let us go to Michigan, 
where Ms. Scholten just walked in in the nick of time. She is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
    Ms. SCHOLTEN. Thank you so much. This here. Thank you so 
much. Sorry, I thought you were talking to me. Thank you, Mr. 
Chair.
    First of all, thank you to all of our witnesses. I am glad 
he asked the question about where the hot sauce was. I can't 
wait to try it myself.
    We in Congress can sometimes lose sight of what it is like 
on the ground running a small business day to day. And your 
perspective is invaluable, helping us craft policy that meets 
you where you are and helps you stay competitive. Thank you so 
much for taking the time to be here.
    These questions are for Mr. Heim. As the Ranking Member on 
the Subcommittee on Contracting and Infrastructure, I am 
especially interested in how the contracting and subcontracting 
dynamics play out in the construction sector in particular. In 
your experience, what role do prime contractors play in helping 
the subcontractors grow their businesses in particular?
    Mr. HEIM. So today, probably more than ever, with the 
ability to find tradespeople, we do spend a lot of time 
educating, also. So, there is a lot of people that have got 
into our industry that necessarily are not educated. They are 
tradespeople, they are not business leaders. So, we do spend--
like me personally have spent a lot of time with different 
individuals, bringing them in, talking about what a prevailing 
wage is, how to comply with prevailing wages, literally how to 
look at blueprints. So, there is a lot of gentlemen that can 
build stuff out there, but really don't understand how to look 
at a blueprint. So, yeah, we do spend a lot of time dealing 
with the smaller businesses.
    Ms. SCHOLTEN. Mm-hmm. And what would be your number one 
recommendation, or one or two recommendations, that you would 
have for subcontractors who are eventually interested in 
becoming prime contractors?
    Mr. HEIM. Recommendations? Get ready, you are going for a 
ride. I don't know that I really have any recommendations. I 
mean, every individual is a little different. Everyone has a 
little different training and thinks a little different. So, it 
is almost on an individual basis. I don't know that there is an 
overall recommendation I would have.
    You know, save your money because there is going to be a 
time, right? And really, I guess the number one recommendation 
I would have is make a relationship with your bank, make a 
relationship with your accountant, have a relationship with 
your attorney, be part of affiliations that are part of your 
association so you can get educated. I mean, I think that would 
be the overall.
    Ms. SCHOLTEN. That is great. Thank you. I appreciate that. 
Yeah, I yield back.
    Mr. BEAN. Thank you so much, Ms. Scholten. Seems it is my 
turn. U am Aaron Bean from Florida, and I am pleased to 
recognize myself for 5 minutes.
    I, too, was a small business owner and I started up some 
small business. I also was a banker. So, there is great 
excitement when things are happening as they are at the table 
right there.
    I want to remind you, even some of our largest businesses 
started small, both Apple and Google started in family garages. 
And if you don't believe me, you can Google that right now.
    And Drew Davis, how about this? Do you know the story of 
FedEx where Fred Smith actually wrote a term paper? I think he 
got a C on the creation of FedEx. And who is laughing now with 
that?
    Let us go back to Ms. Prince. As a banker myself for many 
years and, Mr. Phillips, you didn't get to answer Mr. Phillips' 
questions earlier, what are you seeing different now versus 
servicing loans as it was with the previous administration? Has 
it changed? Is there anything different about banking now than 
it used to be?
    Ms. PRINCE. So, every day the regulatory requirement 
increases or the interpretation of a regulatory requirement is 
ever-changing. So, we spend a whole lot of time. Back in the 
day when our family first got involved, compliance or 
regulatory compliance was probably a part of a person, a part 
of a full-time employee. Today it is at least six full-time 
employees. It is a whole other group of people within our 
organization that are trained compliance officers, trained in 
regulations. And we spend a whole lot more money reaching out 
to make sure that all of our pieces are in place, not to 
provide a safe and sound loan, but to provide a safe and sound 
loan that checks all the boxes, that has all the pieces of each 
and every regulation, like I said, that is an ever-changing 
interpretation.
    Mr. BEAN. I gotcha. What do your customers say? I know when 
I was there every loan I made to every business that I felt, 
you know, a part of the excitement of growing that business and 
making sure that they grew and, most importantly, could pay us 
back and that they would thrive as well. What are your 
customers saying? What is the word on the street at First Texas 
State Bank?
    Ms. PRINCE. So, our customers are expressing the same 
things about supply chains and finding labor and ever-
increasing costs. Our customers are very concerned about 
interest rates and they are concerned about the same sort of 
regulatory requirements. So, they want to go in, they want to 
get a permit, they want to do their job. They want to do their 
job right. They want to know that they can predict the cost of 
that so that they end up walking away with a profit. And in the 
current environment, that is an ever-changing process, also. 
Right? If you started in 2019, or we started to build a 
building in 2020, the price went up probably 50 or 60 percent 
before that building was complete. And most people don't have 
that in their business plan.
    So, we need a tax environment that is good, but we need a 
regulatory environment that is appropriate. We need interest 
rates that are reasonable. We need energy. We need the things 
that are all the inputs into our businesses so that they can be 
profitable and successful.
    Mr. BEAN. Thank you very much.
    Ms. PRINCE. And I am with you. Every one of those 
businesses----
    Mr. BEAN. You feel for them.
    Ms. PRINCE.--we are attached to them, we have a partnership 
with them. We are there to make sure that we weather the storm 
with them.
    Mr. BEAN. Very good. No, I am with you.
    Mr. Heim, I have got a lot of questions, but guess what? 
That clock on me is eaten up. You have talked about inflation 
kicking your tail, but there is something on your mind right 
now. What is it?
    Mr. HEIM. So, in dealing with banks for the last 30 years, 
the one thing that I really notice is as these regulations grew 
and as your conditions grew, right, we lost our relationship 
with our bankers. So, what used to be you go out to lunch, they 
start to fully understand your business and understand why you 
need what you need. Today, I don't think that is there anymore. 
I think you are writing on a piece of paper on if they feel 
adequate for you to get a loan or not. But it is no longer that 
personal relationship.
    Mr. BEAN. To that end, there are people like Ms. Prince--
and I thrived on that because the big banks, I was a small 
little banker and that was my little secret weapon that I could 
develop that relationship. So, she is already nodding, she gets 
that. And that is why bankers like Ms. Prince are going to 
thrive.
    With the last few seconds that I have, let us go back to 
Drew Davis. Drew Davis, everybody wants to know you are 17. Are 
you a junior? You are a junior now, about to be a senior or you 
are a senior?
    Mr. HEIM. So, I am a senior running my business out of the 
library 5 hours a day because I only have two classes.
    Mr. BEAN. No. Well, we are all proud of it. Your folks are 
proud. They are beaming tall. But with the last few seconds, 
everybody wants to know, what are you doing next? Are you going 
to college? Are you going to just go full-time on the hot 
sauce? What is next for Drew Davis?
    Mr. DAVIS. I mean, I don't really know because every time I 
think I know what is next, something else happens. But to that 
tune, I think I am going to be traveling a lot next year and 
into later this year, just focusing on scaling and getting our 
story out there because I think it is an important one. And 
just have as many people get Crippling Hot Sauce in their hands 
as humanly possible.
    Mr. BEAN. Very good. And hopefully, a lot of people are 
seeing it today. Let us wrap up with Maryland. Mr. Mfume, you 
are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. MFUME. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want to add 
my thanks to the others who have commended you for gathering us 
for this hearing today. I want to particularly thank the 
witnesses for diverse testimony. As Dean Phillips said when he 
was here earlier, I think he referred to all of you as a 
mosaic, a banker, a construction worker, company, a product 
maker, and a service provider.
    One of the things about being the caboose is that in the 
end, everything that can be said has been said. It is just that 
not everybody has said it. So, bear with me for a few minutes 
as I go through just really some observations. I don't know if 
I have got that many questions.
    Mr. Heim, let me just let you know that I heard your 
invitation to Representative Meuser, and I see he did not say 
yes. So, I am going to commit him to come work with you from 
can't-see in the morning to can't-see at night in Pennsylvania. 
And when I go on to the floor to vote, I will let him know that 
he is expected to follow up. I am doing unto him as he would do 
unto me. Trust me.
    And one of the things that has been interesting from my 
perspective is the fact that so many people, Mr. Chairman, have 
talked about children and their children and other children and 
providing and also building a future for those children. I keep 
hearing the terms three-year-olds and four-year-olds. And that 
was a long time ago for me. So, I was particularly happy that 
Ms. Prince mentioned and said, does anybody remember the 1980s? 
Yes, there are some of us still around who remember that. And 
for me, the perspective is interesting. In the 1980s, I was a 
freshman on this Committee. Ronald Reagan was president, and I 
spent five terms here in this Committee hearing testimony like 
this.
    My angst is that now, many, many years later, I am still 
hearing the same issues, the same problems. And I wonder, is it 
a matter of having come a long way or still having a much 
longer way to go.
    I left this body after five terms on my own, walked out the 
door and wanted to go see the rest of the world. And here I am 
26 years later, back on this committee hearing this. So, I am 
hoping that as we establish, Mr. Chair, a record here that that 
record really provides direction so that we can come out of 
this fashioning legislation to be able to assist with the 
problems that we have heard about today, which are not new, but 
seriously should not be allowed to continue and to go on. It is 
a good record. I want to thank all of you for adding to it.
    I am going to use this. I think I have got 2 minutes here 
just to say a couple of things and ask a couple of quick 
questions. Ms. Hendrickson, you talked about the increased 
costs that you are facing and how, unfortunately, you have got 
to continue to pass it on and pass it on to parents. Unlike big 
corporations, small businesses don't have teams of lawyers and 
tax accountants. And so I am really interested in knowing if 
you have some thoughts on the tax code and how it affects you 
and a suggestion of something that might be done to make it 
more palatable.
    Ms. HENDRICKSON. I think just fair taxation in general. All 
of us small business owners pay a much larger percent of our 
income into a system that then takes that money and it goes to 
the larger corporations and goes to those types of things so 
that our small businesses have a harder time then and are 
paying for those large businesses to buy back stock and things 
like that for their shareholders.
    Mr. MFUME. So, a greater sense of fairness.
    Ms. HENDRICKSON. Yes, definitely. And reinvesting in our 
people, especially our rural communities, because everybody is 
leaving because main street businesses are leaving. And when 
somebody drives through, they do not have a place to stop to 
eat because there is nothing left. We can look at it as like 
our interstate system. They go around everybody, and the 
fastest person who can drive on that the fastest gets----
    Mr. MFUME. I see.
    Ms. HENDRICKSON.--the most instead of our.
    Mr. MFUME. So, you would support tax credits for 
reinvestments----
    Ms. HENDRICKSON. Yes.
    Mr. MFUME.--back into small businesses.
    Ms. HENDRICKSON. Yeah.
    Mr. MFUME. Good. Mr. Davis, I want to ask you just one or 
two quick things. First of all, I want to commend you. I have 
got a 17-year-old grandson, so he is on his way to college, and 
in 4 years I may send him directly to you so that he might find 
a way to get his first job. But I want to commend you seriously 
on what you are doing. I don't even remember what I was doing 
at 17, but I know I wasn't as accomplished as you are. So thank 
you for being here.
    Thank you also for the simple eloquence of your example so 
that other people who watch this, who may have a disability, 
may come to understand that that is not the end of the world 
for them. And we have heard on this committee over and over 
again, well, why do you need to focus on this group and why do 
you need to focus on that group? And we focus too much on women 
or we focus too much on minorities or disadvantaged businesses 
or veterans. Well, I am going to add to that category that we 
ought to find some way to focus also on individuals like 
yourself who have overcome a great disability and who are 
contributing back to the country. So I want to congratulate you 
on that.
    I see my time--this time does not last long, ladies and 
gentlemen. It is fleeting. Mine has expired and it is starting 
to flash in front of me. So, let me just thank you again for 
being here for your testimonies.
    Drew, I do have a few seconds. Would you go ahead and, for 
the record, kind of sum up what your feelings are about this, 
particularly from your perspective?
    Mr. DAVIS. Yes. So, I believe, like you mentioned, that 
from my ownership of Crippling Hot Sauce, millions of dollars,, 
of tax dollars could be generated off of just simple grants 
from those individuals that aren't as fortunate as I am. I have 
been lucky enough to meet a bunch of individuals, and I just 
really thank everybody that has been with me along the way. But 
I have talked to hundreds of people with disabilities through 
my kind of statistical analysis just to see how people respond 
off of the name. And I also ask them simple questions. And the 
main answer is, man, we would like to do something like you. We 
just don't know where to start because there is not 
representation and there is not many resources out there.
    Mr. MFUME. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Chairman WILLIAMS. Now we go to Mr. Molinaro for 5 minutes.
    Mr. MOLINARO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have some prepared 
questions I wanted to get to, but I wanted to echo my 
colleagues' comments. Eighty percent of those with disabilities 
are unemployed in America. Eighty percent. And Mr. Davis, Drew, 
I am going to plant a question your mind and I am going to let 
you answer it last.
    I have spent a great deal of time in the disabilities 
workspace. Creating a pipeline to jobs is so, so challenging. 
You are inspiring in your own right. But there are countless 
young people and adults living with intellectual, physical, and 
developmental disabilities today who would like to enter the 
workforce. I would like you to close. I am going to take my 
time, but I want you to close with the one thing that you want 
them to know about how to be a success. And I say this as the 
father of a child with a disability who often needs to be 
inspired. And I want her to hear your words before we close 
today.
    Mr. Chairman, there is little question that small 
businesses are the backbone of our local economy. Seventy 
percent of new jobs are created by existing small businesses. 
During the last 2-1/2 years, small businesses felt the brunt of 
the pandemic economic closure and the challenges that we face. 
I know many of my colleagues have already asked so many 
questions already. I am sorry that I might repeat one or two in 
my few moments.
    But first to Mr. Heim. I live in a place where access to 
workforce, like lots of places in America, is a challenge. But 
because it is a more rural part of New York, limited access to 
transportation. Daycare is a massive obstacle. Educational 
opportunity is limited, and in many cases, of course, New York 
leads the nation in out-migration. So, we see more people 
leaving other states than any other place in America.
    Can you talk briefly? What are the things you have done or 
would do to expand access to that workforce?
    Mr. HEIM. So, you are asking how do we get them not to 
leave?
    Mr. MOLINARO. Yes. I mean, I know the answer.
    Mr. HEIM. We are in the same shape.
    Mr. MOLINARO. Yeah.
    Mr. HEIM. Pennsylvania is the same way. So, we are in a 
rural area, also. You know, honestly, I believe it starts at 
high school. It starts at middle school. We need to retrain the 
way kids are thinking. We need to get them to understand that, 
you know, doing what we do in our trades or being in 
manufacturing is a good thing. There is a lot of money to be 
made out there. And in our industry there is something to be 
very proud of. When you are done working for the day, you could 
step back and you can look at something for the rest of your 
life and say, I was part of that and you can take your 
grandchildren there and so on. So, it is really educating the 
youth, really, and getting a mindset change.
    Mr. MOLINARO. Yeah. We often say that our educational 
outcomes don't meet our economic needs. And in some ways, the 
lack of vocational training, applied sciences, and others not 
only diminishes the value of the work, but demoralizes the 
individual. And I find that many people trying to enter the 
workforce, in particular, lacking access to that kind of 
education feel worth less. And, of course, they spent 2 years 
listening to governors like mine say that certain people were 
essential and certain people were not as if government has any 
right to dictate. So I appreciate you pointed that. Did you 
want to add to that?
    Mr. HEIM. No.
    Mr. MOLINARO. Ms. Prince, so, you know, my part of New 
York, upstate, rural, massive what we call financial deserts, 
banking deserts, access to capital is a major concern. What are 
the--what particular steps would make sense to broaden access 
to capital, in particular, support and spur innovation? Knowing 
that Drew gets the last 60 seconds of my time.
    Ms. PRINCE. Okay. So. in our organization, we have 14 
locations. Some of those locations are in the metroplex, some 
of those locations are in communities as small as 1,500 people. 
So, we have made a commitment to those deserts, as you say, to 
make sure that they still have access to community bankers who 
are focused on their needs and preserving their way of life.
    When you think about the people who have left to take--
because they didn't want a construction job, the same thing has 
happened across the country in ag jobs. Ag families have lost 
generation after generation to the city. And we need those 
people back just like we need the construction people back.
    Mr. MOLINARO. I appreciate that. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate 
the opportunity to Chair the Subcommittee on Innovation 
Workforce Development and I appreciate that honor. Drew is a 
living example of what we need to do to spur innovation.
    Drew, what would you tell those living with disabilities 
what they need to do to be a success?
    Mr. DAVIS. So, mine would be just to push the envelope. 
There is a bunch of technological resources you got out there 
from technology. My favorite new one is AI and which I use to 
write a lot of my captions because I can't write as fast as a 
lot of people can. But it is just to use your resources. Don't 
be afraid of them.
    And live your life like a story, one page at a time, and 
just continue seeing what you could do. If you fail, it is 
okay. If you don't, you are a legend.
    Mr. MOLINARO. Mr. Chairman, you are a legend. I yield back 
my time.
    Chairman WILLIAMS. That is a great way to close. And I want 
to thank all the witnesses today. You all have really done a 
great job. And one thing I want you to take back home, because 
everybody looks at Washington, we are a disaster. We are a mess 
up here, we know that. But at the same time, I think you can 
see today that we do have a lot of things we agree on. And this 
was a great hearing today where I think everybody agrees on the 
importance of small business and that sort of thing. So I want 
to thank all of you for being here.
    So, without objection, Members have 5 legislative days to 
submit additional materials and written questions for the 
witnesses to the Chair, which will be forwarded to the 
witnesses. I ask the witnesses to please respond promptly.
    And if there is no other further business, without 
objection, the Committee is adjourned. Thank you.
    [Whereupon, 11:46 a.m., the committee was adjourned.]
                            A P P E N D I X

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