[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 75 (Wednesday, June 4, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H3436-H3437]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ON SMALL BUSINESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Brady] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BRADY. Mr. Speaker, today on Capitol Hill there were a number of 
representatives of the National Federation of Independent Business, the 
organization that represents more than 600,000 of our small and 
independent entrepreneurs in America, led capably by Jack Farris.
  They were here today to talk about government and about the role it 
plays in stifling small business and the jobs they have the potential 
to create. It reminds us and helps remind us that small business is the 
engine of our economic growth in America. They are the quiet, very 
quiet heroes of our American economy.
  We all know that most of the jobs in America are created by small 
businesses, but they are creating jobs at 8

[[Page H3437]]

times the rate at small businesses than are created in the larger 
companies with 500 or more employees. In fact in 1995, there were 
800,000, 800,000 new businesses starred in America, a 5 percent 
increase over the year before.
  Not only do these small businesses help our economy, but they help 
stimulate the economy in our community as well. They have a ripple 
effect each time one is created. A business with up to 100 employees 
not only brings new families and school children to our communities, 
but they also spin off another retail establishment to help support it. 
They create over half a million dollars in retail sales within that 
community and over a million dollars of more personal income to be 
spent to generate the local economy.
  Not only do small businesses stimulate the economy, they always give 
back to the community in which they live. Employees of small 
businesses, by research, are more charitable, give back to their 
communities, give more donations to the service providers that help our 
community run.
  These quiet heroes are all around us. Recently in a local newspaper, 
the Family Image, which is run by an entrepreneurial company, Ron and 
Barbara Frazier, who like to reinforce the family values that are the 
foundation of our country, there is a profile of a small business, of a 
small businesswoman K.C. Choe. She is owner of Schlotzsky's Restaurant 
on 1960 West near the intersection with I-45 in north Houston.
  K.C. was born in Seoul, South Korea, came to America after high 
school and in 1979 became a U.S. citizen. After working in the Houston 
hotel for three years, she caught the entrepreneurial spirit of this 
country and bought a restaurant in 1984 that her mother helped her buy. 
That restaurant became Schlotzsky's later in 1995. K.C. and her 
coworker Tammy Karpas work 70 hours or more a week. Her mom works there 
as well and helps take care of K.C.'s 12-year-old son Joey, who attends 
Twins Creek Middle School in Spring, TX, and K.C., Tammy and her mom 
work there day in and day out providing quality service to their 
customers.

                              {time}  2245

  She and her family have faced a thousand challenges to keep that 
company alive and growing and prospering, and like a lot of businesses, 
it is hard to believe the type of regulation and the challenges they 
are up against that government helps create.
  Recently Herman Cain, who is the chairman and CEO of Godfather's, 
jotted down in a local magazine, Success Magazine, some of the 
regulations that they face, just Federal regulations, that a typical 
restaurant in our communities will face, and it is amazing. Let me read 
just some of these organizations and agencies they have to comply with.
  The Department of Justice, for accessibility to disabled customers; 
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, for the occupational tax for 
alcohol sellers; Occupational Safety and Health Administration, for 
blood-borne pathogen program for employees who give first aid; the EPA, 
for car pools for employers in high pollution areas and cooking 
emissions in high pollution areas; Department of Justice, for copyright 
law and restaurant music; Food and Drug Administration, to comply with 
egg refrigeration standards; Department of Labor, the Family and 
Medical Leave Act; the grease trap waste disposal regulations by EPA; 
health claims and restaurant food regulations by the Food and Drug 
Administration; health benefit plans and Americans with Disabilities 
Act by the EEOC; the Immigration Control Act regulates them as well.
  Job application forms and the questions they can ask are regulated of 
their employees are regulated by the EEOC. Their lockout and tagout 
requirements are complied with through OSHA; minimum wage is determined 
and audited by the Department of Labor; the national origin 
discrimination is regulated by the EEOC; the FDA regulates the 
nutrient-content claims and restaurant food.
  The IRS, of course, outlines overtime pay rules and the payroll tax 
deposits. The Department of Labor has the ban on the polygraph for 
employee testing. The Department of Labor has regulations on restaurant 
closings and advance notice to employees; the EEOC, sex discrimination; 
the IRS, tipping-income audits. The Department of Labor has uniforms 
and deposits; the National Labor Relations Board, the union contracts; 
the Department of Labor has the Veterans' employment rights; and earned 
income credit payment, the IRS regulates that on the W-5 form. And 
those are just the Federal regulations.
  Restaurants also have to, even the smallest restaurants, also have to 
comply with State permits and regulations, city health inspections, and 
other registration requirements.
  Mr. Speaker, we need to reduce this kind of burden on people like 
K.C. and other independent businesses, small businesses especially. 
Again, these are the quiet heroes, Mr. Speaker, that we honor this 
week.

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