[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 87 (Monday, July 10, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6323-S6324]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NATIONAL WOMEN'S SMALL BUSINESS SUMMIT REPORT
Mr. BOND. Mr. President, on a number of occasions, I have come to
this floor to talk about the importance of women-owned businesses.
Women-owned businesses employ more than 27.5 million people and
generate over $3.6 billion in sales and have grown by 103 percent in
the past 4 years.
As one of the fastest growing segments of the economy, women-owned
small businesses are essential to America's future prosperity, as well
as the prosperity and the well-being of the individual communities and
particularly the families of those women who own businesses.
In recognition of this growth and contribution to our economic life,
I convened with a bipartisan group of policymakers a national women's
small business summit entitled ``New Leaders for a New Century,'' which
was held in Kansas City, MO, on June 4 and 5 of this year. The
cosponsors of that conference were my ranking member on the Small
Business Committee, Senator John Kerry, along with Senators Dianne
Feinstein, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Olympia Snowe, and Mary Landrieu.
Today I am very pleased to announce that we are releasing a report of
the recommendations of the women who attended this summit. Copies will
be available in every office. It will be available through the Small
Business Committee, and later I will also ask that portions be printed
in the Record.
Because the conference was designed to elicit directly the views,
concerns, and policy recommendations of women business owners, we
learned more about the obstacles women entrepreneurs face and the
specific issues which are of the utmost importance to them.
It is interesting; what we learned is this: Despite the advances
women have made in the entrepreneurial area, their top priorities
remain, first, procuring their fair share of Federal contracts. We have
already dealt with that on this floor, and in a bipartisan,
overwhelming vote on a resolution said the Federal Government needs to
live up to its legislatively mandated responsibility to set aside 5
percent of small
[[Page S6324]]
business contracts for women small business owners. They have not even
come halfway to the goal.
Second, the women business owners who met with us are very much
concerned about taxes. They said their top priority was getting rid of
the death tax. Small business owners do not know when they will owe the
estate or death tax or how much they will owe, so they have enormously
high compliance costs.
A survey by the National Association of Women Business Owners found
that the estate tax imposed almost $60,000 in death-tax-related cost on
women business owners. That is not taxes imposed; that is how much it
cost the average woman-owned small business to figure out what the
death tax implication would be.
As a congressman colleague in Missouri once said, there ought be no
taxation without respiration. That was the overwhelming view of the
women in this conference.
In addition, the report outlines the women's views on what the
Federal Government can do to help women entrepreneurs in areas such as
access to capital, pensions and retirement, expanding markets, and
health care. By asking women small business owners themselves to
identify their professional concerns and make corresponding policy
recommendations, we as policymakers, as legislators, should be able to
craft our agenda much more effectively, and that agenda is oversight of
the Small Business Administration and other Government agencies
complying with the law, as well as legislative recommendations. This,
we think, should facilitate even greater success on the part of current
women small business owners and also offer incentives to more women to
consider becoming business owners themselves.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the conclusion of the
report be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Conclusion
The Summit participants were a diverse group of experienced
women business owners who presented their candid views in
response to the challenge from the Summit's sponsors. The
participants' discussions focused on a vast number of wide-
ranging issues and problems in seven areas confronting women-
owned small businesses. There was no script directing the
agenda. The Summit was participant-driven--the participants
identified problems, they formulated solutions, and they put
the recommendations in priority order.
Each participant brought a unique perspective to the
Summit. One half of all participants had companies that had
been in business for at least 10 years. Eighty-six percent of
the women small-business owners were between the ages of 35
and 64. These seasoned executives and entrepreneurs brought
years of experience to the table, and they are the best
source for ideas on and solutions to the pressing problems
confronting women-owned businesses in America today.
The issue singled out as the top priority by the Summit
participants were Federal procurement. The participants at
the highly attended Procurement session made a series of 13
recommendations. From this list, the participants' number one
priority was that Federal agencies must begin awarding 5% of
their contract dollars to women-owned small businesses. This
5% goal was established by Congress in 1994, and Federal
agencies have failed to reach even one-half of the goal--
2.5%--every year since the goal was enacted into law.
The second highest-ranked priority area for women business
owners was the availability of capital, with a particular
emphasis on their inability to raise equity investment
capital. For start-up and fast-growing companies, the ability
to raise equity capital is often critical to building a
successful business. Equity infusions are designed to
strengthen a company's balance sheet, which enables it to
borrow money from banks and other commercial lenders in order
to meet the company's day-to-day operating needs. The door to
equity capital has been effectively shut and locked for the
vast majority of women business owners.
The Summit's goal was to ensure that the recommendations
from the participants receive serious scrutiny from the 107th
Congress and the new Administration as they are sworn-in this
coming January. New incentives should be developed in some
areas to help women-owned small businesses continue to
thrive. But in other areas, government must simply stay out
of the way and let these entrepreneurs do what they do best--
run successful companies. At the same time, the heads of
Federal agencies need to be held accountable when their
agency fails to do its part under the law, such as with the
requirement that the Federal government must award 5% of its
contracts to women-owned small businesses.
With all of the participants' specific recommendations in
each of the respective topic areas, the Congress and the
Executive Branch have a new mandate--listen to what women
shall-business owners have said and answer their call to
action. In that vein, this report will be distributed to
every Member of the United States Senate and House of
Representatives and to the President of the United States in
order to ensure that the Summit's recommendations are in the
forefront of what needs to be done to help small businesses.
The major issues singled out by the Summit participants must
be the focus of the Congress and the Administration as they
work to support and assist women-owned small businesses,
which are so critical to the continued economic prosperity of
this country.
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