[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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