[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 37 (Friday, March 7, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E410-E411]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. TOM UDALL

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 6, 2003

  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to 
rise today to introduce legislation which amends the Small Business Act 
to authorize a Small Business Development Center in an eligible State 
to apply for an additional Small Business Administration grant to be 
used solely to provide specified services to assist with outreach, 
development, and enhancement on Indian lands of small business startups 
and expansions that are owned by Indian tribe members, Alaska Natives, 
or Native Hawaiians.
  I introduced this legislation during the 107th Congress where it 
passed the House and unfortunately was not considered in the Senate. I 
am pleased to reintroduce this legislation today and wish to thank 
Chairman Manzullo and Ranking Member Velazquez for their support of 
this legislation as well as Representatives Graves, Franks, Renzi, 
Matheson, Kildee, Hayworth, Mark Udall, Millender-

[[Page E411]]

McDonald, Ballance, Christian-Christensen, Gonzalez, Acevedo-Vila, 
Case, Michaud, Tubbs Jones, Carson, Faleomavega, Bordallo, Napolitano, 
and Davis for their support.
  This legislation requires a State receiving a small business 
development center program grant to request the advice of the governing 
bodies of Indian tribes, corporations organized pursuant to the Alaska 
Native Claims Settlement Act and other Alaska Native entities, and 
Native Hawaiian organizations, as appropriate, on how best to provide 
assistance to such members, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians and 
where to locate satellite centers to provide such assistance.
  Today we have demonstrated how important small business enterprise is 
to the health of our economy. But there are still places in this 
country where economic prosperity has often failed to reach. These 
areas deserve our attention and assistance.
  Consider this, nowhere in America has poverty persisted longer than 
on and near Native American reservations, which suffer an average 
unemployment rate of 45 percent. However, the number of businesses 
owned by Indian tribe members and Native Alaskans grew by 84 percent 
from 1992 to 1997, and their gross receipts grew by 179 percent in that 
period. This is compared to all businesses, which grew by 7 percent, 
and their total gross receipts grew by 40 percent, in that period.
  I would like to continue this growth and expansion of small 
enterprise with the passage of this legislation. My bill ensures that 
Native Americans, Native Alaskans and Native Hawaiians seeking to 
create, develop and expand small businesses, have full access to the 
counseling and technical assistance available through the SBA's SBDC 
program. The business development tools offered by the SBDCs can assist 
Native Americans with the information and opportunity to build 
sustainable businesses in their communities.
  In an effort to ensure the quality and success of the program, the 
proposal requires SBA to include in the application, at a minimum, 
information requests regarding the applicant's goals and objectives, 
including the experience of the applicant in conducting programs or 
ongoing efforts designed to assist the business skills of small 
business owners and the capability of such applicant to provide 
training and services to a representative number of Native Americans, 
Native Alaskans and Native Hawaiians.
  It is clear we can do more to aid Native American entrepreneurs. Not 
enough has been done to assist Native American's in building their 
businesses, which in turn helps benefit, their communities. I hope to 
change that with my proposal.

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