[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 53 (Wednesday, April 27, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4384-S4386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      NATIONAL SMALL BUSINESS WEEK

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, this week, the Nation celebrates National 
Small Business Week. It is a time when all of us join together, without 
any partisanship at all, to celebrate the hard work of millions of 
American entrepreneurs. At the Small Business Administration Expo last 
night at the Smithsonian, we recognized countless Americans who have 
had the courage to put everything they have on the line in order to 
turn an idea into a business. We celebrated the business people of the 
year from all of the 50 States in the country.
  Today, these Americans, I think all of us recognize, are much more 
than small business owners. They are employers, community leaders, and 
they

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are the people who give life to the American dream. Our small business 
owners not only remind us of the opportunities that America provides to 
those who are willing to work for it, but they remind us how much 
opportunity small business itself provides to all Americans. They drive 
our economy, compromising over 99 percent of all firms and over half of 
our GDP.
  Two-thirds of all new American jobs are created by small businesses, 
and a majority of Americans depend on their small business employer for 
health insurance. Our small businesses are responsible for countless 
inventions and innovations that have elevated the standards of living 
in our country and for people around the world.
  The entrepreneurial spirit I am talking about is alive and well in 
our country, though it faces a number of particular challenges: rising 
health care costs, imports, a reduction in the numbers of people going 
into innovative jobs and pursuing careers in the sciences and in 
research and development. Nevertheless, three out of four adults in 
America have considered starting a small business. With the advent of 
the Internet, those numbers are rapidly going up.
  I know my colleagues are familiar with the Small Business 
Administration in a lot of different ways. We all understand how it is 
charged with defending small business interests in the country. It 
helps small businesses tackle issues ranging from initial development 
issues and startup issues and access to capital to Federal contracting 
and trade assistance. Those efforts are working relatively well. 
Businesses such as Staples, Intel, Nike, America Online, Eskimo Joe's, 
Callaway Golf, FedEx, Hewlett-Packard, Jenny Craig, Ben and Jerry's, 
Winnebago, Sun Microsystems, Outback Steakhouse--you don't think of 
them as small businesses in need of Federal assistance. But the fact is 
every one of those businesses, and many more that have become household 
names in America, got their initial startup with Federal assistance, 
with venture capital or loans from the SBA, which they could not have 
gotten otherwise and couldn't get from traditional sources. Their 
owners have proven that sometimes outstanding business ideas deserve a 
chance, even when traditional lenders or venture capitalists won't take 
that chance.
  So we can ask the question, how many of these businesses may not have 
made it without help from the SBA? How many jobs would have been lost? 
How much tax revenue would have been lost to communities and the 
country? The benefits of small business expansion are numerous: a 
stronger economy, higher paying jobs, better prospects for women and 
minorities, innovation, cutting-edge products, increased opportunities 
for countless Americans.
  What is unique about the SBA investments is they pay for themselves 
and they pay for the SBA budget many times over with the tax revenues 
to the country. So supporting our small business is a win-win 
proposition for Americans. We can afford it. The people want it. Our 
economy needs it.
  That is why it is very hard to understand why this administration 
does not provide the full measure of support to the SBA and to those 
businesses. The SBA budget has been cut by over one-third since 2001--
the largest reduction of any Federal agency, despite the fact that it 
is one of the few Federal agencies that completely pays for itself. 
Those cuts would have been far greater if Congress had not intervened. 
I am pleased to say, on a bipartisan basis with Senators on both sides 
of the aisle, we joined together to intervene. The chairwoman of the 
Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, Senator Snowe, and I 
have worked with Members of both sides in order to provide the funding 
that was necessary and to prevent further cuts from taking place. Time 
and again we have received unanimous support in the Senate to rebuff 
proposed administration cuts that would have gone further. That is 
because supporting small businesses is not a partisan issue, and it 
never should be. We should not have to fight so hard to provide support 
for something that so obviously benefits all of us.
  The administration loves to claim the pro-business mantle, but if 
they were candid with the American people, they would clarify that most 
of that support, as we see in the Energy bill or the tax bill, means 
big business, not small business.
  If you look at the tax cuts, the administration claims the tax cuts 
primarily benefit small businesses, but in reality, only the biggest 
small businesses get the majority of those cuts. More than half of 
small business owners received less than $500 in tax cuts, and almost a 
quarter of those businesses got no tax cuts at all.
  If you look at energy policy, you can see that while American 
families and small businesses have struggled with gas prices, oil 
companies earned record profits in the fourth quarter of 2004. Exxon-
Mobil was up 218 percent. Conoco-Phillips was up 145 percent. Shell was 
up 51 percent. ChevronTexaco was up 39 percent. BP was up 35 percent.
  Show me the small business in America, except the rare small 
business, that saw that kind of growth in the fourth quarter of last 
year.
  You can also look at this disparity at what is happening with respect 
to Federal contracts right now. Congress set the goal of the Federal 
government awarding at least 23 percent of its contracting dollars to 
small businesses. So what did the administration do? They allowed $2 
billion worth of contracts to be reported as going to small businesses 
when, in fact, they went to some of the largest businesses in the 
country. The money went to Raytheon, in my State, Northrop Grumman, 
General Dynamics, and Hewlett-Packard. Even the State of Texas was 
treated as a small business.
  An administration concerned with small business ought to be outraged 
by these facts, and it ought to do something about it. This 
administration has facilitated the distortion of that Federal agency 
contracting goal of 23 percent and, in fact, allowed a process to go 
forward that has undermined our ability to help the small businesses 
that need it.
  In addition, the administration has refused requests for an audit. 
They have not taken substantive steps to reform the contracting 
process. They have not prosecuted anyone for misrepresenting their 
organization as a small business. And now the administration is 
supporting efforts to make it easier for the Energy Department to shift 
money away from small businesses.
  A bipartisan Senate has repeatedly stood up to the administration and 
called them to account for being too willing to ignore the challenges 
that face small businesses. It is time to again join forces to assure 
that this new challenge to small businesses, which is the diversion of 
federal contracts and the distortion of the standards that apply to 
what is a small business and what is a large business, ought to be 
appropriately adjusted.
  Small businesses are also particularly hard hit by health care. Most 
small business owners want to do right by their employees. They try 
hard to do that, but too many of them just cannot afford to offer 
health care anymore. Premiums are rising faster than inflation or 
wages, with double-digit increases in each in the last 4 years.
  Since 2000, the premiums for family coverage have gone up 59 percent 
compared with inflation increases of nearly 10 percent and wage growth 
of over 12 percent. Some small businesses have reported premium 
increases of as much as 70 percent in one year. As a result, 5 percent 
fewer small businesses offered health benefits to their workers in 2004 
than in 2001. By contrast, 99 percent of the businesses with 200 or 
more employees offer their workers health insurance. Of 45 million 
uninsured Americans, almost two-thirds are small business owners, their 
employees and their families.
  So I think all of us understand that in a nation founded on equity 
and equality of opportunity, it is important for us to address the 
question of health care costs. We need a plan that gives small business 
access to the range of plan choices and consumer product protections 
that are offered through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. 
And we need to give these small businesses affordable options through 
refundable tax credits and Federal reinsurance plans that will reduce 
premiums for everyone.
  Small businesses and entrepreneurs are America's single greatest 
economic resource. There is not a big business in

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America that did not begin in someone's garage, someone's attic, 
someone's basement, where people did not work out of a car for a period 
of time in an effort to try to grow that business. Time and again small 
businesses, not large corporations, have pulled our economy out of 
trouble by creating the jobs and the products of the future.
  For many entrepreneurs, the SBA is their only chance to earn their 
fair share of the American dream. As we celebrate small businesses and 
entrepreneurship this week, we all have a responsibility to defend that 
dream. We need to ensure that the SBA is adequately funded. We need to 
ensure legislation never shortchanges small businesses, and we need to 
provide a real plan for small business health care. The doors of 
opportunity must be open to everyone.

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