[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 38 (Tuesday, March 16, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H1492-H1499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    DEMOCRATIC SMALL BUSINESS AGENDA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Mrs. Dahlkemper) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. Mr. Speaker, I look forward tonight in this next 
hour to discuss the Democratic small business agenda, one that I 
believe will really help to bring our country further out of the 
recession that we are now climbing out of. I am glad that some of my 
colleagues are able to join me tonight as we talk about this agenda 
going forward.
  As our country struggles to overcome the effects of the financial 
crisis and economic recession, we must look for innovative ways to help 
create new jobs and foster private sector growth. We must act 
aggressively to counter the job losses of the past 2 years. And those 
job losses have been great. More than 8 million jobs have been lost 
since the recession began in late 2007. Our Nation's unemployment rate 
is near 10 percent, and in many areas well above 10 percent. Job losses 
are on the decline, which is good news amidst so many months of 
recession, but we still have a very long way to go.
  The number of long-term unemployed individuals in the United States 
is extremely high, totaling 6.1 million people as of last month. That 
is 6.1 million people who have been out of work for 27 weeks or longer. 
That is nearly 7 months of unemployment. And approximately 2.5 million 
people are considered marginally attached to the labor force, meaning 
they want work, but because the job market is so uninviting they have 
not looked for work in the last 4 weeks.
  One of our Nation's greatest historical strengths has always been our 
optimism. But when faced with a long-term, gradual recovery, as we are 
today, it is understandable that patience wanes and it becomes 
difficult to retain the optimism that has served us so well in the 
past. That is why we must act aggressively and decisively to help our 
private sector grow and create jobs.
  I believe the best place to start is the area of our economy that has 
the greatest record of success in creating jobs, and that is our small 
business sector. As a former small business owner--my husband is still 
running the business--I have seen firsthand the power of small 
businesses in our communities. A grocery store can transform an urban 
landscape, improve the health and lower crime in neighborhoods that 
others may have thought was a lost cause. A retail store or restaurant 
can energize a community by drawing patrons to lesser traveled areas. A 
small business can turn an empty street into a destination for 
customers and tourists. Manufacturers and producers can create hubs of 
commerce and employment when the jobs they create directly beget 
indirect jobs.

                              {time}  1845

  Manufacturers need supplies and equipment to create their products, 
and their workers need a place to eat lunch and to shop.
  When small businesses grow and prosper, their communities reap the 
benefits. Small businesses are the engine of economic growth and job 
creation in the United States, and they've been for years. Over the 
last 15 years, small businesses have created over 65 percent of the 
Nation's new jobs, approximately 14.5 million jobs. Small businesses 
represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms. That means less than 1 
percent of our employers are big corporations.
  Small businesses are the starting point for economic success. The 
small businesses of today are the success stories of tomorrow. It's 
small businesses that create the technologies that profoundly affect 
our lives and our culture--medical devices that regulate heartbeats, 
software that allows us to connect with people across the globe, 
products that rid our ground water of arsenic. These are just a few of 
the examples of innovations of small businesses.
  The American entrepreneurial spirit will help drive our economy out 
of recession, creating jobs in innovation along the way. That is why we 
must do all we can to help businesses, small businesses, grow and 
prosper.
  I would now like to yield to my good friend, Mr. Tonko from New York.
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you for bringing us together this evening for this 
discussion on the small business agenda here in Washington.
  Obviously, as has been stated so many times during this session of 
Congress, the number one priority is jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs. We 
cannot overemphasize the impact that job creation, job retention bears 
on the discussions that we have here in restoring this Nation's 
economy.
  And you make a very valid point in assessing the very deep loss of 
jobs that we experienced at the beginning of this administration. It 
was somewhere in the neighborhood of 700,000 to 750,000 jobs lost per 
month in the last 3 or 4 months before the Obama administration began 
its work here in Washington. That was a tremendous loss to this 
Nation's economy. Millions upon millions, 7 to 8 million jobs lost 
during this recession. A very painful blow to the American economy and 
certainly to the American households across this Nation.
  And as we look forward to progress to inspire us, it is good to note 
that while it's not good enough, some 200,000 to 300,000 jobs lost in 
the last few months is a vastly improved outcome, a long way to go, but 
moving in the right direction. The American Recovery and Reinvestment 
Act enabled us to place down payments in small business production and 
creation and retention. Certainly those efforts are coming in cutting-
edge fashion where we're now addressing job growth in a way that speaks 
to research and development, allowing us to spark an innovation economy 
that enables us to respond in very valid terms by embracing our 
intellectual capacity as a Nation.
  These are the source of efforts that require our investment. And I am 
so impressed that we can move forward now with many issues that were 
back-burnered.
  When we look at the need to produce here locally in this country, to 
produce nationally for our energy needs, nothing could be smarter than 
to move forward with a clean energy economy, to be able to draw down 
that gluttonous dependency on fossil-based fuels that has fed this 
system, that has enabled us in a way to continue to add to that carbon 
footprint. And we're putting hundreds of billions of dollars per year

[[Page H1493]]

into the treasuries of unfriendly nations to the United States and our 
allies across the globe. That is not smart government. That is enabling 
us to continue along the course of status quo where we don't exercise 
the options available to us.
  I look within my district. I look within the region that I represent 
and beyond in upstate New York, and there are such great things 
happening in nanoscience, in semiconductors, in superconductivity 
cable, in renewables, that we are now cultivating this climate that 
enables us to respond to a clean energy economy. It's growing our 
energy independence. It's growing our energy security, and therefore, 
favorably addressing our national security, because as we conduct these 
sorts of experiments and grow opportunities in the energy world, we are 
giving birth to wonderful startups, to entrepreneurs, and that is the 
spirit that is uniquely American, as you suggested.
  So I'm very, very enthused about where we're heading. I believe that 
as we have stopped the bleeding of this recession, we now go forward 
with the toolkit that will enable our small business community to 
respond in fullest fashion where we embrace the intellect of this 
Nation and allow us again to taste that sense of pioneerism that is 
really, I think, the flame that really sparks America's comeback.
  Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. I think the gentleman makes a great point.
  As you talk about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, I think 
the part of that bill that we maybe fail to get the message out there 
about is the reinvestment side. In the beginning, we were trying to 
help those who were hurting most, those who needed extension of 
unemployment or needed help with COBRA. But now we see many of our 
small businesses are actually involved in the reinvestment side as 
we're actually reinvesting in our economy.
  One of the exciting things I got to see was a new biomass heating 
unit for three different businesses. One is a school district-owned 
business, one is a recreation center, and one is a career center in one 
of my communities. And I asked them about the project, $3.2 million 
project, $500,000 of that coming from the Reinvestment Act. And I asked 
them how important that money was to them, and they said that was what 
they needed to get over the hump. This is going to create new jobs in 
our region on the construction side, and then jobs beyond that.
  But our small businesses will be involved in putting this whole new 
system in, and it's going to actually save a lot of money for these 
three organizations in the long run and take us, as you say, to a 
cleaner economy as we go forward.

  So there certainly are some very exciting things. Our agenda really 
started with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. And it is what 
has taken us out of the recession. And one of the things we need to 
talk about is the aggressive agenda that we have, as Democrats, for 
small businesses, to give them the support they need to create jobs and 
speed the recovery.
  And one of those is access to capital. I'm sure we all travel around 
our districts and hear from our small businesses that they can't get 
the capital they need. They want to grow their business. They see 
positive signs, and we need to be there. And our agenda, I think, is 
going to take them there. For every small business, they need capital 
to grow, and this is really the first piece of the puzzle. But the 
tight credit has limited their capacity. So we need to provide 
alternate means for small businesses to access capital to grow, and 
that's why we have a couple of different pieces of legislation.
  One I have introduced, which is the Express Loans Improvement Act, 
H.R. 4598, to increase the availability and the utility of SBA express 
loans, a vital source of working capital for small businesses. And so I 
would certainly like to thank people who've come on that bill. And I 
want to thank particularly Congresswoman Bean because she helped to 
introduce that legislation with me.
  There are a number of other loans programs through the SBA that we're 
working to improve for our small businesses that will help them access 
the capital that will help them to grow.
  Right now, I would like to yield to one of our newest Members from 
California, certainly a very welcome addition to our Democratic caucus 
and to Congress as a whole.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you. I want to thank the gentlelady from 
Pennsylvania and the gentleman from New York for the opportunity to 
discuss this critical issue of small business and jobs.
  We know the statistics are very bad. But the discussion you two were 
having a moment ago used the word ``investment.'' And we talked about 
the American Reinvestment Act. It's now 13 months old. And it's 
absolutely critical that we always ponder investment because the 
investments that we can make at the government level will lead to 
short-term job growth as well as to long-term job growth and stability.
  Years ago, we looked in California about how do you grow the 
California economy. I did a report on it. This was more than 25 years 
ago. And we noted that the history of California's great economic 
growth was centered on five things. The first and foremost of them was 
the enormous investment that was made in education, both in K-12 and 
community colleges and in the research institutions. It was that 
investment that gave the foundation. And here we are today with 
enormous disinvestment, backing away from that critical investment in 
education.
  Now, the legislation that we talked about, the American Reinvestment 
Act, moved billions of dollars into the education sector so that we can 
continue to educate our kids at the universities and K-12 and the 
community colleges so that people who had lost their jobs could come 
back and learn the new skills, as you were saying, Mr. Tonko, the new 
skills in the green technology. Extraordinarily important investment in 
knowledge, investment in the ability of people to compete 
internationally.
  Our friends on the Republican side say, No, we shouldn't have done 
that. So what are these people to do? They have lost their job. They 
don't have the opportunity to get new knowledge and new skills.
  The second thing that we learned that was one that you also just 
talked about, the two of you a moment ago, about the necessity for 
research. It is in the research that the new jobs are created. Why? 
Because those are new products. Those are things that people demand and 
want and need for the growing economy. And in that is the high profit 
margin. And, again, for the first time, the Democratic Congress and the 
President--without the help of the Republicans--passed the greatest 
increase in research money in the last 20 years, putting money into 
research that will again lead to jobs sooner and later as the economy 
grows.
  There are many other pieces of this. One that's before us is the 
health care legislation. I know a young couple in their mid-thirties 
that want to start their own business but they cannot leave the job 
that they have today because they know that as small business people, 
they will not be able to get health care insurance. They have two kids.
  So these are things that we're bringing to the American public--last 
year, with the American Recovery Act and now this year, as we look at 
how we're going to deal with health care. These are the critical 
investments that we need to make. And I thank you so very much for 
bringing this to our attention, to the attention of the American 
public.

  Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. I thank my friend from California.
  Now I would like to yield to my friend from Michigan (Mr. Peters).
  Mr. PETERS. Thank you for yielding the time. Thank you, Mrs. 
Dahlkemper, for putting together and assembling this Special Order. And 
I would also like to thank Chairman Larson, as well as Representatives 
Sutton and Hastings, for chairing the House Jobs Task Force, of which 
I'm a member, and I think others are members of here tonight as well, 
which is doing very important work to make sure we are creating jobs in 
this country.
  We all know that small businesses employ half of all private-sector 
employees, and are responsible for creating 60 to 80 percent of all new 
jobs over the last decade. They create more than half of our Nation's 
nonfarm GDP. Small businesses employ 40 percent of high-tech workers, 
and small businesses create 13 times more patents per

[[Page H1494]]

employee than large patenting firms. And improving access to credit is 
a key aspect of helping these small businesses grow and create jobs and 
ensure that America remains a global economic powerhouse.
  I am pleased that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided 
$30 billion in tax relief for small businesses and increased the 
percentage a business can write off in capital expenditures by 50 
percent. Additionally, the total amount a business can write out has 
been doubled to $250,000, allowing for a substantial investment in 
equipment and resources for small businesses.
  But much more, as we know, much more needs to be done to help our 
small businesses in this country.
  Last year, I had the opportunity to host a field hearing in Oakland 
County, Michigan, where I gave borrowers and lenders an opportunity to 
discuss the challenges that we're facing in Michigan. Bank regulators 
attended the hearing as well so that we could hear firsthand their 
policies and how those policies are making it very difficult for banks 
to make the loans to very worthy businesses in my State. And I know 
it's not just a problem in Michigan, but in States all across the 
country now.
  One of the biggest problems that borrowers and lenders outlined was 
that as their value of commercial real estate, manufacturing equipment, 
and other sources of collateral has dropped, it has made it very 
difficult to obtain a line of credit. Even for a company that has 
purchase orders in hand, it is difficult for them to get that money. 
That's why I'm working with Congressman Levin and Congressman Dingell 
on legislation that will provide States with funding that they can use 
to create a collateral support program to make sure that these 
businesses get the vital lending that is so important for them.
  That's why I have also proposed a small business lending plan that 
will redirect unspent Wall Street bailout funding to instead help small 
businesses in our communities so they can get the credit that they need 
to grow and to create jobs.

                              {time}  1900

  Efforts to help small businesses are especially crucial in areas of 
high unemployment. I was happy to author legislation through the Small 
Business Committee which I know, Representative Dahlkemper, you are a 
leader in, to provide zero-interest loans worth up to $75,000 to small 
businesses in high unemployment areas, with payment on these loans 
deferred for 18 months. It also makes high unemployment areas eligible 
for the New Market Venture Capital program, providing strong financial 
incentive for investment in new and emerging industries in areas where 
the workforce is necessary to build the new economy and is ready and 
enthusiastic and just needs that additional help.
  In addition to helping businesses access capital, we must make sure 
that they also have access to key partnership programs that are proven 
to spur job creation. For example, the Manufacturing Extension 
Partnership, the MEP, is a crucial national program that provides 
technical services and assistance to increase productivity and 
efficiency of small and medium-sized businesses. The Manufacturing 
Extension Partnership is a model of an efficient and effective program, 
credited with creating and retaining over 55,000 jobs per year and 
$10.5 billion in increased or retained sales.
  MEP support is vital to the long-term success and competitiveness of 
small and medium-sized American businesses, and preserving and 
strengthening the program should be a priority as Congress continues to 
work on reviving this economy and getting that growth going.
  Currently, the costs of the MEP's services are shared between the 
Federal Government, State government and industry with Federal 
Government contributing one-third, and States and industries 
contributing the remaining two-thirds. However, State budgets have 
threatened the MEP's existence, and at least 23 State MEP centers now 
report a decrease or elimination of State MEP funding in 2009 alone, 
and some centers have been operating without State assistance for 
years. When a State eliminates this vital funding, it is left to small 
businesses to cover the gap, and they risk losing Federal dollars in 
those States that are being hurt the worst. That is why I have 
introduced legislation with Representative Ehlers that would reduce the 
matching requirements for small businesses to ensure that they can 
continue to participate in this MEP program.
  And, finally, I would like to also announce that this afternoon I 
introduced, along with Chairman Larson and Congressmen Reichert and 
Tiberi, a bill entitled the ``American Job Creation Investment Act'' to 
provide business tax relief projected to create hundreds of thousands 
of new jobs. I would like to thank my colleagues for working with me on 
this bill and support from those of you here in the Special Order here 
tonight as well.
  This bill in a sense will allow companies to use the alternative 
minimum tax credits that they now hold but that otherwise they must 
save for future years to be used this year for job creation, job 
retention, and capital investments. The bill is estimated to directly 
create over 65,000 new jobs and help businesses retain 170,000 jobs in 
the next 2 years, plus spur $40 billion in additional job-creating 
investment. A wide array of industry associations currently endorse the 
bill, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association 
of Manufacturers, the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association, 
Associated Builders and Contractors Association, and the Association 
for Manufacturing Technology.
  This is an incredibly efficient and commonsense way for us to spur 
job creation. Companies are sitting on these tax credits, but under 
current tax law cannot use them until future years. This bill will 
allow them to use the tax credits they have already accrued to create 
jobs now, when we need them the most. And I would like to encourage my 
colleagues to cosponsor this very important bill.
  While I'm proud of the work that we have done in Congress to turn 
around our economy and help families and small businesses, I think we 
all agree that there is no question that there is more work to be done. 
Small businesses will be the key to my State's, and the entire 
Nation's, economic recovery. And I believe, as I know all of you 
believe, that helping businesses have access to capital that they need 
to grow, invest and create jobs is the key to helping our economy move 
and put Americans back to work. I look forward to continuing to work 
with all of you and applaud your efforts here tonight to bring this 
important issue to the American people as we continue to work to create 
jobs in this great country.
  Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. I thank my friend from Michigan who I know is just 
out there every day fighting for jobs in Michigan and fighting for this 
country to make sure that we have a robust and strategic plan going 
forward. And many of your pieces of legislation that you have brought 
forward will do that. I'm really glad you brought up MEP, the 
Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which I'm also a big fan of. I 
think that we need to make sure it is funded and funded in a way that 
our communities don't lose the funding if their States don't have the 
money. So I'm glad that you're working on that, and I appreciate your 
work in that area.
  I'm also glad you brought up the Recovery Act tax relief. Again, 
there are so many parts about the Recovery Act that we don't talk about 
enough, and it gets stuck as ``stimulus bill.'' I really like the 
``Recovery Act'' name better. We need to talk about that recovery and 
reinvestment side, the tax relief that came to individuals, but the tax 
relief that came to small businesses to allow them to reinvest into 
their businesses continues on. And I think that is important not to 
forget those pieces.
  I'm going to yield again to my friend from New York.
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Dahlkemper. And it is a pleasure 
to hear both Congressmen from Michigan and California and you as a 
Representative from Pennsylvania all speaking the voice of the freshman 
class. I'm so enthused to work with all of us as freshman Members of 
this Congress. We have brought, I believe, a lot of thought, a lot of 
energy, a lot of vision; and we are attaching it to the leadership of 
this House, which is broken from some of the failed attempts from the 
prior administration.

[[Page H1495]]

  The entire focus on manufacturing through the MEP program was denied. 
There wasn't a respect shown, I believe, strong enough toward the 
manufacturing sector. And the American manufacturing sector is alive. 
It will be competitive on the global scene because it can do it 
smarter, and the investment of that intellectual capacity of this 
Nation gives us great promise with the manufacturing sector.
  So to hear of all these ideas, from tax benefits that will go toward 
creating small business opportunities, to dealing with the credit 
crunch, making certain that we raise the loan opportunities to allow 
for the working capital needs to be met for our small business 
community, those are important aspects. Those are great factors.
  H.R. 4598, which you are sponsoring, Congresswoman, is tremendous 
benefit to the opportunities to invest in small business, and they are 
the backbone of this American economy.
  To the gentleman from California, when he spoke of health care, I 
talked to a number of small businesses that might have five, 10, 15 
employees. And when they are insuring their employees for health care 
purposes, they are looking over a rather small base. And the bill that 
we are looking at before the House allows for an exchange to be 
developed where there is a large pool of employees, where there is 
going to be a regulatory environment to hold down those costs. And 
beyond that, if you have one employee of five or 10 impacted with 
catastrophic illness, you're probably going to see rate increases in 
your insurance rise exponentially. When you put them into a larger sea 
of employees, by operating through these exchanges, that's the kind of 
reform that is responding to the needs of small business.
  We talked about it today in my office. People understand that 
concept. You put people's situations into a large audience, and it 
neutralizes the outcome in a way that spreads the pain and allows small 
business to continue to provide for their employees, which they want to 
do. We have decided in this country we are going to stay with an 
employer-based health care system. So let's provide the reforms that 
allow small business to have the benefit in that outcome. If we profess 
small business to be the vision of the future, to be the job growth 
market, certainly we have seen it in the last decade or two, 75 to 85 
percent of all the new jobs created are coming through small business.
  So let's be there in a user-friendly way that allows them to provide 
for their employees so that they have a healthy and strong workforce so 
that we can put together both the physical health care, mental health 
care concepts that will enable them to prosper, put together the 
funding opportunities dealing with that credit crunch. We saw what 
happened. The banks were not regulated. We saw the institutions out 
there collapse. It killed the American economy and the global economy. 
And the credit lines were dried up. They were exhausted for households 
and businesses. That is not good.
  So now it is our challenge as Democrats to respond; and, I think, in 
many dimensions we are responding. We are going to open those credit 
lines. We are going to provide for that capital need to be met for the 
business community. We are responding. And people need to know that 
it's a full agenda from a jobs package to health care reform to energy 
reform, which is growing a clean energy economy, an innovation economy. 
These are the concepts that are going to provide the change that was 
long overdue and utilize the American know-how, the great pioneer 
spirit.
  I represent a host of communities, a necklace as I like to refer to 
it, of mill towns. They were the epicenters of invention and 
innovation. That spirit still prevails in this country today. And we 
need to foster that kind of growth. We need to grow out of this 
recession, now that we have stopped the bleeding, and build this 
economy the way we envision it to be the most powerful, with small 
business at the front and center of that.
  Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. I'm sure as the gentleman goes around his district, 
as my other colleagues do, and visits our small businesses, we see the 
innovation. It is exciting to go visit those small businesses in our 
region who are really doing some very amazing and innovative work.
  Again, we have a robust and strategic agenda, the Democrats. And we 
have got to continue to work on this as we want to continue to help our 
small businesses. I think we have got a lot of good pieces in place 
and, as Mr. Peters brought up, even more things that we are bringing 
forward.
  I would like to yield again to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, thank you so very much for weaving together 
all the pieces of the puzzle that the Democratic Party and this 
Congress are putting together. It is the education piece, the health 
care piece, and also there is another piece, and I'm going to use an 
example here of what is taking place in one of the counties I 
represent. It's Contra Costa County and the Contra Costa Council, which 
is made up of businesspeople who have said, let's use the purchasing 
power of government to incentivize and to help the small businesses.

  Now, it happens that in this particular area, there are major 
research institutions. The University of California, the Lawrence 
Berkeley Lab, Lawrence Livermore Lab and the Sandia Lab are all in the 
area. And out of that comes enormous numbers of new ideas. But those 
ideas are often left without a real market because they are new and 
they haven't been able to grow and to develop their market. So the 
local government said, why don't we get together and become the 
purchaser and jump-start, use the purchasing power of government, 
particularly in the area of energy conservation.
  For example, street lights, there is a new company that is in the LED 
lighting system, and it's possible for that company, in their own 
neighborhood, to create a huge market, replacing the existing street 
lights. They use an enormous amount of energy with the new LED lights. 
But one example, in order to do that, that is the wise use of 
government. At the Federal level, billions upon billions of dollars are 
spent every year, often going to the large companies to what are known 
as the ``Beltway Bandits,'' the companies that hover around Washington. 
We in the Democratic Party are doing this today, the Democratic 
Congress is pushing the President, pushing the administration to push 
those jobs back to the local community by contracting with small 
businesses.
  The small business community needs access to the Federal contracts 
just as they would like to have access to the local government. That 
has been the policy of the Democratic Congress and is the policy of the 
Democratic President to make sure that small businesses have access to 
the Federal contracts. It doesn't come easy. I was the Deputy Secretary 
of the Department of the Interior in the 1990s, and we had to literally 
force the bureaucracies to contract with small business. It is like 
putting in reporting requirements. We are continuing that today.
  So once again, there is a web of opportunities, education, health 
care, the tax laws, all of these things, including contracting and 
access to the Federal and local government purchasing power that 
creates opportunities for small businesses. That is our agenda, and 
it's a good agenda for America. It's a good agenda for business.
  Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. Another piece of the legislation that we have passed 
through the House and the Senate, I believe, is taking it up tomorrow, 
is the HIRE Act, or the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act, 
which includes tax cuts, again, for small businesses to invest, expand 
and hire more workers. It also takes on unemployment directly creating 
a payroll tax holiday for businesses that hire unemployed workers to 
create, we hope, some 300,000 jobs in our country and an income tax 
credit of $100,000 for businesses that retain those employees. These 
tax cuts and credits are going to help our small businesses grow and 
push our unemployment rate down.
  As I said, the Senate is considering this, I believe, tomorrow. So we 
will look forward to the Senate's passing that legislation and again 
getting that out to help our small businesses throughout this 
community.
  As a consequence of our recession, small businesses are hesitant to 
invest in expansion in the current economic climate. So to encourage 
those investments, we must continue to offer those tax incentives to 
give our small businesses the comfort they need to have

[[Page H1496]]

to move forward and to grow their businesses, and, again, going back to 
making sure access to capital is there, the tax incentives, the MEP 
programs, even as our colleague from California talked about, the 
education facilities and making sure that there is a connection between 
our small businesses and our education institutes.

                              {time}  1915

  So that is an important piece that we can't forget about. There needs 
to be that good connection. I think many of our pieces of legislation 
are working to make sure that connection is there that wasn't always 
there. Sometimes there is a disconnect between what happens in the 
university setting and research and what happens in our manufacturing 
facilities. And I think we have worked really hard in some of our 
legislation, and we will again in our America Competes legislation that 
we are bringing now through the Science and Tech Committee that many of 
us sit on, we will be working to make sure that that connection is 
there. So it is another important piece.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Let me give you a very brief example of that 
connection.
  The community colleges across this Nation are one of the very best 
places for people to get specific job training. When the community 
college is connected to the business communities, the business 
community can directly affect the educational program that that 
community college is providing, making the education pertinent to the 
employer so that when that employee finishes or when that worker 
finishes the community college program, they are specifically ready.
  I was listening this last weekend when I was back in California to a 
local radio station talking about the way in which the community 
college and the employers are working together to educate unemployed 
construction workers, preparing them for the solar industry so that 
they knew how to install solar photovoltaic, so that they could be the 
salespersons, so that they can do the audits that are necessary, and 
those people would be immediately prepared. Now, the problem is the 
community colleges across this Nation are running out of money.
  Now, Mr. Miller, the chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, 
has proposed a new piece of legislation called the Local Government 
Jobs Act, and it has $23 billion to directly go to the educational 
system so that they can hire the teachers, so that they can do the 
training in the community colleges to prepare workers for the new 
economy that is coming our direction. This is the kind of really 
important and useful legislation that is needed. Some 250,000 teachers 
would continue to be employed.
  And I was noticing in the Washington Post today, the headlines, the 
right-hand column, ``Thousands face furloughs; schools may lose 
millions.'' That is repeated. That same headline was found in the 
Sacramento Bee and the Los Angeles Times in the last week.
  So we need to support the educational system so that unemployed 
workers have the opportunity to become better prepared to take the jobs 
that will be there as these tax incentives, the new economy kicks in, 
as we move to the green technologies and the green energy systems. 
There is a totality here. There is a holistic approach.
  That is what the Democratic agenda provides: tax incentives, health 
care, education, purchasing power of the government made available to 
small businesses, bringing the new businesses on line. All of these 
things create a totality that will restart our economy and keep us 
moving and take these workers that are now tax-takers on unemployment 
insurance, some on welfare, using the COBRA money that we provided 
through the American Recovery Act, and let them become taxpayers, 
building our economy once again. That is our agenda.
  Thank you so very, very much for bringing this small business agenda 
to the American public so that they understand that this party, the 
Democratic Party, is the party that is concerned and is willing to use 
the power of government to restart our economy and to give small 
businesses an opportunity to prosper and grow.
  Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. I thank the gentleman from California, who I know is 
very passionate about these issues. And we really appreciate your 
joining us tonight and being part of this discussion.
  I have said for years that a strong economy really begins with a 
strong education system. We have got to have our students ready. STEM 
education, all the different aspects of education need to be there to 
make a strong student base that will then go on and be our next 
innovators and our next scientists and our next artists, because we 
need all those different aspects of our culture.
  We have been joined by another member of our freshman class, from 
Florida. So representing the southern part of our country, I would like 
to now yield to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Kosmas).
  Ms. KOSMAS. Thank you very much. I thank you for yielding and for 
hosting this important forum on small business.
  I appreciate the picture that has been painted here on the large 
issues nationally and how they are affecting our economy, but I come to 
speak from a personal perspective as a person who has been a small 
business owner, self-employed my entire adult life. And that means that 
in my community, most of my friends and colleagues are also small 
business owners small- to medium-sized business owners, and I recognize 
the things that are important to them. We recognize them, of course, as 
the engines of our economy.
  And what we know for sure is that, over the last decade, 70 percent 
of new jobs created in this country have been created through small 
businesses. That is why they are so critically important to us during 
this economic time. We want to ensure that they are able to survive and 
thrive, and I think we all are working together in order to make that 
happen. We recognize that the Recovery Act has been important to these 
small businesses and that measures have been introduced to help them 
have access to loans and to capital, but I know that in my district and 
in others, businesses are still struggling in order to access the 
capital that they need in order to grow and add jobs.
  Just last week, I visited VaxDesign, which is a truly innovative 
biotech company, in my district, that wants to expand; but in order to 
do so, they are going to need to attract resources. And so what we 
really need to do is to take additional steps to open up the flow of 
capital to small businesses, and that is why I have introduced a bill 
that will eliminate the capital gains tax on long-term investments in 
small business stock. We have done that so that innovative companies 
can attract the long-term investors that they need and grow new jobs. 
We all recognize that that is a very important part of what we are 
trying to do during this particular economic downturn.

  As was previously stated by Representative Dahlkemper, the House has 
recently passed legislation that plays an important role in providing a 
payroll tax break for businesses and also a $1,000 credit for keeping 
new hirees on, and these are very important incentives.
  I have also introduced several other measures that I think are 
extremely important based on my experience in small business and my 
recognition of the issues that are important to them in my district. 
Some of these include incentives to encourage private sector investment 
in areas of high unemployment, which is a serious problem in many 
districts but about 12 percent in parts of my district. And while we 
have had these incentives in place in the past for low-income areas, we 
are now wanting to apply those incentives to high-unemployment areas.
  I have long suggested that we should allow sole proprietors of small 
businesses to be able to deduct the cost of their health care, which 
they are not currently able to do. This has the benefit, of course, of 
providing them with a tax incentive but also encouraging them to have 
health care for themselves and their families.
  We have introduced legislation that increases the new business 
startup deduction from $5,000 to $20,000, and also a Shop Act which we 
introduced that allows small businesses to pool together to purchase 
insurance.
  Some of these, of course, will be taken care of in other ways and 
through other pieces of legislation, but they are important initiatives 
that I have personally taken on as part of my own agenda for my 
district.

[[Page H1497]]

  We also passed an amendment to support the photonics industry through 
the Small Business Innovation and Research Act, and this is very key to 
central Florida, an area where that area is growing rapidly.
  These are some examples of what I call common sense, and they are 
bipartisan solutions that I believe will help our small businesses spur 
investments and create jobs. And it would be my intention to continue 
to work with my colleagues and to try to continue to find new ways to 
increase opportunities for small businesses to grow and to hire more 
folks in central Florida and across the country.
  I certainly am proud to be here this evening and concur with, as I 
say, the big picture that you have painted as to how small business is 
connected to the educational system, and the opportunity for innovation 
that grows out of small business is a very important component of how 
we see improving our educational system at all levels.
  So I thank you again for bringing this issue before us and for the 
opportunity to speak tonight.
  Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. I thank my friend from Florida for joining us. And 
one of the, I think, encouraging things that I have seen, we are all 
new Members here, but many of the new Members who came in in 2009 and 
also that came in in 2007 were small business owners at one point in 
their life and understand the issues that small businesses have to deal 
with. That actually gives great comfort to my small business owners 
back home when I tell them that we have actually started this Small 
Business Owners Caucus to talk about the issues from the small business 
owner perspective as we deal with legislation. And I think it is just 
important for people to understand the issues are different for small 
businesses than large businesses, and our agenda, the things that we 
have been talking about tonight, I think, bring forward the fact that 
we realize that and we are taking many steps here within our Democratic 
agenda to address those small business issues.
  Mr. TONKO. Representative Dahlkemper, you know, you and our colleague 
from Florida sparked a thought as you were both talking about 
innovation and small business creation.
  To the credit of the leadership in the House--and I have to credit 
Speaker Pelosi for really advancing the innovation economy. She 
believes in that investment. She understands that jobs are the greatest 
issue that are out there challenging this country in terms of providing 
the support that is required.
  This Monday before I traveled here to the Nation's capital, while 
still in my district, I was invited to attend the 10th anniversary 
celebration of SuperPower, which is now producing all sorts of 
demonstrations in the high-temperature superconductive cable market.
  As we talk about this energy system in our country, as we talk about 
creating our own American-produced supplies of power, we also need to 
remember there is a delivery system that needs our investment. The 
transmission and distribution system, the arteries and veins of the 
network, if you will, has been designed for monopoly settings. And as 
we have deregged in this industry, we now find that this country is not 
only wielding electrons from region to region but across State borders, 
across country borders as we look at importing power supplies from 
Canada.
  So all that being said, the August 2003 failure that impacted the 
northeast of the United States, the eastern seacoast, States along the 
eastern seaboard, southeast Canada, millions, tens of millions of 
people in a blackout situation for days, if that didn't expose a gaping 
vulnerability of a weakness in this Nation, I don't know what would. So 
we need to invest in that delivery system. That is critical.
  SuperPower, celebrating its 10th anniversary, is there producing 
high-temperature superconductive cable far more efficient than 
conventional cable where multiple times more electrons can be 
transmitted along the line.
  As we look at the agenda in this country, there is no room for waste. 
I talked earlier about the gluttonous dependency on fossil-based fuels. 
If we can improve efficiencywise, we are going to be all the sounder as 
a Nation. So these great researchers and scientists are developing this 
cable.
  They had in their display, at the Schenectady Museum for their 10th 
anniversary celebration, a piece of the cable that was used as a 
demonstration project in the city of Albany, New York, which proved 
successful. Now the work is to further develop so that we can 
commercialize this discovery and that we can drive down the cost so 
that it is truly an economic benefit. That is where R&D comes into 
play. It is all of that investment.
  I truly believe that we, as a country, when investing in these 
efforts, create jobs from the trades on over to the Ph.D.'s. And when I 
looked at that, I realized that, here we have been investing. I was 
there at the front end of investment when we put down a bit of 
investment for capital purchases, for equipment for this startup. Now, 
10 years later, they are doing great work. They are breaking their own 
records and are being recognized nationally and internationally.
  So that has inspired me, along with conversations with small business 
innovators, entrepreneurs that are doing the same sort of signs and 
discovery that will change our response and responsiveness to a number 
of challenges out there.
  I have introduced a bill that deals with the small business 
innovators. They are oftentimes in situations, scenarios that are high 
risk but high reward. And the angel network and the venture capital 
community even in this tough economy, especially in this tough economy, 
is somewhat skittish about going out there, lending to them on their 
own.

                              {time}  1930

  So government has a role here to soften that blow in those high-risk 
but high-reward situations. My bill would take the 2007-2008 success 
stories with the Department of Energy, where phase one and phase two 
investments have been made. Investments in prototyping. You develop an 
idea, you bring an idea to the table, you convince DOE it's a good 
project, and you develop that prototype. And then you test it. And 
there are many success stories where they have built the prototype and 
it met the test. But then we don't do the next and final stage, the 
third stage, which is invest to deploy it to commercialization. My 
measure would take those 2007-2008 success stories and--standing as 
inspiration is SuperPower. Ten years into it, they're breaking their 
own records. They're getting into demonstrations that have now been 
proven successful. We need to continue to invest. Now is not the time 
to walk away from that system. We need to invest in it. Certainly, we 
have potential that is limitless, and we need to go forward, and it 
responds to those present-day and future needs of this Nation and does 
it in magnanimous measure that produces jobs in every element, every 
sector of the workforce.
  So these are the great investments. Just like we're investing in 
community colleges--where we'll have before us in the near future 
measures to invest in community colleges. One of my local community 
colleges is investing in clean room science technology. So that as we 
develop these ``clean'' rooms with the nanoscience industry with chips 
that are manufactured, they can then be coupled with everything from 
agriculture as an industry to the pharmaceutical industry to health 
care to energy. There's great potential there. And these are 
partnerships that need to be fostered by the government. This is a role 
where the government can produce jobs, because they're removing some of 
the risk, and they're there because all society benefits from these 
opportunities. They're great bits of discovery.
  And to SuperPower, I publicly want to thank them for 10 years of a 
success story. And I know they're going to go on to even greater things 
where we can apply this into high-efficiency situations. Think of it. 
As we begin to grow our renewables out there with solar arrays, with 
solar farms, with wind farms, we are then able to take direct current 
cable, where there's a hundred percent efficiency, no line loss. So as 
you're taking that generated energy, American-produced energy, you're 
now making certain there's no loss of that product in its delivery 
mode. And we're all prospering from that.
  These are the opportunities we're talking about. They were put on the

[[Page H1498]]

back burner. MEP was told, You don't need to be funded any more. 
Manufacturing doesn't need our attention. Nothing could be further from 
the truth. We need to invest in these industries. And we can do it 
because we have the know-how. We invest through higher education, we 
invest through apprenticeships with our trade unions. We do all of this 
investing, but then we need to provide the hope. And the hope comes in 
a job--in a business that's produced that translates into jobs.
  Let's do it. Let's do it in a progressive, visionary way that enables 
all of us to prosper. And I'm so impressed that the Democrats are 
putting together a strategic plan that ranges from health care reform 
to job creation to incentives and tax relief and credit line opening, 
dealing with that credit crunch and putting together the workforce 
training. These are the elements. These are the tools in the toolkit 
that will take us to a new era of job creation--some jobs not yet on 
the radar screen. That's the remarkable bit of visioning here, of 
public policy development and resources that are put together in the 
budget.
  So I can't thank you enough for the small business passion that you 
bring to this House, Representative Dahlkemper. Your track record as a 
small business person is that inspiration for you to then influence us 
in putting together packages that allow us to provide that opportunity 
from coast-to-coast for this great country.
  Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. Well, Representative Tonko, I want to thank you 
because you have a lot of passion for small businesses and for job 
creation. You have been a great leader in our class and in this 
Congress. I'm excited about some of the new pieces of legislation I've 
heard about just here tonight--pieces of legislation that are coming 
out of the Democrats, coming out of particularly the freshman class of 
the Democrats, who I think have come to Washington with great ideas and 
with great solutions with how we can move forward.
  You know, it was said that the Iroquois Indians, when they would make 
decisions, looked seven generations out. I'm not sure we're quite seven 
generations out, but we're looking out beyond next year, beyond the 
next election. We're looking out to the future and what is the best 
future for our country and how do we get there. We have to make sure we 
continue to make things in this country, as I know you and I both 
believe very strongly. We have to be innovators. We have to be the 
first in finding the new solutions to these issues that are huge but 
are so very important as we move our country forward.

  Mr. TONKO. Representative Dahlkemper, I know that you've brought 
students to town. They've come from Pennsylvania from your district to 
visit. Today, I greeted students from Brown School in Schenectady, and 
as luck would have it, they came across the Speaker. The Speaker had 
seen them in Statuary Hall, where all of these great figures remind us 
of leaders of this great country in our formative years, in our 
beginning years, where they spoke to a vision for the future. They are 
now those heroes that developed a strong sense of our past.
  As she shared her thoughts with the students, she said to these 
eighth-graders, These are the giants that led us to today, but you're 
talking to Representatives here that are going to do the same thing. 
They're going to take us into the future. And the students understood. 
They understood that what we're doing here today is developing 
opportunity for them in a career path, in an education curve that will 
take them to higher ground and in job creation that will be there for 
them.
  That is the challenge to each and every one of us as legislators--not 
to walk away from the crisis. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. We 
have an opportunity here to take an economy that crumbled because of 
the lack of regulatory aspects, the lack of stewardship, the lack of 
watchdogs that could have kept it into working order. As that 
collapsed, this President offered a Recovery Act, and it stopped the 
bleeding. Now the awesome task is to build the economy we believe is 
strongest, that will be most responsive to the needs of this Nation. 
And when we look at it the investment in technology from health care, 
with all sorts of record-keeping done with technology, to education, 
wiring--hardwiring our communities with broadband and communications, 
creating opportunities, and energy generation and energy transmission, 
smart grids, smart metering--all of these opportunities that were 
denied are now front and center.
  And so it's been a pleasure to join with you this evening to talk 
about not only growing out of this recession with soundness, but 
developing small business. Jobs, jobs, and hope for America's people. 
Thank you so much for your leadership. It's a great freshman class and 
I'm proud to be a part of it.
  Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. It is a great freshman class. We have leaders in the 
great freshman class who will take us to that future and to the future 
that those students are looking forward to. I want to thank you all and 
all of my freshman colleagues who have joined me.
  I do want to share just a few examples of some successful small 
businesses from my district, the Third District of Pennsylvania. Ibis 
Tek is a veteran-owned small business located in Saxonburg, 
specializing in products and accessories critical to the defense 
industry. Ibis Tek designs, manufactures, and tests important equipment 
such as transparent armor solutions for tactical and security vehicles; 
radio and video communication for unmanned ground vehicles; and 
emergency rescue devices for quick vehicle access and rescue. It's one 
of the many companies in my district that are providing quality 
equipment to keep our troops safe. And for having been both in Iraq an 
Afghanistan over this past year, we certainly want to do everything we 
can to keep our troops safe. I'm just very proud that a company in my 
district is working on the latest innovation that's going to help do 
that.
  Combined Systems is located in Jamestown. It's an engineering, 
manufacturing, and supply company of tactical munitions and crowd 
control devices globally that is given to law enforcement, corrections, 
and homeland security agencies. It is not only in defense that small 
businesses in western Pennsylvania are excelling. CCL Container in 
Hermitage is a leading manufacturer of recyclable aluminum products. 
They produce recyclable aerosol cans, aluminum bottles, barrier 
systems, and other specialty aluminum packaging. Since 1991, CCL 
Containers has been creating innovative solutions for product packaging 
that can be found in just about every home, from your beverages, 
cleaning products, hair products, and any number of goods that come in 
packages, using recycled aluminum, which is really great as we look to 
our future.
  Just last December, a new small business came to Erie, Pennsylvania--
Donjon Shipbuilding and Repair. Donjon Marine Company chose our region 
to expand their business because of the strong manufacturing base and 
expertise that I know you have in your region in New York State also. 
They're a welcome addition to Erie's business community and to a 
revitalization of using the lake that we have in front of us.
  Finally, I'd like to highlight a small business in my district that's 
been serving our community since 1876, Hodge Foundry. You're going to 
be excited about that because they're actually working in the wind 
industry producing the castings for those very large poles that go up 
to the windmills. With 130 years of expertise, they produce some of the 
world's largest engineered iron castings right in my home district in 
Mercer County.

  Mr. Speaker, it's small businesses like these that build the products 
and create jobs that change people's lives and move our economy 
forward. We must act swiftly here in Congress to enact legislation that 
will help our existing small businesses grow and hire new workers. We 
must create pathways for startups and entrepreneurs to turn their ideas 
into those successful businesses that I just mentioned and my 
colleagues have mentioned tonight. Small businesses are our investment 
in our communities and our entire Nation. I urge my colleagues to 
support the robust and strategic Democratic small business agenda that 
will help our businesses gain access to capital, create jobs, and 
develop the technologies and innovations that will move America 
forward.

[[Page H1499]]

  It's very exciting to be here at this point in our history. I think 
our freshman class is a big part of the forward movement in this great 
agenda that we have. So I thank my colleagues, and I yield the rest of 
my time.

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