[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 39 (Wednesday, March 17, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1639-S1643]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             SMALL BUSINESS

  Ms. LANDRIEU. I am pleased to speak as chair of the Small Business 
Committee with several of my colleagues from the committee who have 
been hard at work coming up with ideas, drafting and passing 
legislation in the Small Business Committee over the last 3 months, 
particularly to get ready for this time. It is time that this Senate 
and Congress moved a third jobs bill with a focus on small business in 
America.
  I acknowledge the members of the Small Business Committee. Two of 
them will join me this morning, and we will all, hopefully, be on the 
floor in the next couple of days talking about the importance of 
focusing on small business job creation. My ranking member, of course, 
is the great Senator from Maine, Ms. Snowe; John Kerry, former chair of 
the committee; Chris Bond, former chair; Carl Levin; David Vitter; Tom 
Harkin; John Thune; Joe Lieberman; Mike Enzi; Maria Cantwell; Johnny 
Isakson; Evan Bayh; Roger Wicker; Mark Pryor; James Risch; Ben Cardin; 
Jeanne Shaheen; and Kay Hagan. Let me say that these members have been 
extraordinary. We have passed not one, not two, not three, not four, 
but five fairly significant pieces of legislation in a completely 
bipartisan fashion. The bills I will highlight this morning have been 
passed by our committee by large and convincing margins: 18 to 0, 15 to 
3, 16 to 4. We are proud of the work we have done.
  My call to the Senators this morning is to get our eyes off of Wall 
Street and onto Main Street. If we really want to dig out of this 
recession, created by a number of things--failed policies from the past 
administration, a confluence of the crash of the stock market and the 
financial sector, poor regulation from us over time--the people who 
have really suffered are the small business owners who, unlike large 
businesses and public companies, have put everything at risk--their 
future, their house, their children's future--everything at risk to 
create business because that is what Americans do, and we do it better 
than any country on Earth.
  We recognize the strength of American business. It is about 
entrepreneurship. That is what the Small Business Committee is focused 
on. We want attention--and we will get it--to this issue.
  I thank the members for their hard work and support. In this toxic 
environment, to get anything out of a committee with that kind of vote, 
we deserve a round of applause before we even start. But that is 
another story for another day.
  Now we have to move the bills through the process. I want to share 
this graph, which is telling. Of the share of net new jobs created, 65 
percent of the new jobs created by everything we do here will be 
created by small business, not by big business. Large firms are 
shrinking, reorganizing, sort of waiting for the market to come back. I 
understand that. They have a fiduciary responsibility. These folks are 
out there taking the big risk. When the way is not clear, when it is 
still cloudy, it is small businesses taking a chance that maybe things 
will turn around. These are the people we have to get our eyes on.
  As chair of the Small Business Committee, I have heard for months 
that small businesses want to hire new workers. They need to hire new 
workers. They can expand their business, but they don't have the 
ability.

  Small business owner Ray Meche, who owns several neighborhood 
pharmacies in southwest Louisiana, has an excellent track record. He 
has been in business for over 20 years. He has never missed a payment. 
He can't get a loan because he uses the small business lending program 
and he is capped at $2 million. One of our bills would raise that cap 
to $5 million. That is something we must do now. Until we do, business 
owners such as Ray wait. They wait to get larger loans to expand their 
businesses. They wait for a government contract. They wait for 
opportunities for counseling as they attempt to boost sales by tapping 
into potential markets overseas.
  I want to show an export chart which is also telling. When I saw 
this, I had my staff use it at every townhall I do because I actually 
didn't believe it. I made them go back and do it several times because 
it was so contrary to my notion of the world. But it is true. This is 
the truth. Of all small businesses in America, of every one we know, 
less than 1 percent export their goods out of the country. Think about 
that. When the market in America is soft and our businesses are trying 
to create jobs, we can do what we can to energize these markets at 
home, but we most certainly should be looking overseas. I can tell you 
why small businesses would be a little nervous about it. Because they 
have never negotiated with big trade representatives China and Korea 
and Germany and France. It could be a little intimidating. They have 
great products. With the Internet, they have the world at their 
fingertips. What they don't have is an export bill by their own 
Congress that gives them an opportunity to get the training and 
technical assistance through departments we already pay for, 
departments that are already set up but just aren't focused on small 
business and helping them trade.
  I want to see this pie chart expanded. I don't know if we can expand 
it to 10 percent of small businesses or 20 percent, but we can't sit at 
1 percent while our people lose jobs here. That is why this package is 
important.
  I thank Senator Shaheen for her extraordinary leadership and also my 
ranking member, Senator Snowe, who has spent a great deal of time 
talking in the committee and in hearings about the opportunity for 
trade. That is what this package does as well.
  I want to present the Access to Capital Coalition that is behind us. 
We did not come here to the floor alone. We have an extraordinary 
coalition for a jobs agenda from small business groups all over 
America, from the small business groups represented by the Chamber of 
Commerce, to the Federation of Small Business, to the San Francisco 
Small Business Network, to the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, 
the Marin Builders Association, the Main Street Alliance, just to read 
a few, Oregon Small Business for Responsible Leadership.
  This list represents hundreds of thousands of businesses that say to 
me every day: Senator, does anybody know we are here? Every day we pick 
up the paper and we read about AIG, Goldman Sachs, General Motors, 
Exxon. We think those companies are great. We hope maybe to be as big 
as they are one day. But does anybody know we are here?
  I know you are there. We are going to fight hard for you, and we are 
going to pull this coalition together to focus on the one group of 
people in America who can actually create jobs, which would be the 
small businesses, found in every neighborhood, on every Main Street, in 
urban areas, suburban areas. And, yes,

[[Page S1640]]

even rural areas can create the kind of jobs we need to lift this 
Nation out of the worst recession since the Great Depression.

  I say to the Presiding Officer, you were a banker. You understand the 
importance of lending money to small businesses and getting it to them 
when they need it quickly. You established extraordinary opportunities 
in your home State of Illinois. That is what this package of bills does 
that has passed out of the Small Business Committee and is pending for 
action in this Senate.
  Small businesses have borne the greatest burden in this economy. They 
are the business that have the greatest potential to improve it. By 
making these simple, inexpensive, and commonsense proposals to help 
small businesses, we can turn pink slips into paychecks for American 
workers, and we can lift our entire Nation out of this terrible 
recession into a brighter day in the future.
  So, again, I thank my colleagues on the committee for working in such 
a bipartisan manner.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
an outline of the five bills that make up this package, S. 2869, the 
Small Business Job Creation and Access to Capital Act; S. 2862, the 
Small Business Export Enhancement and International Trade Act; S. 2989, 
the Small Business Contracting Improvement Act; S. 1229, the 
Entrepreneurial Development Act; and S. 1233 the SBIR/STTR 
Reauthorization Act.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             ADDRESSING SMALL BUSINESS NEEDS TO CREATE JOBS
S. 2869, the Small Business Job     Increases 7(a) loans limits from $2
 Creation and Access to Capital      million to $5 million; 504 loans
 Act of 2009. (Landrieu/Snowe).      from $1.5 million to $5.5 million,
                                     and microloans from $35,000 to
                                     $50,000.
                                    Allows the 504 loan program to
                                     refinance short-term commercial
                                     real estate debt into long-term,
                                     fixed rate loans.
                                    Extends the authorization to provide
                                     90 percent guarantees on 7(a) loans
                                     and fee elimination for borrowers
                                     on 7(a) and 504 loans through
                                     December 31, 2010.
                                    CBO Score: $23 million over six
                                     years--loan limit increase and
                                     refinance programs are budget
                                     neutral.
                                    Passed the Committee on December 17,
                                     2009. Vote of 17-1.
                                    SBA has estimated the loan increase
                                     would increase lending to small
                                     businesses by $5 billion the 1st
                                     year.
S. 2862, the Small Business Export  Improves the SBA's trade and export
 Enhancement and International       finance programs.
 Trade Act of 2009. (Snowe/         Elevates the Office of International
 Landrieu).                          Trade within the SBA and adds
                                     export finance specialists to the
                                     SBA's trade counseling programs.
                                    Establishes the State Export
                                     Promotion Grant Program (STEP),
                                     which would increase the number of
                                     small businesses that export.
                                    Improves coordination between
                                     federal and state agencies and SBA
                                     resource partners.
                                    CBO Score: $69 million over six
                                     years.
                                    Passed the Committee on December 17,
                                     2009. Vote of 18-0.
                                    Leverages more than $1 billion in
                                     export capital for small
                                     businesses, creating/saving as many
                                     as 40,000-50,000 jobs in 2010.
S. 2989, the Small Business         Closes loopholes in bundling.
 Contracting Improvement Act of     Eases payment concerns for
 2010 (Landrieu/Snowe).              subcontractors.
                                    Eases restrictions on teaming
                                     agreements and JV arrangements so
                                     small businesses have an
                                     opportunity to go after larger
                                     contracts.
                                    CBO Score: TBD
                                    Passed the Committee on March 4.
                                     Vote was unanimous.
                                    Increasing contracts to small
                                     businesses by just 1 percent can
                                     create more than 100,000 jobs.
S. 1229, the Entrepreneurial        Reauthorizes for three years and
 Development Act of 2009.            strengthens the SBA's counseling
 (Landrieu/Snowe).                   programs: Small Business
                                     Development Centers, Women's
                                     Business Centers, SCORE, the
                                     Program for Investment in
                                     Microentrepreneurs (PRIME).
                                    Creates initiatives to increase
                                     business opportunities for veterans
                                     and Native Americans.
                                    CBO Score: $614 million over five
                                     years.
                                    Passed the Committee on July 2,
                                     2009. Vote of 18-0.
                                    Estimated to creating/saving more
                                     than 190,000 jobs in 2010.
S. 1233, the SBIR/STTR              Reauthorizes the SBIR and STTR
 Reauthorization Act of 2009.        programs for eight years.
 (Landrieu/Snowe).                  Increases the allocation from 2.5 to
                                     3.5 percent over ten years for the
                                     SBIR program.
                                    Increases from .3 to .6 percent for
                                     the STTR program.
                                    Adjusts the awards sizes for
                                     inflation and caps jumbo awards.
                                    Makes eligible a certain percentage
                                     of SBIR projects for firms majority
                                     owned and controlled by multiple
                                     venture capital firms.
                                    CBO Score: $229 million over five
                                     years.
                                    Passed the Committee on July 2,
                                     2009. Vote of 18-0.
                                    Estimated to provide more than $2
                                     billion in R&D funding for public-
                                     private partnerships between the
                                     government and small, high-
                                     technology firms and to create more
                                     than 500 new small businesses a
                                     year.
 

  Ms. LANDRIEU. We will take them up, hopefully, in a package at a 
later date, but I want to call my colleagues' attention to the package 
of bills that will expand loan limits, expand contracting opportunities 
with the Federal Government, which, by the way, spends billions of 
dollars right now with business. If we just spend a little bit more 
with small business, these small businesses--instead of absorbing the 
contracts, which the big businesses do--will have to hire up.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 30 more seconds.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Small businesses, when they get a contract from the 
Federal Government, will staff up because that is what small businesses 
do. They are very flexible. They are very agile. They will scale down, 
and they can scale up quickly.
  So I am proud of this package. I want to recognize two of my members 
who are on the Senate floor: former Governor and now a Senator from New 
Hampshire, Jeanne Shaheen, who has been a great leader on this issue--I 
thank you, Senator--and also Senator Ben Cardin from Maryland. He has 
been a particularly strong leader on the contracting for small 
businesses. So I would like to ask the Senator to join me in her 
remarks this morning.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire is recognized.
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I am so pleased to join Chairman 
Landrieu and my colleague, Senator Ben Cardin. Hopefully, he will be 
able to speak after me to talk about the importance of small businesses 
and what we have to do to support small business in this country.
  Small businesses in New Hampshire and across the country, as Senator 
Landrieu has said, are struggling. Of

[[Page S1641]]

the jobs lost last year, almost 40 percent came from businesses with 50 
or fewer employees. While we have taken important steps to bring back 
the economy from the brink of depression, sales and consumer demand are 
still too low and too many small business owners remain frozen out of 
credit markets.
  This economy is not going to fully recover until our small businesses 
fully recover. In the past, it has been small businesses that have 
created most of the jobs coming out of a recession, and this recovery 
is going to be no different. If we want to see job growth in this 
country, we need to take action to help small businesses get back on 
their feet.
  Now, as a former small business owner, I know it is business and not 
government that creates jobs and drives innovation and new ideas. But I 
also know government has an important role to play in helping small 
business create jobs, especially in these very difficult economic 
times.
  Under the leadership of our chair, Senator Landrieu, who has done a 
great job, along with our ranking member, Senator Snowe, in the last 
several months the Small Business Committee has produced five major 
pieces of legislation to help small companies create jobs again, and 
Senator Landrieu has laid those out for people. I am proud to be a 
sponsor of all five of these bills.
  They spur research and innovation. They ensure small businesses get 
their fair share of government contracts. They expand SBA lending 
programs so small businesses can obtain affordable credit. They 
strengthen the technical services the SBA can provide. And they help 
small businesses gain access to international markets to sell their 
goods and services.
  These bills, as we have heard Senator Landrieu say, are bipartisan 
efforts that passed the committee with nearly unanimous votes from both 
Republican and Democratic members. I hope we are soon going to see 
these bills on the floor of the Senate and that they will pass 
unanimously.
  All of the bills are important. But today I want to focus on what we 
can do to help open global markets to small business because I strongly 
believe that in order to have a sustained recovery from this recession, 
we need to expand exports. Domestic consumer demand in the United 
States simply will not rise to the level it was before the recession.
  The good news is that the potential for export growth is enormous. 
Over 95 percent of the world's customers live outside of the United 
States. But as we saw so dramatically on that chart Senator Landrieu 
just showed, only about 1 percent of small businesses export their 
goods and services, and small companies that do export usually only 
sell to one foreign market, while larger companies typically sell to 
five or more foreign markets.
  Emerging markets in developing countries such as China, India, and 
Brazil offer great opportunities for growth. By 2020, about 90 percent 
of the world's population will live in emerging markets. There is a 
huge potential for smaller companies to tap these markets to grow their 
businesses and to create jobs.
  I have long been an advocate for exporting because international 
markets are very important to New Hampshire. I was the first Governor 
to lead a trade mission from New Hampshire overseas, and those trade 
missions I led brought back about $500 million in sales for New 
Hampshire businesses.
  Small business generates almost half of New Hampshire's total 
exports, and we have some great success stories.
  Dartware, a software developer in West Lebanon, on the western side 
of our State, first started exporting to Canada--which neighbors New 
Hampshire, for those people who are not sure on their geography. Now 
they sell to more than 80 countries. During this recession, exporting 
has made a huge difference on their bottom line. Last year, their 
international sales were 33 percent of their total sales. This past 
January, export sales represented 63 percent or almost double their 
total sales.
  Another company, a small business called Sky-Skan, in Nashua, designs 
and produces state-of-the-art technologies for planetariums. You would 
not think there would be that many planetariums around the world, but 
they have exported their products and services to over 120 countries. 
Even in the midst of one of the most difficult economies in our 
Nation's history, Sky-Skan was able to bring on 10 new employees.
  In his State of the Union speech, President Obama set a goal of 
doubling American exports in the next 5 years. He recently signed an 
executive order creating an Export Promotion Cabinet. I strongly 
support those efforts. I know other members of the Small Business 
Committee do as well.
  A recent World Bank study found that each dollar spent on export 
promotion and assistance brought a fortyfold return. Right now, the 
United States spends considerably less than the international average 
in helping small businesses export. Government export promotion and 
assistance is a smart investment that helps create jobs. One of the 
important actions we need to take in the Senate to help improve export 
promotion is to quickly enact the Small Business Export Enhancement and 
International Trade Act of 2009--one of those five pieces of 
legislation Senator Landrieu laid out.
  We need to make the SBA a more valuable resource for small businesses 
looking to export their goods and services, and this bill does just 
that. I hope as these bills come to the floor of the Senate, we will 
take a close look and we will recognize that if we are going to help 
small businesses export, then we have to give them the tools to do 
that. This legislation does that. It helps small companies finance 
their exports by increasing loan limits and guarantees in SBA export 
loan programs and expanding the number of SBA finance specialists who 
are posted around the country.
  This bill directs the SBA to collaborate more with other agencies 
that provide services and programs for small exporters--something the 
SBA has begun doing under the leadership of Administrator Karen Mills.
  More U.S. exports abroad mean more jobs at home. We can and must do 
more. We must do it smarter to help small companies compete globally. 
If we do not, we risk falling behind, and our economy, our businesses, 
and our families will lose out.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and look forward to hearing from my 
colleague, Senator Cardin.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland is recognized.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I also ask unanimous consent to speak as 
in morning business as part of the comments made by Senator Landrieu 
and Senator Shaheen.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, we are here today to talk about the 
importance of job creation in our economy. We all know we need to 
create jobs. The way to create jobs is to help small businesses. Too 
much of the focus over the last couple years has been in helping the 
large companies, the large banks. We need to focus on small companies 
in order to create new job opportunities for Americans.
  I compliment Senator Shaheen for her comments. She is absolutely 
right. Small businesses can create many jobs in the United States by 
creating products that are wanted around the globe. The problem is, it 
is very complicated for a small business owner to have the type of 
staff to deal with the difficulties of entering the international 
marketplace.
  Senator Shaheen pointed out very clearly that the legislation Senator 
Landrieu has been instrumental in bringing forward in the Small 
Business Committee that deals with enhancing international trade for 
small companies, S. 2862, will provide more jobs in America by helping 
smaller companies be able to get their products into the international 
marketplace. That makes common sense.
  As I said in the beginning, we need to create more jobs. Senator 
Landrieu, in her leadership on the Small Business Committee, has made 
that our top priority, and I congratulate her for bringing this to our 
attention.
  We know over 50 percent--over 50 percent--of private sector jobs are 
with small companies. We know 64 percent of the net new jobs during the 
past 15 years have come from small companies. That is where the job 
growth will be. We are talking about creating jobs. We create more jobs 
through small companies, but we have to help them because they have 
many obstacles

[[Page S1642]]

today to be able to create those new jobs.
  Forty percent of high-tech workers work for small companies. This is 
a very interesting statistic. There are 13 times more patents per 
employee in small companies than in larger companies. Innovation comes 
from our smaller companies. It does not mean we ignore larger 
companies. They have opportunities small companies do not have. But if 
we are going to create the jobs and innovation, we have to have a 
healthy atmosphere for small businesses today, and we need to do a 
better job.
  What is the problem? Problem No. 1 is credit. Small companies cannot 
get traditional credit. Many large banks have just closed out giving 
loans to small companies. I can tell you of the calls I have gotten in 
my office, the letters I have gotten. There is a high-tech company 
located in Hunt Valley, MD. It is a small business that cannot get a 
bank to make a refinancing loan so that high-tech company can expand. 
They are doing very well. Their customer base would be very familiar to 
many of the Members of the Senate. But they cannot get a bank to be 
their partner in this environment because they are a small company.
  As a result, many small companies, many small businesses resort to 
the use of their personal credit cards--their personal credit cards--in 
order to finance their business. One-third of small companies have over 
25 percent of their overall debt from credit cards. Fifty percent of 
small businesses' interests rates are 15 percent or higher. That is not 
sustainable. You can't run a business based upon that type of 
financing. We have to do much better in that regard.

  That is why I was particularly pleased by S. 2869, which Chairman 
Landrieu has brought forward with Senator Snowe, that would strengthen 
the SBA's capacity to make credit available to small businesses. It 
would increase the 7(a) loan program. The 7(a) loans are the 
traditional loans small businesses get in order to finance their 
operations. It would increase the amount from $2 million to $5 million 
and continue the 90-percent Federal guarantee. The 504 loans, which are 
used primarily for bricks and mortar, would increase from $1.5 million 
to $5.5 million. The microloans, which give a business the opportunity 
for working capital so they can move forward with an innovation and an 
idea and create jobs, increase from $35,000 to $50,000. That tells us 
how important that is to a small business. That extra $15,000 can be 
the difference between developing an idea to create jobs or not.
  I congratulate Chairman Landrieu for bringing forward that 
legislation. It passed our committee by a 17-to-1 vote. This is a 
strong bipartisan bill that we hope will be made permanent.
  I think we need to do more. I have introduced legislation that 
follows in the direction of the President. President Obama has 
suggested we take some of the TARP funds and use it to help community 
banks make loans to small businesses. I think we should look at having 
direct loans by the SBA to small businesses, certainly as a backup, if 
the private sector is not going to show enough interest to help our 
small businesses.
  I know there are other suggestions to help our States. Governor 
O'Malley has suggested a program that could use some additional Federal 
support and get money out quickly to small businesses for credit. We 
need to focus on that because there is a credit crisis for small 
businesses. We need to be able to do better than we are doing today if 
we are going to be able to create jobs. In every State in the Nation, I 
know my colleagues have heard from their small business owners that 
they can't get affordable credit. We need to act in order to bring us 
out of this current economic downturn.
  There are other bills I wish to mention briefly. Chairman Landrieu 
mentioned the bill I have been involved with, S. 2989, the Small 
Business Contracting Improvement Act. Small businesses depend upon 
government procurement as an effort to get started and to grow. The 
problem is, there is this cozy relationship between procurement 
officers and larger companies, so they have developed into practices 
that have hurt small companies in being able to get the set-asides that 
we in Congress said they should get. So what the contractor for the 
government agency does is bundle a lot of contracts that should be 
offered individually, but they bundle them to make them too large for 
small businesses to be able to bid on. This legislation deals with the 
abuses of bundling. I congratulate our chair for bringing that forward.
  It also deals with the abuses between subcontractors and prime 
contractors. It is no surprise to anyone here that small businesses are 
more likely to be subs. Well, we don't have transparency and openness 
and timely payments to the subs. The prime contractor is abusing 
privileges, and we have a responsibility to make sure the law is 
carried out with the set-asides to small businesses in our procurement 
policies. This legislation, which passed our committee by a unanimous 
vote earlier this month, I think will go a long way to helping small 
businesses create jobs in our community.
  There is other legislation that is out there to strengthen the SBA 
counseling program that Chairman Landrieu mentioned. I think that is an 
important bill. It passed our committee by a 19-to-0 vote--again, 
strong bipartisan support.
  There is another program I wish to mention quickly, because during 
the Recovery Act there should have been funds set aside for the SBIR/
STTR programs. They were not. We have spoken about that before in this 
body. The legislation that passed our committee by an 18-to-0 vote 
would increase the allocations for the SBIR and STTR programs, which 
are high-tech set-asides for small high-tech companies, which help us 
develop innovation technology here in America, keeping jobs in America 
and expanding jobs in America. It would increase that set-aside from a 
modest 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent. It passed our committee by an 18-to-
0 vote.
  These are all important bills that I hope we will have an opportunity 
to take up shortly as we look at the next jobs bill. I hope these 
provisions can be incorporated into legislation we consider. This is 
bipartisan. I think all my colleagues understand we have to create more 
job opportunities in America. The way to do it is to help small 
businesses deal with their current needs.
  I will mention one other bill before yielding the floor; that is, the 
health care bill which will help small businesses. The problem I used 
to hear the most from my small businesses was about paying health care 
costs. Now I hear credit. Credit is their No. 1 problem. But we provide 
a credit--Senator Landrieu was helpful in getting this started 
earlier--to our small businesses so they can afford to provide health 
care for their employees. I thank Senator Landrieu for that provision. 
That is going to help small companies and help job growth.
  We also created the exchanges. These are the exchanges where a small 
company can go in and buy health insurance policies. I can't tell my 
colleagues how many times I have heard from a small business owner 
saying: I am getting ripped off. I have no choice with an insurance 
plan I can take. I have a 30-percent increase, a 40-percent increase in 
premiums. My employees' health didn't deteriorate. Our costs didn't go 
up by that, but I have no choice. There is no other company I can get a 
policy with.
  Well, under health reform, we provide options and choice and 
competition for the small business owner. Today, they are paying, on 
average, 20 percent more than large companies pay for comparable 
insurance coverage for their employees. That practice needs to end. We 
shouldn't be discriminating against small businesses in America, and we 
take major steps forward to eliminate that discrimination.
  These are all things we can do to create jobs in America, to help our 
small businesses, help our Nation, help our recovery, and help us grow 
as a nation, to be even more competitive, offering good jobs to the 
people in our communities who are seeking employment.
  With that, let me yield the remainder of my time to the chairman of 
the Small Business Committee, the Senator from Louisiana.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, again, I thank my colleagues both, and 
particularly Senator Cardin, for that impassioned plea to focus this 
place on small business. If we are serious about

[[Page S1643]]

creating jobs, then our focus, our effort, our work should be for the 
millions of small businesses out there that with just a little bit of 
tweaking, a little bit of help from an export initiative here, some 
regulation reform here, loan pools here, changing current law, could 
help them do what they want to do, which is expand and grow jobs.
  I see my colleagues are here to speak, so I am just going to take 1 
minute to conclude.
  I wish my colleagues to know that while this package is five major 
bills, there is an initiative that is not in bill form yet, but we are 
very serious about bringing it forward. It is going to include a 
provision for there to be a pool of capital available. It may be the 
way Senator Cardin has envisioned it, which is direct loans from the 
SBA. It may be the way Senator Levin and Senator Warner have been 
talking about, which is an idea to provide guaranteed loan pools to 
leverage private capital in the country. It may be something Bill 
Clinton spoke with us about yesterday, which is creating a dynamic new 
opportunity to retrofit public buildings in America and put people to 
work and use the savings in energy efficiency to pay back the loans so 
there is no new taxpayer money spent. It is leveraging the private 
sector to do two great things: provide jobs immediately and make more 
efficient every public building in America.
  There is more we can do. So as the chairman, let me be very clear. I 
am very proud of this package. It is five bills. It has passed our 
committee almost unanimously. As we move this package to the floor, I 
hope we will get the same cooperation from Republican Members on this 
floor as we did from the Republican Members who serve on our committee. 
We have been very open, very sincere in our efforts to pull this 
package together, and we will continue to work in that good spirit. I 
hope we are met with that same feeling.

  Two more things, briefly. I am probably not going to push to put in 
this bill a reform piece on credit cards to small businesses because it 
is not the jurisdiction of our committee; it is primarily the 
jurisdiction of the Banking Committee. However, I want this Senate to 
know I am on record today. Senator Cardin says--and he is correct--how 
in the world are small businesses in America going to stay in business 
if they have to pay 15 and 20 percent interest rates? Could anybody 
tell me this? Is there any small business in America that thinks they 
can make money, hire people, and pay 20 percent interest rates? It is a 
shame. It is wrong. We are going to do something about small business 
credit card rates. I will tell my colleagues why. Because in the old 
days, not too long ago when the housing market was strong, which it is 
not today, Americans--who believe in the American dream because we tell 
them about it when they are 4 years old and they actually believe it 
when they grow up--their house had $200,000 or $300,000 or $400,000 or 
$50,000 in equity. So when they wanted to start a business, they went 
to their banker and their banker said: How much equity do you have in 
your house? They said: $50,000. They wrote them a check that day for 
$20,000. They took that amount of money and they bought a stove and 
they started a business, maybe cooking a little scrambled eggs and ham.
  Those days are over with. There is no equity in their homes anymore. 
When they go to their bank, they don't see a sign that says welcome--
and I am not talking about community banks, I am talking about big 
banks that got all the money from us--they see a sign that says come 
back next year when things are better. So they have to then dig in 
their pocket and pull out their credit card. We have done them a great 
favor. We allow the companies to charge them not 3 percent, not 6 
percent, not 10 percent but 20 percent.
  I can't put that bill in this package, but I promise my colleagues it 
is coming. We cannot ask small business to pay 20 percent on their 
loans. Yes, we have to give them tax relief. But do my colleagues know 
what they need right now? They need borrowing relief.
  So I am going to conclude with that. It is going to be a good 
package, and we are going to be very smart about how we put it forward. 
I know we have to take the tough things maybe separately so as to not 
detain this. But I am on record, and we are going to fight for it until 
we get it done.
  I yield the floor. I thank the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to address the 
Senate as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, before I get into the main topic, I 
obviously appreciate the passion of the Senator from Louisiana. It is 
unfortunate that she and the majority on the other side refuse to vote 
for the most important thing we could have done immediately for small 
business; that is, give them payroll tax relief and take the money out 
of the stimulus package, so much of which is being wasted on issues 
such as Davis-Bacon and environmental impact statements. We ought to 
give small businesses payroll tax relief immediately.

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