[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 152 (Wednesday, October 12, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H6787]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              INITIATIVES OF THE SMALL BUSINESS COMMITTEE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Altmire) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ALTMIRE. Recently I had the honor of being reappointed to the 
House Committee on Education and the Workforce, a committee on which I 
served during my first two terms in Congress. Consequently, caucus 
rules require me to, in turn, step down from the Small Business 
Committee, where I've proudly served for the past 5 years.
  As I leave the Small Business Committee, I wanted to take a moment to 
discuss a few of the important initiatives on which the committee has 
played a meaningful role during that time. Some of the most important 
initiatives have been to support the brave men and women who have 
served our Nation in uniform. The Small Business Committee, over the 
past 5 years, has led the way in helping small business owners deal 
with the loss of key employees during long-term overseas deployments, 
and has helped incentivize the hiring of our military veterans.
  Committee successes include the enactment of my legislation to 
increase business opportunities for veterans and reservists, and 
support business owners who employ them. This bill was signed into law 
by President Bush in 2008 and has since helped countless veterans and 
employers.
  We also successfully enacted laws to help returning veterans access 
job training programs and learn entrepreneurial skills to help them 
transition back into the workforce.
  As chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, I 
was able to convene hearings that gave voice to all sides on pending 
issues in Congress, including bringing more than a dozen people from 
western Pennsylvania before the committee to make sure that their voice 
was heard and their point of view understood during the critical early 
stages of the legislative process.
  Our subcommittee held hearings that brought to light the unintended 
consequences of the Consumer Product Safety Commission's lead 
regulations on small businesses and home-based toy manufacturers. We 
also held hearings that raised concerns about the effect that various 
health care reform proposals might have on small employers, and the 
devastating impact that skyrocketing gas prices can have on businesses 
and consumers.
  When CMS proposed a flawed Medicare competitive bidding program that 
would harm medical equipment suppliers and negatively impact patient 
access and quality of care, our subcommittee heard the concerns of 
small businesses across the country. And when necessary, our 
subcommittee also convened field hearings to discuss important issues, 
such as a hearing we held in western Pennsylvania to discuss ideas on 
how to increase access to capital for small businesses.
  When flooding impacted businesses in western Pennsylvania, we brought 
the SBA to Aliquippa to personally inspect the damage and improve the 
SBA's response. And as gas prices continued to climb and the Nation 
looked for solutions to our energy crisis, I joined our former 
colleague, Mary Fallon, now Oklahoma's Governor, to cochair a field 
hearing in Tulsa to hear directly from the oil industries their 
explanation of why gas prices were so unacceptably high and what we can 
do to help bring them down.
  Our subcommittee also led the way in twice passing through the House 
my bill to expand access to private capital investment through the SBIR 
program. And we held the first hearing in either Chamber of Congress on 
the controversial credit card interchange fee, an issue that since has 
grown into a top priority for businesses, consumers, and banks.
  We worked in a bipartisan way to successfully advocate for repeal of 
the onerous 1099 reporting requirements included in the health care 
reform law. All in all, quite a record of bipartisan success.
  As I leave the committee, I want to thank Ranking Member Velazquez 
for her help and support during my time on the committee, and I look 
forward to continuing to work on small business issues through my new 
committee assignments in the months ahead.

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