[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 13237]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF THE WOMEN'S SMALL BUSINESS PROGRAMS IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 
                                  2003

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, women business owners do not get the 
recognition they deserve for their contribution to our economy: 18 
million Americans would be without jobs today if it weren't for these 
entrepreneurs who had the courage and the vision to strike out on their 
own. For 18 years, as a member of the Senate Committee on Small 
Business and Entrepreneurship, I have worked to increase the 
opportunities for these enterprising women in a variety of ways, 
leading to greater earning power, financial independence and asset 
accumulation. These are more than words. For these women, it means 
having a bank account, buying a home, sending their children to 
college, calling the shots.
  As the ranking member of the Committee on Small Business and 
Entrepreneurship, I rise today to say a few words about a bill that my 
colleague on the committee, our chair, Senator Snowe, intends to 
introduce today, the Women's Small Business Programs Improvement Act.
  First, however, I commend Senator Snowe for taking this first step in 
crafting legislation that addresses many of the problems faced by women 
entrepreneurs in receiving assistance through the SBA's programs 
designed to assist them. I applaud Senator Snowe for working diligently 
on these issues and for giving women business owners such attention in 
this SBA Reauthorization process.
  Second, I express my sincere and steadfast support for the growing 
community of women entrepreneurs across the Nation and for the 
invaluable programs at the SBA that provide women with the tools they 
need to succeed in business. As a longtime advocate for women 
entrepreneurs and SBA's programs, my record in support of the SBA's 
women's programs and for women business owners speaks for itself. I 
have continually fought for increased funding of the women's programs 
at the SBA, for sustaining and expanding the women's business centers, 
for adequately staffing and improving the National Women's Business 
Council, and for giving women entrepreneurs their deserved 
representation within the Federal procurement process, to name a few. 
With respect to laws assisting women-owned businesses, I have been 
proud to either introduce the underlying legislation or advocate 
strongly to ensure their passage and adequate funding.
  Today, it is my sincere regret that I cannot sponsor this bill. 
Senator Snowe and I both support these programs, agree on many of the 
changes needed to strengthen these programs, and we have worked 
together on these issues for many years. However, having only received 
a copy of the bill this morning, I have not had adequate time to review 
the proposal and to vet it with the women's business experts that 
represent the women and the businesses that will be affected by these 
proposed changes.
  One example of a troublesome provision in the proposal is its 
treatment of existing women's business centers. When our committee was 
considering my 1999 legislation on this subject, the Women's Business 
Centers Sustainability Act, I fought to secure a nationwide 
infrastructure of Women's Business Centers that was in jeopardy because 
their matching grants from the SBA for the most experienced centers 
were going to expire. The sustainability legislation allowed 29 Women's 
Business Centers to continue to operate, serving together with new 
centers 85,000 women-owned business just in 2002. In this new bill, 
Senator Snowe proposes to build on the success of that law by making 
the existing centers permanent, and I fully support this. If we had 
written the bill jointly, I would have done exactly the same.
  While I praise Senator Snowe for recognizing the success of centers 
operating with sustainability grants and the need to make them 
permanent, I understand her legislation will also establish a process 
that may create additional and unnecessary administration burdens and 
costs--thus hindering the centers' ability to deliver critical services 
to eager entrepreneurs. In some cases, this may cause existing Women's 
Business Centers to close their doors, eliminating access to women 
business owners in those locales to critical services. This and other 
key issues need to be carefully addressed, and I look forward to 
working with Senator Snowe and other members of our Committee to do so.
  I am not alone in my reservations. Just yesterday, both the 
Association of Women's Business Centers and the National Women's 
Business Council, while still endorsing many of the bill's concepts, 
expressed concerns about its details and their desire to work together 
to craft a bill that addresses those concerns and accomplishes our 
mutual goal for these important women's initiatives.
  Once we have had an opportunity to thoroughly examine today's bill, I 
am confident that all the Democratic members of our Committee stand 
ready to do just that.

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