[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 23 (Monday, June 8, 1998)]
[Pages 1003-1004]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

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Proclamation 7102--Small Business Week, 1998

May 29, 1998

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Our great Nation is renowned worldwide as the land of opportunity. 
Americans are dedicated to bettering their lives, pursuing the American 
Dream with entrepreneurial spirit and ingenuity.
    Small business owners across our country are among the true heroes 
of our great American success story. We owe much of today's prosperity 
to our Nation's 23.6 million small businesses. Small businesses 
represent 99.7 percent of all employers, account for 47 percent of all 
sales in the country, employ 53 percent of the private work force, and 
are responsible for more than half of the private gross domestic 
product. New business formation reached another record level in 1997, 
with 884,609 new employer firms--the highest ever, and a 5-percent 
increase over the last record set in 1996.
    Recognizing the extraordinary contributions of small businesses to 
the strength and continuing growth of our economy, my Administration has 
worked hard to implement policies and programs designed to help small 
businesses develop and expand. We are directing tax relief to more small 
businesses, expanding access to capital, supporting innovation, 
providing regulatory relief, opening overseas markets to entrepreneurs, 
and strengthening America's work force through investments in education, 
training, and better benefits.
    The U.S. Small Business Administration plays a key role in my 
Administration's efforts to help Americans start, build, and grow their 
small businesses into the 21st century. Since the end of fiscal year 
1992, the SBA extended or guaranteed more than $48 billion in loans to 
small businesses, more than in the previous 12 years combined. The SBA's 
current portfolio guarantees $29 billion in loans to 200,000 small 
business owners who otherwise would not have access to capital. 
Realizing the enormous potential of today's revolution in technology, we 
are leading the world in the development of electronic commerce and in 
using the Internet to help advance small business opportunities.
    As Americans observe Small Business Week, let us pay tribute to the 
hundreds of thousands of small business owners across our Nation whose 
energy, innovative spirit, and faith in our system of free enterprise 
have done so much to generate the unprecedented prosperity and growth we 
enjoy today.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 31 
through June 6, 1998, as Small Business Week. I call upon Government 
officials and all the people of the United States to observe this week 
with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs that celebrate the 
achievements of small business owners and encourage the development of 
new enterprises.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth 
day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and twenty-second.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., June 2, 1998]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on June 3. 
This item was not received in time for publication in the appropriate 
issue.

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