Honoring former President William Jefferson Clinton on the occasion of his 58th birthday.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

(Ms. VELAZQUEZ asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, we are here today because Congress has failed to complete its work. Over 1 year ago, the Committee on Small Business unanimously reported out a bipartisan reauthorization bill. As a result of the failure to move this legislation, the authorization for the SBA expired last year and we are now forced to pass our fourth extension. Shamefully, the agency has been operating for 3 months without any authorization.

It is clear that the Nation's job creators, small businesses, are struggling. The United States has lost 1.7 million jobs since 2001, and we are continuing to see growth rates that only keep up with inflation. American manufacturers are being hit hardest, with 2.7 million jobs lost during that period and 11,000 lost in June alone. This is clearly not the picture of an economy that is getting back on its feet.

Last week, the House Committee on Small Business Democrats released a quarterly small business index showing that business conditions are at 7-year lows. Skyrocketing health care and energy costs and exploding Federal budget deficits are but a few of the barriers small firms face in achieving the growth our economy needs so badly.

At a time when we should be providing our Nation's entrepreneurs a leg up, this administration and the Republican Congress has continuously failed to provide the assistance they need by blocking passage of the SBA reauthorization.

The bipartisan reauthorization bill will provide the most comprehensive overhaul of the SBA in over a decade. It will broaden or modernize the SBA loan programs so firms can access the capital they need. At a time when the Federal Government failed to meet the small business contracting goals for the fourth consecutive year, the Republican leadership is blocking this bill that will expand procurement opportunities for small companies.

The legislation ensures small firms are given a fair chance to break into the Federal marketplace. By doing so, we provide the Federal Government a quality service at a good price. This is not just good for small businesses, it is good for the American taxpayer. Additionally, the likelihood of success for small business is nearly doubled when they have access to technical assistance.

Passage of the reauthorization bill will offer the greatest expansion of entrepreneurial assistance programs in decades.

Even more concerning is the possibility that our failure to act will actually worsen the business environment for small businesses. Small businesses are faced with a possible doubling of fees on SBA loans at the end of this month. Without immediate action, the current structure will lapse, leaving banks and entrepreneurs in a worse situation than when the program was shut down last year.

Although the gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Manzullo), who cannot be here today, has tried repeatedly to bring this bill up for consideration, the Republican House leadership and the administration have blocked it.

In today's economic climate, small businesses are more important than ever. We need to ensure that they have all the tools for success, as they are facing numerous obstacles. It is unfortunate that we are here today passing an extension, rather than celebrating the passage of an SBA reauthorization.

These issues should not be subject to partisan politics. When our small businesses need us the most, our committee was able to work in a bipartisan manner to produce this legislation. We now ask the Republican leadership to recognize these efforts and pass the reauthorization bill that will get small businesses back creating jobs.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Guam (Ms. Bordallo).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would like to set the record straight regarding the tax cut that the President submitted to Congress and that Congress passed.

The tax cuts are not helping small businesses. The President's tax cuts have provided little relief for small businesses. In fact, under the latest tax cut, over half of small businesses receive less than $500, despite a cost of $350 billion. And, while the President talks about how the top tax rate cut helps small businesses, only 1 percent of small business owners benefit from the reduction in the top tax rate. In fact, out of the 28 million small businesses, only 180,000 benefited from the top tax rate, according to the figures presented to us by the Department of the Treasury. Those are your own numbers. Less than 5 percent of the latest 2003 Jobs and Growth package was in the form of targeted tax relief for small businesses.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Tierney).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, there is no disagreement that we should pass this extension. It is, though, embarrassing that it has come to this. We expect small businesses to meet their taxes, comply with Federal regulations and pay their employees on time. But when it comes to Congress, we are not held accountable for our failure to meet their needs.

At a time when our economy is struggling, at a time when small businesses are struggling, Congress should be holding up its end of the deal. Passing the Small Business Administration Reauthorization Act must be a priority.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5008) to provide an additional temporary extension of programs under the Small Business Act and the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 through September 30, 2004, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 5008.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this bill extends until September 30 the programs of the Small Business Administration not covered by an appropriation, including the Preferred Surety Bond Program, SBA's Private Sector Cosponsorship Authority, the Small Disadvantaged Business Procurement Assistance Program, the Small Business Development Center Drug-Free Workplace Assistance Grants Program and the Very Small Business Concerns Program.

Last June, the House acted responsibly by passing H.R. 4478 to extend the programs of the SBA, but the other body failed to act. These programs have been in limbo since June 4, and it is important that they are extended while we continue to work on an SBA reauthorization bill.

In addition, H.R. 5008 would help many existing Women's Business Centers keep their doors open. Passage of H.R. 5008 would free up the remaining $4 million already appropriated for the program this year to provide at a minimum approximately $70,000 to each Women's Business Center and sustainability status.

Finally, H.R. 5008 corrects a legal problem regarding how the SBA pays fiscal transfer agents, who provide a vital role in the secondary market. For nearly 10 years, the SBA's fiscal transfer agent has been paid by a float on interest on the pools of securitized 7(a) guaranteed loans. Recently there has been some confusion as to whether or not this practice violates the Anti-Deficiency Act. The SBA has proposed a fix to this problem, and that solution is incorporated in section 3 of H.R. 5008, which essentially codifies the existing practice.

Passage of this legislation is needed in order to prevent the crippling of the SBA's 7(a) loan program, because without the liquidity of a secondary market banks will not make as many 7(a) loans as in the past.

This bipartisan bill has the support of the ranking minority member, the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Velazquez), and it has the support of the Bush administration. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5008.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

While reauthorization is extremely important, I think it would behoove us at this time to really think about all of the things that have been done and are in the process of being done for small businesses here and across America.

Twenty-five million small business owners will receive tax relief, totaling $75 billion. That is real savings. The rate reductions in the tax benefit plan is more than 90 percent small business. We also have raised the small business expensing limit from $25,000 to $100,000, and I can tell my colleagues in my home State of West Virginia, small businesses are beginning to do and beginning to feel the growth effects of being able to hire another person, being able to buy that extra piece of equipment as a result of the tax incentives.

Regulation, which is another burdensome thing on small business, this administration has slowed the growth of burdensome new rules by 75 percent. Also, small businesses saved $7 billion last year in regulatory costs, and that is significant.

We have worked a lot to try to incent and grow our small businesses, and there is always more, much more, that can be done. But in terms of government procurement, for the first time in many years, the Federal Government exceeded its small business goal by providing a record $65.5 billion in prime contracts to small businesses. That is a significant increase over past years.

So, in conclusion, I would like to say that reauthorization of SBA is exceedingly important to small business, and what we are doing here today in extending the authorization is extremely important. But much has been done and much needs to still continue to be done to help small business, which is the backbone of our American economy.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would like to thank the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Velazquez) for not only her advocacy for this bill before us today, but for her advocacy for small business. She is one of the staunchest cheerleaders for small businesses across this Nation, and I appreciate her service and her ability to get things done.

I thank our chairman, the gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Manzullo), who is not with us today, to thank him also for his small business advocacy. It is good to know that we have a bipartisan opinion on this bill. I look forward to its passage, and I look forward to all of us working together to see that small business not only grows but thrives under this bill and also under further legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

On August 19, William Jefferson Clinton, our 42nd President, celebrated his 58th birthday. Today, we honor him not just for serving as our Nation's 42nd President, but for the legacy that President Bush recently described as ``a deep and far-ranging knowledge of public policy, a great compassion for people in need, and the forward-looking spirit Americans like in a President.''

We honor President Clinton for presiding over our Nation's longest ever economic expansion, largest ever budget surplus, and the growth of 22 million jobs during his Presidency. We honor President Clinton for projecting American power on the world stage, to further the cause of international peace and understanding, without antagonizing our historic allies, and we honor him for helping to broker the Good Friday Accords for Northern Ireland, engaging in Middle East peace talks, and bringing an end to ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. We honor President Clinton for encouraging Americans to care for their fellow men and women, creating AmeriCorps, which engages more than 50,000 Americans each year in community service.

At this moment, President Clinton is recovering from an unexpected but perhaps life-saving surgery in New York City. We in Congress are thankful for President Clinton's improved health and send forth our thoughts and prayers to him and his family, especially Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and his daughter Chelsea. We wish him a complete and speedy recovery.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from Virginia (Chairman Tom Davis) for moving this resolution through his committee in a speedy manner and to the House leadership for bringing it to the floor for this consideration today.

Mr. Speaker, from his birth in a town called Hope in the State of Arkansas through his education at Georgetown University, Oxford and Yale Law School, to his service in Arkansas as Attorney General, Governor and Chairman of the National Governors' Association, to his two terms as President of the United States, to now as a private citizen, still engaged and thoughtful on our Nation's public policy, we honor President Clinton. President Clinton, happy birthday, and we hope you get well soon.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis).

(Mr. DAVIS of Illinois asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I came to Congress with President Clinton in 1992. It was called the Year of the Woman, where many people voted for women candidates, not as a slogan, but as a force to be reckoned with, and we came to Washington and we worked together, not only for women, children and families, but during this time we doubled the funding for breast cancer research, banned assault weapons, put more police on the streets and more teachers in the classroom. We narrowed the gap between those in poverty and those that are affluent, which is a good trend for this country, an important trend.

During his 8 years, we had really I could say the best economy in my lifetime, the first balanced budget. He came to Washington with a $250 billion deficit, and when he left, it was a huge, huge surplus.

I remember very much his hard work on his initiative to reinvent government and to make government more accountable to the people that we serve.

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Ms. Carson).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

President Clinton's leadership was instrumental in expanding freedom and democracy around the world and really uniting a divided world. He was a uniter, and he worked to bring people together, and he was very, very loved. People felt very comfortable about Bill Clinton and everybody liked him.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Corrine Brown).

(Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I want to express the admiration and support of the New York delegation, many of whom are in New York City now at 9/11 events and will be joining me in this Congress in tributes in writing later.

Let me just end by saying that Bill Clinton is loved and admired by millions of Americans and by countless others around the world, and we want him to know that he, as he is recovering, is in the thoughts and prayers of this Congress and the country. We are with him in his courageous battle to heal himself so that he can return to his good works and helping other people.

So happy birthday, Mr. President, and get well soon.

Mr. Speaker, seeing no other speakers, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to

the resolution (H. Res. 717) honoring former President William Jefferson Clinton on the occasion of his 58th birthday.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the House of Representatives, I gladly wish former President Bill Clinton a happy belated birthday. Last month, on August 19, President Clinton turned 58, and House Resolution 717 salutes our Nation's 42nd President on that occasion.

Mr. Speaker, our well-known honoree today was born in the small town of Hope, Arkansas, as William Jefferson Blyth, IV in 1946, 3 months after the death of his father. After his mother remarried a few years later, the future President took the name of his stepfather, Clinton, as a teenager. He came to college here in Washington at Georgetown University and later earned a law degree at Yale. He entered politics and went on to become Attorney General and then Governor of the State of Arkansas.

Then, Bill Clinton, the little-known chief executive of Arkansas, shocked the world when he sought and was elected to the Presidency in 1992. Four years later, he became the first Democrat since Franklin Delano Roosevelt to win a second term. His depth of policy knowledge and poignant speaking ability served him very well while he presided over the Nation for 8 years.

A key event of Clinton's Presidency was the brokerage of peace in the Balkans. The Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the war in the Balkans, were negotiated at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, located in my district. Today, the Dayton Peace Accords remains a significant foreign policy achievement of the Clinton administration.

Mr. Speaker, today it is especially gratifying to wish a happy birthday to President Clinton because of all that he has gone through in recent days. As we all know, the former President underwent a 4-hour quadruple coronary artery bypass operation in New York City a week ago today.

Fortunately, we understand President Clinton is doing well and should make a full recovery over the next few weeks. Without question, the thoughts and the prayers of the House of Representatives are with President Clinton.

Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to wish President Clinton a happy birthday at a time when he has been on the minds of so many Americans.

I thank my colleague in the Committee on Government Reform, the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney), for introducing this House resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

It was during the Clinton administration when Congress was controlled by Republicans that the Federal deficit started to shrink. It was not until the fiscal year 1995 that the Republican budget was in place that deficits turned into surpluses.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support the adoption of House Resolution 717 that honors former President William Jefferson Clinton.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time.

Although I would rather be here to support the SBA reauthorization, I rise today in support of H.R. 5008, which would simply, once again, extend the important programs under the Small Business Act and the Small Business Investment Act.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5008 marks the fourth extension of the SBA programs. The House Committee on Small Business passed the extension on the SBA programs with bipartisan support a year ago. I want to take this opportunity to commend the leadership of our ranking member, the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Velazquez), and our chairman for their strong leadership and their bipartisanship in working on that reauthorization.

Yet, the House leadership has failed to bring this bill to the floor for a vote. Why?

The leadership in this and the other body give a lot of lip service to small business. We constantly tout them as the backbone and the engines of our economy. Yet, on legislation as critical to their and, thus, our Nation's well-being as the reauthorization of programs on which they depend, this Congress has, once again, failed to act.

It is getting late in the year. Our small businesses cannot wait. They need security now. They need the assurance that the programs they will need to continue will be there now. They need to know what to expect, and we need to stop these stop-gap measures and give them that security and that assurance.

I am particularly concerned because I have heard Members ask, Why should we continue to fund agencies and programs that have not been reauthorized?

Mr. Speaker, actions speak louder than words. Failure to act on this legislation is sending the message that our Nation's small businesses are not a priority for this administration. But they are very important to both the Democrats and the Republicans on the committee.

It is also of great concern that this bill fails to address the current problem of high fees associated with the 7(a) program, the flagship lending program for the Small Business Administration. If the leadership fails to bring the reauthorization to a vote by the end of this month, the 7(a) lending program will once again be in jeopardy.

It is a good thing that, in our districts, the agencies charged with supporting small businesses are doing what they need to do. On that positive note, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize and congratulate the University of the Virgin Islands Small Business Development Center, the university president, Dr. Laverne Ragster, and the SBDC director, Mr. Warren Bush, for successfully hosting its Small Business Innovation Research Program and Small Business Technology Transfer Program Orientation Conference last week.

Finally, on a bill previously before this body today, I want to take this opportunity to also join my colleagues in supporting House Resolution 717 and belatedly extend, on behalf of all of my constituents in the U.S. Virgin Islands, our best wishes to President Bill Clinton on his 58th birthday, as well as to wish him a continued speedy recovery, many, many more birthdays and good health and happiness, and God's richest blessings on him and his family.