We have submitted a resolution, because it is Small Business Week, on behalf of myself and Senator Snowe, Senator Pryor, Senator Lieberman, Senator Enzi, Senator Kerry, Senator Brown, Senator…
We have submitted a resolution, because it is Small Business Week, on behalf of myself and Senator Snowe, Senator Pryor, Senator Lieberman, Senator Enzi, Senator Kerry, Senator Brown, Senator Cantwell, Senator Ayotte, Senator Risch, Senator Cardin, and Senator Hagan, a very good representation of our Small Business Committee and others that submitted a resolution this week, again, as we have done every year since 1953. We have done so every year since 1953 to recognize this week, or 1 week in the year, as Small Business Week. So that is what our resolution, which was submitted earlier today, does.
I hope Leaders McConnell and Reid will take up this resolution and pass it so we can honor the 28 million small businesses that exist today in America. We have been doing everything we can, and I am very proud, as the chairman of the Small Business Committee, that we have worked in a bipartisan fashion for the most part trying to give our businesses, first of all, the recognition that 9 out of 10 new jobs created were created by a small number, a very small number, of small businesses that are fast growing. They are the new job creators. These are the businesses that are going to be putting this recession behind us. These are the businesses that are innovating and adapting and changing and being more strategic and smarter, looking for those opportunities in all areas and in all geographic parts of our Nation.
Over the past few months my committee has held three very special roundtables to explore strategies, tools, and methods to strengthen what I like to call the ecosystem of entrepreneurship. Much like a rain forest or desert or much like the ocean itself, that is an environment where many creatures or organisms have to live and interact. The same is true of our financial ecosystem, the political ecosystem. Society itself is an ecosystem where small businesses have to function.
In order for them to be healthy, there have to be the right nutrients, if you will, present. So we have explored in our committee what--we know the United States does this well. We do it better than any country on Earth. That is one of the great strengths of America; we foster that entrepreneurship, free but fair markets, well regulated, not too lightly, not too heavily. Sometimes we go a little overboard and we need to pull back. Sometimes we do not regulate enough and we need to step up. But that is what we have been exploring.
In fact, we have broken our roundtables into domains: Do our small businesses have enough access to capital? Do our small businesses truly have access to grow global markets? What did we learn this year? We learned that less than 12 percent of all small businesses in America export. With the market growing overseas and only the small percentage of the world market being now in the United States--we were at one time the biggest market, when China was closed, when communism was reigning in the Soviet Union, and the Arab world was in darkness. I mean the market was in the United States.
But that is no longer the case, as these countries and areas have emerged and created markets and opportunities of their own.
So one thing we learned is that the ecosystem needs to be stronger by helping small businesses to export. They do not have the back office or the expertise of 10 accountants and a Chinese specialist and a South American specialist. But we can, by being smart, help. Through the Commerce Department, the Small Business Administration, or maybe even through some of our research and development arms of some of our departments, we can be the back office for small businesses.
We are excited about what is happening there. So access to capital, access to global markets, access to counseling, mentoring, technical assistance and education. I have had so many small businesses come before our committee and say: You know, Senator, getting the loan from the bank was the first step. But if so-and-so had not shown up in my office from the Score Chapter or if I could not have reached out to my local university or my small business center there, I would never have been able to make it because they told me what to do to save me from making a fatal mistake and got me on my way or helped me to rethink my market during the recession.
How one lady put it before our committee, they helped her remarket her business so now it is growing faster than ever. I think also access to strategic partnerships is important. No man is an island. We do not accomplish anything by ourselves in the world. That is true of individuals, that is true of small businesses. So we asked ourselves: Who are the partners, strategic partners for small businesses? Cities are doing some creative things.
Madam President, you were a county executive. You know the things you did as a county executive. Your reputation is well known in that regard.
States can be strategic partners to their small businesses. We explored those opportunities. Access to government contracting--you know, the Federal Government, state governments, and local governments are some of the biggest spenders and biggest businesses--if they were businesses, which they are not; there are clear differences--but if we were a business, the Federal Government would be the largest business in the world. It buys more goods and services than others. We do not have to do all of that just with the big businesses such as IBM, GE, ExxonMobil. We can contract with small businesses. It takes a little more time, takes a little more energy, takes a little bit different approach, but we most certainly can buy some of the things we need from the small business right down the street.
So we are shaping policies to do that. Senator Cardin from Maryland has been particularly aggressive when it comes to contracting with minority and women-owned businesses, which make up a significant and growing area. It is very exiting as more women enter not just the workforce but decide they want their flexibility. They want to set their own hours. They want to be their own bosses. They want to establish businesses that allow them to also raise children at home, to be there when their kids need them. So they find that small businesses operating out of their homes are the answer to that dilemma. We want to give them access to government contracting when, of course, they are capable and provide the right price.
One of the big areas that we looked at is access to human capital. I think you probably heard, Madam President, many of our businesses saying: Why is it that we are bringing in some of the smartest people in the world, educating them at our universities, to where they are getting master's degrees and Ph.D.s in engineering, math, and science, and then we send them back to the country they came from so they can create businesses to compete against us? Why don't we extend visa privileges to these master's and Ph.D. candidates?
That is a good question, and we have bills to answer that. We also want to develop a skilled workforce in America. Access to human capital is what small businesses need to grow and to expand.
Finally, we need access to flexible regulation and smart tax policy. We are never going to live in a world where we do not pay taxes. It is just the nature of what we have to do to keep our government running and operating, with a government that serves the people--by the people, for the people.
But our taxes should not be too heavy, too burdensome, and our regulatory regime should not be either too light or too onerous. It should be just right. But it is hard to get that just-right approach. We are working at it every day. Senator Snowe has been working on regulatory reform. Senator Warner has been working very hard on regulatory reform--and other Members of this body.
The bottom line is that this is Small Business Week. We want to honor the small businesses that are helping us put this recession in the rearview mirror. I want to ask the leadership to pass this resolution-- a very straightforward, noncontroversial resolution by both Democrats and Republicans, recognizing this is Small Business Week.
I also wanted to bring to the attention of the body the conclusion, basically, of the three roundtables we have held and thank the Members who attended. We had good attendance, and we gleaned some excellent ideas about the brackets I have outlined today, and have been in the process of filing over the last week, and throughout this week, individual bills that reflect what we have learned in these roundtables. We have taken those ideas and turned them into legislation.
I am happy to say there is not going to be a big pricetag on this legislation. It is not just throwing money at the problem, but we do need additional resources. It is sharpening things, reforming some of our strategies, laws, rules, and regulations on the books, and encouraging, by granting some competitive grants, some of these strategic partnerships with counties, cities, and States. I look forward to seeing how this body responds to some of the new pieces of legislation we put out. I look forward to working with my colleagues through this week and the month of May, through the summer, and into the election, to keep focused on the No. 1 issue on the minds of the American people, which is jobs, economic hope, and economic opportunity for themselves and their families. Tom Friedman has been saying all over the world that when kids graduate from college, it is not a job they are looking for. They may not be able to find the job they are looking for. They need to create the job they want. They need to build a business, build a better mousetrap, think about a different way of delivering a product or a service or think about a business that is selling to a domestic market and taking it global. With technology and opportunities, many young people are doing just that.
In conclusion, I had the wonderful opportunity on Friday to be involved and took the opportunity Saturday morning to stop in at the Cambridge Innovation Center, the granddaddy of all small business incubators. It is across the street from MIT, Microsoft, and Google. There were some young and exciting college students in the building. You could either rent a cubicle that looked like a kindergarten with your name on it to get in the building or you could rent a space such as a bullpen where you could work or rent your own cubicle or private office; and thousands, literally, of young people were moving into that building--actually people of all ages, even retired executives who decided, I have always wanted to try out my idea, so let's see if I can get my business started. Even on a Saturday--and it was very quiet--I could feel the energy in that building, although it was virtually empty.
I have walked through incubators in New Orleans, and I hope the occupant of the chair did, and helped to create them in Delaware. That is what it is going to take, a strategic partnership between government and the private sector, letting the private sector do what they do best, but letting government do what it does best. That was a perfect example of what I saw in terms of taking research dollars that are spent at MIT, moving them out to the universities, and then on to these ideas, where they are literally being tested and commercialized to get out into the market to create wealth and opportunity for the United States and the world.
I am happy to be chair of the Small Business Committee. For small business and economic growth, it is National Small Business Week. I thank all the groups helping us to celebrate this week and, most important, I thank the entrepreneurs who literally risk everything to create their dreams and bring economic prosperity not just to themselves and their family business but to a Nation that relies on them every day. We want to make that burden lighter. I want to help them in every way we can in our committee in Washington and throughout our States, counties, and cities, and be the partner they can rely on to get the job done.
Madam President, I don't see anyone else on the floor. I urge my colleagues to adopt our resolution. I thank all of us who will be speaking today and this week on Small Business Week.
