Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Community Action Partnership of Greater Saint Joseph. This agency is active in the St. Joseph community through their work and have been chosen to receive the YWCA Women of Excellence Award for Employer of Excellence.

Community Action Partnership has a 45 year history of empowering women and opening doors of opportunity, through assistance to young mothers in achieving college dreams to providing development opportunities to help maintain employment for mothers in need. Many staff members began their careers as program participants and have become supervisors and leaders in the organization, all expressing a passion for their work and the agency. With benefits that include flexible hours, work-from-home options, healthcare for both full and part-time employees, and time allotted each week to attend classes, this agency is building a brighter future for 145 individuals and their families. This employer is empowering its staff by encouraging involvement in community organizations, local boards, and leadership programs at the local, state and national level.

Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in recognizing Community Action Partnership of Greater Saint Joseph. Their empowerment and dedication to their employees has impacted countless individuals in and beyond the Saint Joseph Community. I am honored to represent this agency in the United States Congress.

Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Lydia Zuidema of Saint Joseph, Missouri. Lydia is active in the community through her work and has been chosen to receive the YWCA Women of Excellence Award for Woman in the Workplace.

Lydia is the superintendent and a teacher at St. Joseph Christian School. She instituted the school's National Institute for Learning Development program and has traveled to Afghanistan and South Africa to train other teachers. In Afghanistan, she helped staff and faculty prepare to receive accreditation; in South Africa, she trained early childhood educators. She never wavers from her sense of peace and calm, which comes from her great love for and dedication to the Lord.

Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in recognizing Lydia Zuidema. She has made an amazing impact on countless individuals in the St. Joseph Community. I am honored to represent her in the United States Congress.

Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Karli Sample of Saint Joseph, Missouri. Karli is active in the community through her school and has been chosen to receive the YWCA Women of Excellence Future Leader Award.

Karli has held several leadership roles, has been involved in athletics and fine arts programs, is committed to being a volunteer, and has maintained a weighted GPA of 4.5, ranking second in her class. Karli's honors include being selected homecoming queen, a Drug Free Super STAR, a Cotillion for Achievement finalist, a DAR Good Citizen, and a Wendy's Heisman state finalist. She won six state engineering competitions and qualified for nationals each year.

Karli's nominator states, ``Karli Sample has made the most out of her four high school years by staying actively and consistently involved in school and community activities. . . . Karli's spirit and positive attitude have inspired many to follow in the same footsteps, whether it be on the court, in the classroom, or out in the community.''

Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in recognizing Karli Sample. She has made an amazing impact on countless individuals in and beyond the St. Joseph Community. I am honored to represent her in the United States Congress.

Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Kim Ulmer of Saint Joseph, Missouri. Kim is active in the community through her work and has been chosen to receive the YWCA Women of Excellence Award for Woman in Support Services.

Kim has been an administrative assistant for 20 years, working with the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce for five years. In a responsible, efficient way, she has helped her organization become recognized as one of the best in its industry in this nation. She is always looking for ways to improve the process, makes sure projects get done, and works to see that everyone in the office succeeds. This fun-loving team player is known as the ``resident counselor'' who draws others to her as a listening ear. She creates a welcoming atmosphere for both co-workers and volunteers. Kim also inspires co-workers as she oversees care for a stepson who was severely injured in an accident. She is married, has three children, two stepchildren, and four grandchildren.

Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in recognizing Kim Ulmer. She has made an amazing impact on countless individuals in the St. Joseph Community. I am honored to represent her in the United States Congress.

Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Grace Day of Saint Joseph, Missouri. Grace is active in the community through her work as an attorney and has been chosen to receive the YWCA Women of Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award for Woman in the Workplace.

Grace graduated from the University of South Dakota Law School in 1949. As the only female in her class, Grace constantly had to work harder than her male peers to earn the same level of respect, which was accomplished by graduating third in her class. She was admitted to practice law in South Dakota in 1949 and in Missouri in 1950. In 1963 she was admitted to practice law before the United States Supreme Court.

A pioneer for women in the profession of law, Grace opened her own practice in 1950, where she practiced solo until 1996. Grace was president of the Association of Women Lawyers, and in 1960-62 she served as Special Assistant Attorney General for the State of Missouri. In 1972, she was the first woman president to be elected to the St. Joseph Bar Association. Grace served as International President of B'nai B'rith Women from 1980-82, traveling the world. In 2005, Grace was awarded the alumni Achievement Award from the University of South Dakota. In addition, she has held numerous leadership roles, remained active on foundations, boards, and committees, and has assisted with several fund drives.

Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in recognizing Grace Day. Her achievements and selfless acts of service have impacted countless individuals in and beyond the St. Joseph Community. I am honored to represent her in the United States Congress.

Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Judy Trout of Saint Joseph, Missouri. Judy is active in the community through her generous acts of service and has been chosen to receive the

YWCA Women of Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award for Woman in Volunteerism.

Judy has been a licensed dental hygienist for more than 50 years, 49 of them served in the St. Joseph community. Judy started out in private practice, but later moved to the Social Welfare Board where she served some of St. Joseph's poorest citizens. In 1963 she worked tirelessly to advocate adding fluoride to the drinking water to establish healthy teeth for babies and children. Her most recent contribution was the establishment of a dental hygiene program at Hillyard Technical School, for which she was recognized by the State Dental Association.

In addition to her efforts as a hygienist, Judy has maintained an extensive presence in the community. She has served on the admissions committee of United Way, chairing it for two years. She has been involved with Girl Scout troops, PTA, Student Exchange Program, Cub Scout den mother, volunteer for Each One Teach One, Meals on Wheels and with Missouri Western State University Ambassadors. She has also taken on leadership roles with St. Joseph Junior League, InterServ, PEO, and Ladies Union Benevolent Association.

Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in recognizing Judy Trout. Her achievements and selfless acts of service have impacted countless individuals in and beyond the St. Joseph Community. I am honored to represent her in the United States Congress.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment offered by the gentleman from Oregon.

Small business owners are going to be enrolled automatically in a program that sets aside 6 percent of the value of an SBA guaranteed loan to pay off that loan, as it was previously described. While I appreciate very much the gentleman's effort to reduce the financial

burden on small business owners, there are a number of problems with this program.

First, it forces business owners to opt out of a federally mandatory set-aside of funds. This is going to reduce the amount of capital available because disbursements of those set-aside funds will be made to a bank or to a loan servicer instead of to small businesses.

Second, by requiring an opt-out, it suggests that a Federal agency, the SBA, is better at managing the small business rather than its owner--a conclusion that I, obviously, strongly dispute.

Third, loans under the 7(a) loan program are just that. Mr. Chairman, they are loans. It seems rather absurd to have the SBA automatically set aside funds in order to pay off loans it has just approved.

Fourth, the size of loans in the program are limited to those businesses with loans of less than $300,000.

I wonder: Why are these businesses favored over small business owners who may need slightly larger amounts of capital? By making the program available for loans of less than $300,000, I guess it suggests that small business owners at that level are less credit worthy and are incapable of managing their finances as opposed to businesses requiring a little bit larger loans.

All of these points, Mr. Chairman, are points that I am making. I strongly dispute the reason for this program. For that reason, I oppose the gentleman's amendment. Again, I appreciate very much his efforts and what he is trying to do, but I can't agree with this at all.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I would like to reiterate that this is just a giveaway. That is all it is. If we want to help small businesses, then let's reinstate bonus depreciation. Let's shorten appreciation to buy new equipment and to add more jobs.

The bottom line is let the government get out of the way. Increasing their taxes at a time when the deficit is running at a record high and when the administration continues to rack up more debt is not the way to help small businesses. Again, I oppose the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Chairman, today, I rise in opposition to H.R. 5297, the Small Business Lending Fund Act. Although my colleagues on the other side of the aisle claim that this bill would improve small business access to much-needed capital, I am not convinced. In fact, there is virtually no guarantee that small businesses will benefit whatsoever from the funding in this bill.

Nothing in Title 1 of the bill assures that banks will lend the capital, much less to small businesses. Title 2 authorizes lending by State programs to businesses that the Small Business Administration would consider large. And only Title 3 of this bill is targeted to assist small businesses. Nevertheless, the overall bill is badly flawed, and I can't support it, nor can I support the excessive small business assistance spending in Title 3.

Now more than ever, our Nation is relying on small businesses to create jobs and to lead us in our economic recovery. But without sufficient access to credit or capital, small businesses can't expand operations or hire new employees. There's little doubt that efforts to bail out banks and other major financial institutions has not led to improved access to capital by small businesses.

Last session, I strongly supported H.R. 3854. It was a comprehensive, bipartisan revision to the capital access programs overseen by the Small Business Administration. That bill, unlike the one before us today, would have improved access to needed capital by small businesses.

Incorporated into that bill was H.R. 3738, which provided a streamlined process to enable qualified venture capitalists to bootstrap their investment with additional Federal moneys to provide needed early-stage equity capital to small businesses. Successful operators would pay back the Federal Government before they took their own profits. Although the legislation came with a relatively modest price tag of $200 million, its benefits were sure to far outweigh the cost. Moreover, if the program did not succeed, the cost of failure was going to be very modest.

That certainly isn't the case today with the bill we have before us. The cost has increased by 500 percent without any previous testing of its potential to succeed. This will pile unnecessary risk or costs onto taxpayers at a time when we're dealing with record debt and unsustainable deficit spending. Even if Title 3 of this bill--the small business portion--even if Title 3 stood alone, given the dramatic increase in costs, I couldn't support it. But yet here it is. It remains attached to a bill that has even greater costs--and costs that are fully not paid for in the short term.

So let's lay this out. We still do not have a budget for fiscal year 2011. Our national debt has reached a new record high of $13 trillion. And the administration and the majority in the House continue to rely on unsustainable borrowing and spending to keep things running. When you consider the complete chaos our fiscal house is in, the idea of more spending seems foolish. Completely foolish. But that's what's being proposed by this legislation today, and I refuse to support it.

If my colleagues want to get serious about supporting small businesses and encouraging their growth, there are lots of ways to do so, and I'm very happy to help. But H.R. 5297 is yet another ill- conceived effort that, at the end of the day, will only further punish American entrepreneurs.

With that, Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I don't have any other speakers on this.

I just might comment on this bill. One of the frustrating things about our economic recovery right now, and we continue to hear over and over and over again, that small businesses are uncertain about what the future is. They don't know what's going to happen with cap-and-trade and what's going to happen with the energy tax, particularly those businesses that are using a lot of energy to produce whatever it is. They're uncertain about what's going to happen with this health care bill and all the mandates that are coming out. They're uncertain about what's going to happen with their taxes. They're uncertain about what's going to happen with the amassing debt that's taking place, because somebody is going to have to pay for it. And this administration continues to look at small businesses to be able to provide that.

So here we come along with a bill that supposedly is supposed to help small businesses, which the way it is right now, there's no guarantee whatsoever that that money is going to be loaned to small businesses. As the bill stands right now, a commercial loan could qualify, any commercial loan could qualify if it's a loan less than a million dollars.

The fact of the matter is, Mr. Chairman, there's no guarantee. There's no guarantee.

Small businesses are the ones that need help. And the fact of the matter is, too, that if the government would just get out of the way, then small businesses would lead us back into this economic recovery. They provide 7 out of every 10 jobs in this country, and they are the ones that are going to lead us. But nobody is going to expand and nobody is going to add any new productivity, any new hires, until they know what's going to go on and what's going to be around the corner. With this administration, they don't know what's going to happen to them.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment offered by the gentleman from Virginia.

Under the program, the way it was reported out of the Financial Services Committee, the bill bases its lending on the size of loans, and assumes that loans of under $250,000 and $1 million will be made to small businesses. However, there is no such assurance in the bill, and loans of those sizes could be made to large businesses, but count as small business lending. If this is a small business lending program, then it should use the definition of small business used throughout the government, and that is the one in the Small Business Act. The approach offered by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Nye) does just that. It makes that sensible change.

The other change that the gentleman's amendment does is to include small business lending companies. These institutions are not overseen by the Federal financial regulators, but are authorized by the Small Business Administration to make guaranteed loans. If the idea of the program is to increase lending to small businesses, small business lending companies should not be excluded from this program.

For these reasons, I definitely support the gentleman's amendment, and I appreciate his offering it.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, I rise in support of the amendment from the gentlewoman from California. If we're going to enact a program that's designed to target investment in certain industries, then selection of the applicants should be based on the likelihood that a venture capital company will make those amendments. As a result, I believe it provides a very important technical clarification to the bill, and I support it.

Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Edward Titus Roach of Weston, Missouri. Edward is a very special young man who has exemplified the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 1249, and earning the most prestigious award of Eagle Scout.

Edward has been very active with his troop, participating in many Scout activities. Over the many years Edward has been involved with Scouting, he has not only earned numerous merit badges, but also the respect of his family, peers, and community.

Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Edward Titus Roach for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.

Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Kyle Buck of Kansas City, Missouri. Kyle is a very special young man who has exemplified the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 1395, and earning the most prestigious award of Eagle Scout.

Kyle has been very active with his troop, participating in many Scout activities. Over the many years Kyle has been involved with Scouting, he has not only earned numerous merit badges, but also the respect of his family, peers, and community.

Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Kyle Buck for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.

Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize David Michael Leininger of Riverside, Missouri. David is a very special young man who has exemplified the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 1495, and earning the most prestigious award of Eagle Scout.

David has been very active with his troop, participating in many Scout activities. Over the many years David has been involved with Scouting, he has not only earned numerous merit badges, but also the respect of his family, peers, and community.

Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending David Michael Leininger for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.

Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize William Fredrick Henry Dunker of Parkville, Missouri. William is a very special young man who has exemplified the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 1495, and earning the most prestigious award of Eagle Scout.

William has been very active with his troop, participating in many Scout activities. Over the many years William has been involved with Scouting, he has not only earned numerous merit badges, but also the respect of his family, peers, and community.

Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending William Fredrick Henry Dunker for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.

Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Sean Patrick McCalmon of Kansas City, Missouri. Sean is a very special young man who has exemplified the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 1495, and earning the most prestigious award of Eagle Scout.

Sean has been very active with his troop, participating in many Scout activities. Over the many years Sean has been involved with Scouting, he has not only earned numerous merit badges, but also the respect of his family, peers, and community.

Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Sean Patrick McCalmon for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.

Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Derek Joseph Stanway of Kansas City, Missouri. Derek is a very special young man who has exemplified the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 1495, and earning the most prestigious award of Eagle Scout.

Derek has been very active with his troop, participating in many Scout activities. Over the many years Derek has been involved with Scouting, he has not only earned numerous merit badges, but also the respect of his family, peers, and community.

Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Derek Joseph Stanway for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.

Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Christopher Spencer Vaughn of Kansas City, Missouri. Christopher is a very special young man who has exemplified the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 1495, and earning the most prestigious award of Eagle Scout.

Christopher has been very active with his troop, participating in many Scout activities. Over the many years Christopher has been involved with Scouting, he has not only earned numerous merit badges, but also the respect of his family, peers, and community.

Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Christopher Spencer Vaughn for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.