Women'S Small Business Ownership Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. President, I have introduced, along with Senator Vitter and Senator Shaheen, a bill that we believe will help break the glass ceiling women entrepreneurs face in this country.

This month is National Women's Small Business Month. Throughout the month, the important contributions women entrepreneurs make to keep the economy growing will be highlighted. According the U.S. Small Business Administration, SBA, women-owned businesses are growing three times faster than their counterparts. Today, there are more than 10 million women-owned businesses across our country. They provide more than 23 million jobs and are expected to provide another five million additional jobs by 2018. In addition, one-third of all women-owned businesses are now owned by minorities.

It is clear that we need to be investing more in our women-owned small businesses. That is why the legislation I am introducing today would help ensure that the next generation of women small business owners can get the training and counseling they need to turn their ideas into realities.

This legislation would reauthorize the SBA's Women's Business Centers, WBCs, program for the first time since 1999. I am very pleased we were able to raise the authorized funding level for this critical counseling program to $21.7 million annually. Although the number of women entrepreneurs has continued to grow, funding for WBCs has remained flat for many years.

Last year, when I was chair of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, we took a hard look at actions necessary to propel women's entrepreneurship forward and introduced legislation that addressed three components necessary to unlock their success--increasing access to federal contracts, increasing access to capital, and improving the training and counseling programs that support them. It became very clear that women all over the country agree that the Congress must take these additional steps.

As Chair, I also issued a report, ``21st Century Barriers to Women's Entrepreneurship,'' which demonstrated the need for the policy changes we seek in this legislation.

I am pleased to say that on October 14, one of those goals will be achieved. The Small Business Administration has finalized sole-source authority for the women's procurement program--bringing the program and the women it serves in line with other Federal contracting programs. This will result in increased access to Federal contracts for women.

The bill I introduced addresses another finding in the report which called for expanding training and counseling for women entrepreneurs. It does this by reauthorizing the SBA's Women's Business Center, WBC, program, which provides critical counseling, training, and other assistance to women, particularly in socially and economically disadvantaged communities. I cannot think of a better investment than one that helps women who want to create jobs and contribute to the economy. Women's Business Centers also provide important business counseling and training to underserved minority entrepreneurs.

The need is greater than we knew last year. Since the Survey of Business Owners, published by the Census Bureau, was released this summer, a greater number of women have started businesses. The latest preliminary data showed that there are nearly 10 million women-owned firms in the United States. This is a 27 percent increase from the survey's last iteration in 2007 and a 50 percent increase in only a decade. Women-owned businesses generate more than $1.6 trillion in revenue.

The report we issued last year showed that women entrepreneurs benefit from the customized business training and counseling Women's Business Centers provide to help level the playing field in starting and growing a small business. The majority of women-owned businesses are still under $24,999 in revenues. Women entrepreneurs receive only 4 percent of all commercial loan dollars, 17 percent of SBA loans, and 4.2 percent of venture capital--so there is plenty of work to be done.

It is astonishing to me that more than 100 Women's Business Centers around the country are expected to serve this growing group of entrepreneurs. Women-owned small businesses generate needed income. According to a study released by the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, AEO, ``microbusinesses can be vital for income and wealth creation in underserved communities. In 2010, for instance, female-headed family households in which at least one person owned a microbusiness generated $8,000 to $13,000 more in annual household income than similar households without a business owner.'' For low-income households, this additional income is a path toward prosperity. The report goes on to say, ``the median net worth of business owners is almost two and a half times greater than that of non-business owners.''

Liz Jamieson, Director of the Washington Center for Women in Business, a WBC in Lacey, WA, explains why we need to increase support for Women's Business Centers. ``Since our inception in 2013, the Washington Center for Women in Business has coached and supported over 400 women entrepreneurs, to help them start, grow or scale up their companies. We've also provided training and business skills development to over 1000 entrepreneurs in the same time frame. Our center would not exist without the partnership of the SBA. Even so, our center serves 34 of the 39 counties in Washington State, and two staff people can only do so much, although they do an extraordinary job and we get rave reviews. This legislation will empower us to empower far more entrepreneurs from all over our state, and to help them grow their businesses and create more jobs.''

The legislation enjoys broad support by a number of key national organizations that support women business owners. The Association of Women's Business Centers, AWBC, Women Impacting Public Policy, WIPP, and the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, AEO, believe the changes we are proposing in this legislation are necessary to make this program open to more women.

In closing, I would like to thank my colleagues who have cosponsored this legislation. I also want to commend Chairman Vitter and Ranking Member Shaheen of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee for their hard work and dedication to assisting women entrepreneurs succeed. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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