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Main Street Employee Ownership Act of 2018

Floor Speech

Date: May 8, 2018
Location: Washington, DC

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Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New York for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5236, the Main Street Employment Act of 2018, that will help employee-owned companies.

Employee ownership is an important part of helping workers build wealth. In addition to the income gap in this country, we also have a wealth gap. When a company does well, everybody should do well, not just the investors.

This bill helps promote employee-owned businesses by making changes to the Small Business Administration's loan program that helps employee-owned businesses access capital. It is currently a barrier in the rules that actually gives a disadvantage to employee-owned businesses, when, as a society, as a Nation, we should be encouraging employee ownership.

The SBA Loan Guarantee Program is often the only financing that many small businesses can get early on to get off the ground. This bill would open up SBA lending for cooperatives, which we often call co-ops, and also strengthens the lending program for ESOPs, which is another form of employee-owned company.

There is a very successful ESOP in the district I am honored to represent called New Belgium Brewery that makes among the best beer in the world.

This bill also creates a small business employee ownership and cooperative program, which helps employers and employees understand how to create employee-owned businesses, providing some of the help for succession planning, coordinating with other programs to help employee-owned businesses succeed.

Employee-owned businesses are anchor businesses in our communities. They provide good, stable jobs and help employees build value and wealth over time and participate in the governance of the company. They align the incentives of workers with owners and management and are good for overall economic productivity as well.

This bill builds on the bipartisan language that I helped secure in the omnibus appropriations bill directing the SBA to encourage employee ownership. Passing this bill will make those changes in the 1-year spending bill that expires September 30 permanent.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all Members to support this very important piece of bipartisan legislation.

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