Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join many of my colleagues today to celebrate National Small Business Week.

Nearly every day, we do business with these local retailers or use products they had a hand in creating somewhere along the supply chain. Still, it can be easy to focus on the larger companies that dominate America's economic landscape, but this week is a time to shift our attention to the entrepreneurs and innovators who reach for their pieces of the American dream and work tirelessly to achieve them. This is no small feat, but it happens over and over again each day as it has throughout our Nation's history.

This week, we have the opportunity to recognize and commend those who take this leap of faith while generating positive economic activity and benefits that help to strengthen and sustain the system that has created more wealth for more people than any other in human history. This system is capitalism. It underpins our society and is marked by the freedom and ability to make our own economic decisions. Those decisions have often led Americans to start businesses and become their own bosses. As a result, America's small businesses are now, without question, the backbone of our country.

As the Small Business Administration has reported, more than half of Americans either own or work for a small business, and they create about two out of every three new jobs in the United States each year. It is clear that small businesses drive the U.S. economy.

I was recently in North Central Arkansas, where I met with several small business owners and their employees. This time last year, I toured small businesses in South and Southwest Arkansas to highlight and learn more about the impact they have on our State. Representatives from the Small Business Administration were on hand for some of these visits to underscore the Agency's willingness and desire to help promote and assist small businesses, owners, and entrepreneurs with establishing or expanding their companies.

At each stop, the conversations provided me with invaluable insight as to the challenges and opportunities businesses face. Inevitably, the discussions also turned to how the economic climate has changed for the better in recent years. Whether they have been changes in the Tax Code that have helped to make small businesses even more competitive, including the qualified business deduction, altering the estate tax, or increasing bonus depreciation, as well as having provided regulatory relief and certainty, we have witnessed how these pro-growth policies have not only helped to drastically uplift and improve America's economy but how they have also given business owners and entrepreneurs the confidence they have been lacking for so many years about whether to invest or expand their opportunities.

According to the Small Business Administration, Arkansas is home to over 247,000 small businesses, which is over 99.3 percent of all businesses in the State. These enterprises employ over 479,000 Arkansans, which makes it easy to see how much of an impact they have on our State's economic climate. In addition to powering the economy, small businesses also contribute to the communities they operate in. They embody the American values and ideals that have helped to build our country--hard work, a willingness to take risks, and a vision for opportunity. That is why we recognized the importance of entrepreneurs by passing a resolution designating May 5 through 11 as National Small Business Week.

I encourage people across my home State and throughout the country to support small businesses in their communities, especially this week. I also encourage my colleagues to continue listening to the concerns and to the advice of our entrepreneurs and of those they employ.

We can build on our positive economic growth by pursuing more policies that will help our small businesses succeed. The show of support certainly means a lot to the folks who own these companies and their employees who count on them to earn their livelihoods. It also serves as a way to further cultivate and reward the entrepreneurial spirit that is at the very heart of America.

I applaud the men and women in Arkansas and across the United States who work incredibly hard as they run their own businesses and chase the American dream. This week, we celebrate them and our Nation's intrepid, enterprising legacy that helps make us who we are.

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