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Small Business Development Center Cyber Training Act of 2019

Floor Speech

Date: July 15, 2019
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Technology and Communication Business and Consumers

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Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from New York (Mr. Delgado) for the introduction.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to offer my support for H.R. 1649, the Small Business Development Center Cyber Training Act.

As vice chair of the Small Business Committee, I was proudly joined by fellow colleagues in the committee, Ranking Member Chabot and Chairwoman Velazquez, in introducing this important bipartisan legislation.

I consider small business to be the foundation of our communities. They are the engines that drive innovativeness, investments, and economic development, and they are the pillars that prop up our neighborhoods.

Both in my home State of Pennsylvania and across the U.S., small businesses account for more than 99 percent of all businesses. Nationally, they support almost 59 million jobs.

Over the past decade, as we have seen immense growth in technology and innovativeness, we have also seen an increase in incidents involving the theft of valuable information from businesses and governments.

In 2014, it was discovered that the Office of Personnel Management was hacked, resulting in the theft of over 20 million records.

In 2013, criminals broke into Target's databases, with the credit and debit information from almost 40 million consumers being compromised.

Breaches have also been reported at Home Depot, JPMorgan Chase, and Sony.

As we have witnessed, these breaches can have extremely devastating and costly impacts on major corporations.

Now, if major entities struggle with the challenges of cybersecurity, what chances do our small businesses have?

H.R. 1649 was written to address this risk by providing cyber training, strategies, and resources to small businesses to better equip themselves against cyberattacks.

I appreciate having the opportunity to co-lead this important piece of legislation that will truly help our small businesses, the backbone of our Nation's economy, have the tools they need to protect themselves and to succeed.

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