Small Business Development Centers Improvement Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOLDEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairwoman Velazquez for yielding me the time.

Since coming to Congress 10 months ago, I have been focused on protecting jobs in the State of Maine, and that means helping small businesses succeed.

Thousands of small businesses in my State have launched or grown with help from small business development centers, or, as you heard them referred to, SBDCs.

Just last year, SBDCs served over 1,500 small businesses in my State, helped to start 136 new businesses, and worked to protect or create more than 800 jobs. Here are just a few of the small businesses that I have heard from directly in my district about this program:

SBDCs helped The Maine Meal in Skowhegan purchase a building in order to launch their new business;

The Milk House in Monmouth received the accounting and tax advice that they needed to help grow their business from an SBDC adviser, an important farming and dairy industry right there;

SBDCs helped Lost Valley Ski Area in Auburn, just across the river from my hometown, to develop a business plan so that they could secure the financing they needed to acquire and continue the Lost Valley Ski Area, which is very important to our community, particularly during the winter months.

I have visited each of these businesses and seen their work firsthand. These are just a few of the thousands of SBDC success stories in the State of Maine.

Given that small business development centers are the largest resource partner to SBA, it is particularly important for Congress to keep the program up to date and performing at a high level for small businesses throughout the country.

In Maine, the State's lead SBDC runs 11 outreach locations in my congressional district alone, in partnership with regional economic development entities, enabling small businesses in Maine's rural communities to access valuable assistance.

While the centers have had many successes, we have also learned lessons about ways to improve the programs in the year since it was last reauthorized. That is why I am excited to lead this bill, alongside Vice Ranking Member Radewagen, to reauthorize the program. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank her for her support of the bill. It has been a pleasure to work with her.

The Small Business Development Centers Improvement Act of 2019 will make a number of positive changes to improve oversight, better enable SBDCs to partner with other organizations, bolster the center accreditation process, and improve the voice of SBDCs in setting the program's direction.

I am particularly glad that the bill will help broaden rural small business access to this assistance by clarifying that centers are allowed to market and advertise their services. Rural access to SBA resources is key for States like Maine and many rural communities all over the country.

Finally, the bill will reauthorize appropriations at the level of $175 million for fiscal years 2020 through 2023, reaffirming Congress' commitment to the program.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I would like to thank the chairwoman and the ranking member and, in particular, their staffs for forging a bipartisan path forward on the reauthorization of this program.

I would also like to thank Vice Ranking Member Radewagen for coleading this bill with me, as well as Mr. Hagedorn, Mr. Evans, and Mr. Fitzpatrick for joining me as cosponsors.

Mr. Speaker, I would encourage all of my colleagues to support this bill to keep the SBDC program up to date for the good of America's small businesses.

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