Prison to Proprietorship for Formerly Incarcerated Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHNEIDER. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5065, the Prison to Proprietorship for Formerly Incarcerated Act, of which I am proud to be a cosponsor.
Empowering the formerly incarcerated with the skills to start their own small businesses can be a powerful benefit, both for these individuals and their communities. By creating economic opportunity, entrepreneurship also has the power to break the cycle of incarceration and reduce recidivism.
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleagues Hakeem Jeffries and Tim Burchett for introducing this bipartisan legislation.
I have long been a proponent of the Small Business Administration's SCORE program and how it helps burgeoning small businesses expand and grow. Mentorship can play a vital role in the success of entrepreneurs, and citizens returning to society after serving time face unique challenges when trying to start their own small businesses. Today's legislation would expand SCORE programming to help the formerly incarcerated specifically.
I know this legislation would have a positive impact in my district. Our Small Business Development Center based out of the College of Lake County is in the process, in conjunction with the local county jail, of offering entrepreneurship training to a cohort of inmates.
I am proud of the initiative of our SBDC and, in particular, its director, Mitch Bienvenue, for what he has undertaken in designing and offering this program. I look forward to hearing about the success stories of these inmates once they return to our communities.
I am excited to push this bill forward because I know that SCORE would provide these individuals with valuable mentorship that could be instrumental to their success.
No one starts a successful business on their own, and SCORE can be an invaluable pipeline for the help necessary to make the dream of running one's own small business a reality.
Madam Speaker, I thank, again, my colleagues Mr. Burchett and Mr. Jeffries for the work each of them has done on this important bill. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''
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