Help Small Businesses Thrive Again

Floor Speech

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Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, the Big First District of Kansas is home to more than 20,000 small businesses who employ over 80 percent of working adults in my district. These small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Their stories, defined by sacrifice, hard work, and determination, serve as a reminder of what the American Dream is all about: that anyone, from anywhere, can come to the U.S. the right way, work hard, make an honest living, and succeed. That is what it is all about.

Many of the small businesses I represent are family owned and operated. As the fifth generation to grow up on my family farm and feedyard in western Kansas, I understand the immense sense of pride and gratitude that comes with growing up around a family business. It is much more than a 9 to 5; it is a personal investment of endless hours to see a dream come to life. When that dream gets off the ground, families give it their all to keep it afloat. They take pride in serving their neighbors and leaving their communities better than they found them. Our Federal policies ought to help them do just that.

Since I came to Congress, I have worked nonstop to make this a reality. Every year, I have introduced legislation to preserve stepped- up basis and to stop far-left Democrats' farm killer tax. For decades, stepped-up basis has protected families from being forced to pay capital gains taxes on inherited assets.

President Biden tried his best to remove this provision, which would have resulted in the destruction of family farms across my district and around the country. I have always and will continue to oppose any effort to impose new taxes on small, family-owned businesses, period.

I have fought to protect similar exemptions for students from family farms and small businesses. Last year, new FAFSA provisions altered the Federal formula for student aid, counting assets in small businesses and family farms as part of the family's net worth. My Family Farm and Small Business Exemption Act seeks to correct this flaw and to level the playing field for students who come from these families.

When these students are applying for higher education financial aid, assets tied up in a small business should not count against them. As their families work tirelessly to make an honest living and serve their neighbors, we should make it easier for them to succeed and pass on these businesses to the next generation.

My bill evens the playing field and protects the American Dream for every student. I was proud to see it included in the bill that the House Education and Workforce Committee marked up last week.

Congress should also roll back burdensome regulations that further handcuff our small businesses in an already challenging environment. For the last 4 years, our small business owners navigated regulation after regulation imposed by the Biden administration. President Biden attempted to regulate every aspect of small business owners' livelihoods if they didn't fall in line with his Green New Deal agenda.

Small business owners, already struggling with sky-high inflation, begged Washington, D.C., for less regulation and more freedom to just make a living. The Republican majority has spent the last 4 months rolling back these regulations. That is what our small business owners want and that is what they deserve.

Most importantly, Mr. Speaker, over the last few months, this body will work to further support small business owners by extending the 2017 tax cuts. These historic tax cuts by President Trump during his first term ushered in an economic boom that benefited America's small businesses and the communities they serve. We have a duty to bring back the growing economy and to ensure that family businesses that are the backbone of our country can thrive again.

If we fail to extend the Trump tax cuts, small businesses will see their tax rates nearly double, harming local economies and Main Street. This financial burden would limit small businesses' ability to grow and force some to reduce the size of their staffs or even close their doors entirely. America can't afford to leave these men and women out to dry.

During this National Small Business Week, we thank the hardworking men and women who make up the more than 33 million small businesses across our great Nation, employing nearly 62 million Americans, and equipping them to feed their families, put a roof over their heads, and clothes on their backs. I look forward to working with my colleagues in this body to see America's small business community thrive once again.

Mr. Speaker, if our small businesses fail, America fails, and the world cannot afford that. I recognize that over these next few weeks we will have very difficult conversations on the best way to extend these cuts and enact President Trump's agenda, but they are conversations worth having.

Mr. Speaker, America is counting on us.

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