OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2007

Date: June 27, 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Business and Consumers Finance and Banking


SCIENCE, STATE, JUSTICE, COMMERCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007

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Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. I move to strike the last word.

Mr. Chairman, would the chairman of the Science, State, Justice and Commerce Appropriations subcommittee engage me in a colloquy?

Thank you for yielding and engaging in this colloquy on the Small Business Administration's New Markets Venture Capital Program.

Mr. Chairman, we have talked before about the many small businesses located in low-income urban and rural areas that lack access to capital in the form of equity, and that presents a serious barrier to growth.

Although it is widely recognized that small businesses create 75 percent of all new jobs and account for 99 percent of all employers, conventional venture capital firms simply overlook low-income areas; and it handicaps these businesses' ability to leverage resources needed to expand existing operations and hire and train qualified employees.

The Small Business Administration's New Markets Venture Capital Program was established precisely for this purpose, to fill the access to capital gap that exists for a number of these small businesses in these communities. The program was designed for the purpose of making equity investments in growing small businesses located in economically stressed urban and rural regions through the creation of privately managed new market venture capital companies.

The overall objective of these equity investments is to provide patient capital to help promote economic development and the creation of wealth, not for individuals but wealth to support employment opportunities in underserved areas, as well as among the residents living in such neighborhoods.

Six new market venture companies were created during the initial phase of this program, Mr. Chairman; and these firms are still operating and making critical equity investment in small businesses, primarily located in low-income urban and in rural areas. It is imperative that the new market venture capital program is given a chance to succeed in order to continue its mission in bringing much-needed equity investment capital to small businesses in these communities that need them the most.

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