Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2015

Floor Speech

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Ms. VELÁZQUEZ. I thank the ranking member for yielding, for fighting, and for being a real fiscal leader for small businesses in this country.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to this budget. Far from being a path to prosperity, it is actually a path to the poorhouse. Sadly, just as it falls short in so many other ways, the Ryan budget clearly fails small businesses.

Under this budget, resources that help small companies launch, grow, and hire will be cut by nearly $11 billion. A wide range of resources will be gutted--from contracts, to access to capital, to international trade assistance, to job training.

This budget is not the right budget to help those businesses that are the backbone of the American economy at a time when this economy is still struggling.

Studies have shown that many of these small business programs generate more than $3 in Federal revenue for every dollar spent. What type of economic policy says that you cut programs that generate income for the Treasury?

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Ms. VELÁZQUEZ. We just held a press conference today with so many small business people who have benefited from these types of programs. They are businesses that opened up in 2006. Today, we had a lady who provides IT services to the DOD and to many Federal agencies. Her business has grown from six people to 130 employees. These are the types of programs that we need in place in order to grow our economy.

Republicans like to say that they are the champions of small businesses. They oppose the ACA, claiming it will harm small firms. They oppose Dodd-Frank, saying that it will hinder the ability of small businesses to get lending from traditional financial services; and yet they cut the very lending programs that provide, through the Federal Government, access to capital for small businesses.

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Ms. VELÁZQUEZ. When we look at this budget, we know that the rhetoric does not match the reality. Rather than paying lip service to small businesses, we must invest in the programs that help them grow and create jobs. That is what we need, job creation in our country. We must do better.

Vote ``no'' on this budget.

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