A Discussion About Jobs--Continued

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Mr. WILSON of Ohio. In addition to supporting those that are out of work with unemployment benefits, we need to support small business so that they can create more job opportunities for our workforce.

Why aren't small businesses hiring? On NPR this morning, one small business owner said it as clearly as anyone can say: Small businesses are not hiring because they don't have to. We need to create an economic environment that makes it necessary for small business to hire.

As we all know, 60 to 80 percent of the new jobs come from small businesses. Most Americans get their first jobs at a small business. I know I did. And the small businesses on Main Street are the ones that will lead our economic comeback, not the big businesses on Wall Street.

So what can we do here in Congress to help small business? Access to credit is one of small business's biggest challenges. For small firms to play their job-creation role, they need the right tools to work with, and without the access to capital, small businesses have a tough time staying afloat. According to the SBA, without access to affordable credit, small enterprises are twice as likely to fail compared to businesses that can find credit. They must be able to access capital to be able to get their new venture off the ground or expand their operations.

Given how tight credit markets are, that is a challenge that every business in every community is encountering. That is why Congress has taken steps to address these problems.

Legislation that Congress passed in February strengthened the SBA lending programs and made them even more usable for small business. This important new law does a number of things to help small business. It provides interest-free loans of $35,000, giving that shot in the arm, the immediate cash to cover existing business obligations.

It makes it easier for small business owners to get small business SBA loans, and that is cutting away much of the redtape. So many people have stayed away from SBA because of the redtape that has been cut back significantly or eliminated in many cases.

This will reduce the cost of loans. It helps small firms raise equity and capital. In total, the new law will generate $21 billion in new lending and investment for small business.

These programs, when paired with existing programs at the Small Business Administration, will help business to continue and America's small business weather the storm and lead us back to prosperity.

In addition, I support the Small Business Lending Funding Act. The bill would boost funding to small business by investing capital in community and smaller banks. The more that participating banks increase their total loans to small business, the more favorable the terms become.

Finally, I also support the Small Business Jobs Tax Relief Act. It is a companion measure to the Small Business Lending Fund that will help small business grow and create new jobs through, number one, 100 percent exclusive of small business capital gains, small business penalty relief and increased deductions for startup expenditures.

Again, I would like to thank Congressman Garamendi of California for convening this session, and I am happy to be with you and share with you some of the problems and issues and solutions we have in Ohio.

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Mr. WILSON of Ohio. I believe that we have seen examples of this back in my district in Ohio also. We have seen a roofing company that we just visited last week, and they have come up with a new type of roof that is a green roof that actually has vegetation growing on it. It not only keeps the inside of the building cooler, but it is much more pleasant to look at.

Another option they had was a white roof instead of a second, and I was amazed. With that white roof, Congressman, you could hold your hand out like this and just feel the heat reflecting back off that roof versus going into the building. These are the type of energy efficiencies that we are going to have to look at as we move forward in our country to become the leader again.

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Mr. WILSON of Ohio. We are seeing that in Ohio, and we are working on our education. We are trying more than ever to get the reading programs going as best we can.

What we found out, Congressman, is that when a child can read and comprehend, the science and math scores go up and the discipline problems go down. So the education and the development and work that we have going on in the State of Ohio is something that our governor has been very firm about, and is not giving up the fight for a better education for our children.

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Mr. WILSON of Ohio. Yes, I would. Thank you. I believe that the other thing that needs to be said here, too, is Democrats stood strong for financial reform by making sure that we never get in the position where the taxpayers have to bail out a bank again. There's no such thing as too big to fail anymore. There are further amounts I would like to have seen done. But in order to get it through, we had to lighten up some----

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Mr. WILSON of Ohio. Yes, some compromise. But that being said, I truly believe that now we have taken the risk away from the taxpayers having to pay for really the reckless gambling and things that went on with the derivatives and how they accounted for them and how they were able to be manipulated. And really oversight is now on Wall Street--and it needed to be there all along. I truly believe we would have not had the meltdown we had had it been there in the first place. It is there now, and it will continue to help us in the future.

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