Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2017--Motion to Proceed--

Floor Speech

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Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the need to pass the Water Resources Development Act of 2016, also known as WRDA. Despite strong, bipartisan support, the Senate has yet to take a vote on a commonsense, necessary piece of legislation.

Frankly, I am extremely disappointed. WRDA will help communities across the Nation who need to repair, expand, or modernize their water infrastructure. The bill invests in the Nation's ports and inland waterways to improve commerce, and it moves us toward major upgrades to locks and dams in places such as the Upper Mississippi River System.

WRDA will improve flood protection in order to better safeguard communities from damage and will restore ecosystems and promote public access for recreation.

This legislation empowers local partners in water resource project implementation and improves the approval process for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects.

WRDA promotes innovative technologies to address water resource challenges, including additional support to drought-stricken communities.

This bill also makes essential investments in drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, including emergency assistance to communities facing water contamination, such as Flint, MI.

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to again meet with families from Flint.

The devastating water crisis continues to have an unimaginable impact on the children and families there. I was heartbroken to hear more about some of their daily struggles, but I was also inspired by their resiliency.

The provisions included in the WRDA bill will help ensure that Flint residents will have the resources and support necessary to address this ongoing and catastrophic tragedy. WRDA will help Flint residents, but it will also help communities all across our country with drinking water and infrastructure challenges. It will modernize the State Revolving Loan Fund Programs and capitalize the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act Program--also known as WIFIA--a new, low- interest financing mechanism to fund large-dollar-value infrastructure projects all across our Nation.

The many benefits of the WRDA bill--from drinking water protections to waterway improvements, to water body restoration--is why it enjoys broad, diverse support. Over 100 stakeholder organizations have called on the Senate to bring WRDA to the floor. These groups include: the American Society of Civil Engineers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Nature Conservancy, United Steelworkers, National Association of Counties, the National League of Cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.

Our dedicated partners across the aisle are also ready to move on this important bipartisan piece of legislation. Senator Inhofe recently joined 28--28 of his Republican colleagues on a letter to the Senate Republican leadership calling for a vote. The Environmental and Public Works Committee passed the Water Resources Development Act with strong, overwhelming bipartisan support--a vote of 19 to 1.

This commonsense bill is ready for a vote in the Senate. Communities across our country--including the families of Flint--are ready and waiting for us to act. I truly hope the WRDA bill can be prioritized for action on the floor when we return in September. We simply must act, and we must act as quickly as possible. Startup Companies

Mr. President, when we think about fast-growing startup companies, we might think about Silicon Valley, Boston, or Boulder. While these cities certainly have very vibrant startup ecosystems, innovative startups and small businesses are being founded and are growing across the United States, including my home State of Michigan. In each of our States, there are hard-working entrepreneurs who have established job- creating startups. These dynamic companies act as entrepreneurial leaders, innovators, and job creators within our communities. Industries, including retail, health care, entertainment, transportation, and education are being revolutionized and reshaped by entrepreneurs in our local communities. They are reimagining the future by using technology to solve problems and create innovative products and services.

According to the Kauffman Foundation, startups are a major force for job creation in the United States. Startups under 1 year old create about 2 million jobs per year, accounting for 20 percent of gross job creation, though they only represent 8 percent of the firms in this country.

Despite the fact that new startups are vital to our country's economic and job growth, many members of our community may not know these innovative companies exist, and many startup companies may not know where to access the resources to help their companies succeed.

In 2013, I joined a bipartisan group of colleagues--including Congressmen Polis and Issa--to create the first annual Startup Day Across America to bring attention to startups throughout Michigan and across the United States. That year, I had the opportunity to visit Start Garden--a combined venture capital fund and shared startup workspace in Grand Rapids--with Congressmen Huizenga and Amash, where we heard firsthand about the exciting new businesses being funded in Western Michigan.

In 2014, I met with a group of entrepreneurs at the Madison Building in Detroit, home to startups backed by Detroit Venture Partners. I spoke with Paul Glomski, the CEO of Detroit Labs.

Founded in 2011 with just four employees, Detroit Labs now has upward of 100 people working for them, building cutting-edge technology in downtown Detroit. They dream up, design, and build mobile apps and have made them for General Motors, Domino's Pizza, Kimberly-Clark, DTE Energy, and many others. They also provide a paid apprenticeship program that teaches hard-working Michiganders how to code and connects them to jobs upon completion of the program.

Startups are not just about apps and tech, though. I also visited Ponyride, a coworking space in Corktown, where I met Eric Yelsma, founder of Detroit Denim. He and his team are making high-quality jeans in Detroit and shipping them across the country.

In 2015, I visited startups in Traverse City, where I heard about the growing startup and venture capital ecosystems in Northern Michigan that are pulling in talent from across the Midwest, including Cherry Capital Foods, a young company that works with Michigan farmers to help them find new customers.

This year, I have teamed up with Senators Warner, Daines, and Scott to encourage our colleagues to visit a startup anywhere in their home State during the week of August 4. Like me, they know startups are taking root across the Nation--in Richmond, VA, Bozeman, MT, Charleston, SC, Kalamazoo, MI, and other communities.

In fact, Michigan is one of the fastest growing venture capital communities in the Nation, a critical asset that will help us become the startup capital of the Midwest. We have world-class colleges and universities, more engineers than any part of the country, and an infrastructure to export not just nationally but all across the globe.

While I am focused on connecting talented Michigan entrepreneurs to the capital they need to grow and succeed, I will also continue working with my colleagues on Federal policies that will support these important startups and small businesses. That means strong science, technology, engineering, arts, and math, or STEAM, education, along with expanding efforts to encourage our Nation's students to learn how to code. Even basic programming skills are incredibly marketable, not just among tech startups but throughout the entire economy.

We also need to make sure startups are able to compete on a level playing field on the Internet and have access to fast, affordable broadband no matter where you live. Additionally, we must work together to help entrepreneurs master challenges and impediments that stand in their way as they seek to establish their firms and to create jobs. Startups play a key role in economic growth, and we have to do more to help them.

A recent report from the Economic Innovation Group found that since the end of the recent recession, new firms have increased by only 2.3 percent and are concentrated in only 25 percent of U.S. counties, especially in dense, higher population areas. We have to ensure that every American community has the opportunity to experience the economic benefits new business establishments bring. We have to ensure that every America community has the requisite tools to support entrepreneurs as they turn their ideas into action, transforming their neighborhoods and the economic trajectories of their neighborhoods in the process.

Ultimately, success for any company comes down to matching talent with capital. Small businesses and startups now have a variety of sources of capital to expand and create jobs: traditional bank loans, for example, SBA loans including the 7(a) Loan Program I have championed in the past, State-backed loans through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, facilitated by the State Small Business Credit Initiative, venture capital, friends or family, and now even crowdfunding.

Just as there are a number of factors that contribute to a vibrant startup ecosystem, there will be a wide array of stakeholders, decisions, and industries that will contribute to shaping Michigan's future economy. I am committed to ensuring that our growing startup community will be a fixture of creativity, innovation, and job creation for decades to come.

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