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Floor Speech

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Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I rise today to reiterate my strong support for Dilawar Syed to serve as Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Mr. Syed is highly qualified and widely supported as a nominee who has the backing of numerous business groups and organizations. In many ways, he is the picture of the American dream. He is a business owner, entrepreneur, and job creator who was born in Pakistan and educated in the United States. Over the course of his career, Mr. Syed has founded and run several companies in the tech and healthcare sectors.

He also has firsthand experience dealing with challenges small businesses faced during this pandemic. During the COVID-19 crisis, Mr. Syed chaired a task force to help other businesses in the State of California survive and rebuild from the pandemic. His experience in and commitment to the small business sector are clear. That is why over the past 2 years my Democratic colleagues and I have made a concerted effort to get Mr. Syed confirmed.

As Deputy Administrator, he would largely be responsible for running the day-to-day operations of the SBA. Working with Administrator Guzman, he will play a critical role in ensuring that small businesses across our country have the support they need to continue growing.

This work is vital to Hawaii's economy. More than 99 percent of the businesses in our State are small businesses, and nearly half of all employees in Hawaii work for a small business. A strong, fully staffed Small Business Administration is essential for these small businesses in my home State and millions more across the country.

Despite his stellar qualifications and the importance of the SBA, for nearly 2 years my Republican colleagues have blocked Mr. Syed's nomination to serve in this important role. I sit on the Small Business Committee, and we have had numerous times where we would call a markup in order to enable a vote on Mr. Syed's nomination, and the Republicans would simply not bother to show up. They just wouldn't even bother to show up.

My Republican colleagues have at different points wrongly accused Mr. Syed of being anti-Israel. They have chastised him for utilizing legal SBA pandemic relief loans and raised other baseless objections to his nomination. One wonders why the Republicans so eagerly raise objections to nominees like Mr. Syed who are obviously qualified for their nominated positions. But despite their baseless bluster, the facts are clear: Mr. Syed is well qualified to serve as Deputy Administrator of the Small Business Administration, and his confirmation will make our economy and our country stronger.

While it never should have taken this long--2 years--I am glad that tomorrow this body will vote on Mr. Syed's nomination to serve as Deputy Administrator. As I said, it has taken far too long to have someone as qualified and as committed--to have his vote occur.

I look forward to voting to confirm Mr. Syed and to working with him to strengthen small businesses in every corner of our country.

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