250 Years of Main Street: Retail to Research — Cameron "C.H." Miller, Urban Chamber of Commerce, June 17, 2026

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Written testimony submitted to the United States Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship for its June 17, 2026 hearing, 250 Years of Main Street: Retail to Research, by the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Urban Chamber of Commerce in Las Vegas, Nevada. The summary of testimony states that visitor volume to Las Vegas fell 7.5 percent in 2025 while Nevada posted a 13 percent year-over-year increase in new business formations. The testimony describes pressures on small businesses from paused federal grant programs, contracting corporate partnerships, tariffs, reduced discretionary spending and immigration enforcement. It asks Congress to fund programs serving start-up, scale-up and stay-up businesses and the chambers that serve them. It also states that about 40 percent of small businesses started nationwide were formed after COVID-19.

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                               WRITTEN TESTIMONY
    Before the United States Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
                   Hearing: "250 Years of Main Street: Retail to Research"
                   June 17, 2026 | 428A Russell Senate Office Building


                                      Submitted by:
                               Cameron "C.H." Miller
            President and Chief Executive Officer, Urban Chamber of Commerce
                                    Las Vegas, Nevada




SUMMARY OF TESTIMONY
Nevada's small businesses are navigating one of the most demanding economic
environments in recent memory. Visitor volume to Las Vegas fell 7.5 percent in 2025, its
sharpest annual decline since the COVID-19 pandemic, eroding the tourism base on
which a significant share of Nevada's small business economy depends. At the same
time, Nevada posted a 13 percent year-over-year increase in new business formations,
ranking among the top five states nationally. That combination of rapid new business
creation alongside visible small business distress is not a contradiction. It is a signal.
Americans are building businesses out of economic necessity, not surplus confidence,
and the infrastructure available to support those businesses is not keeping pace with
the demand.
The Urban Chamber of Commerce serves as the connective tissue between small
businesses and the network and resources they need to survive and scale. Yet
chambers across America are being asked to do more with less, at the same moment
that federal grant programs are being paused, corporate partnerships with small
businesses are contracting, and the businesses themselves face compounding
pressures from tariffs, discretionary spending pullbacks, and workforce disruptions tied
to immigration enforcement.
This testimony makes one fundamental argument: a stronger small business
infrastructure is the backbone of a safer, stronger, and more economically secure
America. The ask is straightforward. Congress should prioritize sustained, predictable
funding for programs that support small businesses at every stage of their journey as
start-ups finding their footing, scale-ups ready to grow beyond their first hire, and
stay-up businesses working to remain viable in a volatile economy. The infrastructure
that serves all three tiers is what determines whether entrepreneurship in America is a
real pathway or just a promise.



I. WHO I AM AND WHY I AM HERE
Chairman and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
As we acknowledge America’s 250 years of entrepreneurship, I am honored to bring
Nevada’s story to this table.
My name is Cameron "CH" Miller. I am the President and CEO of the Urban Chamber of
Commerce in Las Vegas, Nevada, where I have served since January 2023. The Urban
Chamber is one of Nevada's oldest organizations dedicated to the success of
Black-owned businesses and the broader small business community in Nevada. In July
of this year we mark 46 years of doing that work. We have been through recessions, a
pandemic, and every economic shift this city has seen. We are still here. Our
membership spans nearly every industry sector, from healthcare and professional
services to food and beverage, mining, and the sports economy that defines our state.
When the City of Las Vegas was started 121 years ago, it did not start as a destination.
It started as a railroad stop, a place people passed through on their way somewhere
else. What it became is one of the most recognized cities in the world. When people
around the world picture America, Las Vegas is one of the first places they see. It has
become synonymous with this country in a way that very few cities ever do. That did not
happen because of one industry or one company. It happened because of small
businesses, people who saw something possible here and decided to build it. As we’ve
heard Senator Rosen say many times, ninety-nine percent of businesses in Nevada are
small businesses according to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of
Advocacy. That is not a footnote. That is the whole story.
Before joining the Urban Chamber, I spent the better part of two decades building
businesses from the ground up. I have owned businesses in beauty, real estate, and
film and television production. I know what it feels like to make payroll when margins are
thin. I know what it means to watch a business that took years to build lose ground in
months when the economy shifts. I have also watched what happened to my parents,
who owned a salon in Las Vegas from the time I was five years old, navigating every
economic cycle this city has ever seen. I have represented Nevada as an elected
official, and I know firsthand how the decisions made in buildings like this one land on
the ground for people like myself, and the ones I just described.
I come before this committee not simply as an organizational leader but as someone
who has lived the small business experience, studied it through policy, and now works
every day to strengthen the systems that determine whether small businesses in
Nevada survive or fail.



II. THE PROBLEM: GROWTH NUMBERS THAT TELL TWO STORIES
Nevada is often cited as a business-friendly state, and the data supports that reputation.
Nevada ranked among the top five states nationally for year-over-year new business
formation growth in early 2026, posting a 13 percent increase compared to the prior
January. Our job growth in recent years has spanned arts, entertainment, recreation,
professional services, healthcare, and construction, and we are now seeing genuine
momentum in technology, innovation, and Al-adjacent industries that are beginning to
take root here.
But growth numbers alone do not tell the whole story. Approximately 40 percent of small
businesses started nationwide were formed after COVID-19. Many of those businesses
were started not from a position of surplus or opportunity, but from necessity. People
who lost jobs, lost income, or lost confidence in traditional employment built businesses
because they needed to. The question this committee should be asking is not simply
how many businesses are being created. The question is how many of them will still be
operating in five years, and what resources are available to help them get there.
At the Urban Chamber, the signals are not encouraging. Our membership staff tells me
that long-standing members who have been in business for years, people who survived
the 2008 Great Recession, who survived COVID, are now telling us that this is the
hardest time they have ever experienced. They are not exaggerating.
Nevada businesses have survived tough times before, and they will survive again. But
right now, the infrastructure they need to do that is not keeping pace with what they are
facing.

The Nevada Tourism Story
Nevada is not like other states. Gaming and hospitality account for a disproportionate
share of our economic activity, and tourism is not simply a leisure sector here. It is the
engine that drives teacher salaries, neighborhood restaurants, service businesses, and
the wage base for hundreds of thousands of Nevada families. When tourism slows, the
whole machine slows with it.
Visitation to Las Vegas fell 7.5 percent in 2025, to approximately 38.5 million visitors,
the sharpest annual decline outside the COVID-19 pandemic. Average daily room rates
fell 5 percent. Revenue per available room declined 8.8 percent. International visitors,
who typically stay longer and spend more per trip, have been specifically impacted by
both diplomatic uncertainty and new visa screening measures. Canadian visitors,
historically one of Las Vegas's largest international markets, have been booking fewer
trips.
What is important to understand, and what I hear directly from our members who
operate in the events and conference sectors, is that there is a trailing effect that has
not yet fully shown up in the data. Conference and group travel decisions are made 12
to 18 months in advance. Businesses deciding right now whether to hold their next
annual conference in Las Vegas are making those decisions based on current economic
signals, current cost realities, and current perceptions about traveling to the United
States. The consequences of those decisions will not fully appear in Nevada's visitation
numbers for another year or more. We are watching a wave form before it arrives. This
means our local small businesses may be facing an even longer recovery period than
we first predicted.
Food and beverage sales in Clark County fell nearly $191.5 million in an 11-month
period compared to the prior year. That is not an abstraction. It is tips that were not
earned, shifts that were cut, hours that were reduced, and margins that disappeared for
small restaurants, caterers, and beverage operators who make up a large segment of
our Urban Chamber membership.

The Infrastructure Gap
In 2023, the Urban Chamber in partnership with CSN and Access CDFI l launched the
Nevada Capital Readiness Program, or CRP, supported through a four-year, $700,000
federal grant as a part of the Silver State Consortium. The program provides
one-on-one business advisory services to help small business owners understand how
to access capital, prepare financial statements, build business plans, and position
themselves to compete for contracts and investment. It is exactly the kind of
capacity-building infrastructure that can mean the difference between a business that
survives its first five years and one that does not.
In early 2025, a federal executive order paused grant programs of this type. The CRP
was suspended. Our business advisors, who were funded through the program, were
laid off. For approximately 18 months, the program operated at reduced or minimal
capacity while we worked through the administrative process of relaunch. Businesses
that needed advisory support during that period did not have it. That gap did not show
up in a headline. But it showed up in the businesses that could not access capital, could
not refine their business plans, and could not move forward on growth they were trying
to plan.
Chambers across the country face a compounding version of this challenge. Federal
and state grant programs that provided operational lifelines have become less
predictable, less accessible, and in some cases have been restructured or eliminated.
Grant funding across small business support programs fell approximately 30 percent on
a broad basis in recent years. For a chamber that depends on a combination of
membership dues, grants, and corporate partnerships, that is not a rounding error. It is
an operational pressure that directly reduces services to businesses that need them.
Corporate partnerships with small businesses have also contracted. Members who
several years ago had corporate contracts, sponsorships, and procurement
opportunities from large companies are finding that many of those companies have
scaled back. The ecosystem that helps small businesses connect with larger capital and
larger markets has thinned, precisely when small businesses need it most.



III. MY PERSPECTIVE: STRONG SMALL BUSINESSES BUILD
STRONGER, SAFER COMMUNITIES
I want to reframe something for this committee, because the framing matters.
Small business infrastructure is not simply an economic policy question. It is a
community stability question, and community stability is what makes neighborhoods
safer and families more secure.
When people have access to real, sustainable economic opportunity, when they have
the tools to build something of their own, when they have pathways to capital and
markets and professional networks, communities are more stable. Families are more
stable. Neighborhoods are more stable. The data on the relationship between economic
precarity and public safety is well-established across political perspectives. When
people have no realistic pathway to economic security, the consequences extend far
beyond their individual circumstances. Stronger, more stable communities are built on
purpose. The infrastructure that gives people real economic agency is a large part of
how that happens.
Nevada has one of the most transient economies in America. People come here to
rebuild, to start over, to try something new. Nevada is a place that offers Americans a
second chance to thrive. That is part of our culture and part of our strength. But it also
means that when the economy hits the brakes, these same people who took a risk on
themselves, are the most vulnerable. A small business owner who invested their
savings, took out a loan, or built something from scratch does not have the institutional
cushion that a large employer provides. They need the support that chambers, SBDCs,
and capital-readiness programs are designed to provide.
One of our Urban Chamber members owns a plastics manufacturing company here in
Nevada. He is, to our knowledge, the only Black-owned plastics manufacturer in the
country. His business is exactly the kind of operation Nevada has been working to grow,
a manufacturer that creates jobs and proves this state can be more than gaming and
hospitality. Tariffs have hit him directly, increasing input costs to an unsustainable level.
Contracts that worked six months ago do not work the same way today. He is not asking
for a handout. He is asking for a policy environment stable enough to actually run a
business in.
Another member launched a landscaping business here in Southern Nevada within the
last five years. He did what every new entrepreneur is told to do. He built a plan, found
clients, and hired a team. He took the right steps to build a good business with a strong
team. Right now, members of his workforce are facing a barrage of social and economic
uncertainty. That uncertainty does not stay at the office door. It affects productivity,
retention, and the owner's ability to take on new contracts. He is not asking for special
treatment. He is asking for clarity, for stability, and for support systems that help him
navigate an environment that keeps changing.
Behind that ask is something concrete. If he cannot retain his workforce, he cannot bid
on larger contracts. If he cannot grow past the survival stage, the families depending on
those wages do not easily find that income somewhere else.
These are not exceptional stories. They are the texture of what chambers like ours hear
every day.



IV. THE SOLUTION AND THE ASK
This committee has an opportunity to make a meaningful difference for small
businesses across the country by focusing on the strength and sustainability of the
infrastructure that supports them.

Restore and Sustain Capital Readiness and Advisory Programs
Programs like the Capital Readiness Program are not overhead. They are frontline
infrastructure. Business advisors who sit with small business owners, help them
understand their financials, prepare for SBA loans, and connect them with procurement
opportunities are doing the work that determines whether those businesses survive.
When programs like this are suspended, the damage shows up later, in the businesses
that could not grow because they could not access capital, and in the jobs that were not
created.
This committee should advocate for sustained, multi-year funding for capital readiness
and business development programs operated through chambers, SBDCs, and
community-based organizations. Predictable funding is not a luxury. It is the condition
under which these programs can hire staff, retain institutional knowledge, and build the
long-term relationships with businesses that make their support meaningful.

Invest in Chambers as Small Business Infrastructure
Chambers of commerce are among the most efficient delivery systems for small
business support in the country. They are trusted, community-embedded, and capable
of reaching businesses that would never walk into a federal office. But they are
chronically underfunded relative to the work they are being asked to do.
This committee should explore expanded, flexible funding mechanisms for chambers of
commerce serving communities with high concentrations of small and emerging
businesses, with particular attention to organizations operating in historically
underinvested ecosystems.
​
Support Childcare Access for Small Business Owners and Their
Employees
We should also be honest about what it actually takes for a small business to survive its
first five years. For many owners, access to reliable, affordable childcare is not a
personal convenience. It is a business operations issue. An owner who cannot secure
childcare cannot keep the hours their business requires. An employee who cannot
afford it does not show up. Incorporating access to childcare and family support
services into federal small business frameworks is a practical step, not a peripheral one.
It is part of what giving a business a genuine chance to stay up actually looks like.

Support Tourism-Dependent States with Targeted Stabilization Frameworks
Nevada's dependence on tourism creates a structural vulnerability that standard small
business support frameworks do not fully address. A program designed for a
manufacturing state or a diversified urban economy does not map cleanly onto a state
where a 7.5 percent drop in visitor volume translates directly into reduced foot traffic at
every restaurant, boutique, service provider, and entertainment venue.
This committee should consider whether states with highly concentrated tourism
economies need targeted frameworks for small business stabilization during periods of
significant visitor volume decline. The tools already exist, including SBA economic injury
programs, community development financial institution support, and grant bridge
mechanisms. What is needed is a framework for activating those tools quickly and at
appropriate scale when the signals we are already seeing in Nevada's data indicate
systemic pressure on local small business ecosystems.

Build on What Is Already Working
There are good ideas on both sides of this aisle about how to support small businesses.
This committee should look at what Nevada has done through its Office of
Entrepreneurship, including policy shifts that have reduced regulatory barriers,
supported workforce innovation, and created the Knowledge Fund to support business
growth in emerging industries. These are not partisan policies. They are practical ones,
and they are showing results. I would encourage this committee to examine how the
federal government can support and amplify that kind of state-level work.
A state that started as a railroad stop and built one of the most visited cities on earth
knows what is possible when the conditions are right. The question is whether federal
policy will keep up.



V. CONCLUSION
I grew up watching my parents run a salon in Las Vegas. They were not wealthy. They
were not connected. What they had was a small business, a community of customers
who depended on them, and a willingness to show up every day and do the work. That
business was the foundation of our family's stability and the center of relationships that
lasted for decades.
Nevada has hundreds of thousands of families like mine. They are building salons and
landscaping companies, catering businesses, plastics manufacturers, trades operations,
tech startups, and companies working at the edge of what AI can do for small business.
They are doing it in a state that is working hard to diversify its economy, invest in
innovation, and create a future that extends beyond gaming and hospitality.
What they need from the federal government is not complicated. They need the
programs that help them become capital-ready to be funded and stable. They need the
chambers and support organizations that serve them to have the resources to actually
serve them. They need a federal policy environment that recognizes the particular
vulnerabilities of a tourism-dependent economy and responds to the signals before the
wave arrives.
A strong small business ecosystem is not just an economic asset. It is a community
asset. It keeps neighborhoods stable, keeps families in their homes, keeps young
people with opportunities to build in the places they grew up. It is, in the most direct
sense, the backbone of a safer, stronger, and more secure America.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of Nevada's small business community
today. I am happy to answer any questions.


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