Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! (House Small Business subcommittee hearing, June 30, 2021)
Summary
Transcript of a June 30, 2021 hearing of the House Small Business Subcommittee on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Workforce Development, Small Business Committee Document Number 117-023, titled Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! Jason Crow and Young Kim gave the opening statements. Witnesses were John R. Dearie of the Center for American Entrepreneurship, J.D. LaRock of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Denyse Airheart of Mi Casa Resource Center in Denver and Craig Etkin of Intelligence360 in Sugar Land, Texas. Added material came from the Job Creators Network and a statement of Lamell McMorris.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
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“Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! (House Small Business subcommittee hearing, June 30, 2021).”
Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/jobs-jobs-jobs-house-small-business-subcommittee-hearing-june-30-2021-aa5be82bc9/
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JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INNOVATION,
ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND WORKFORCE
DEVELOPMENT
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
HEARING HELD
JUNE 30, 2021
Small Business Committee Document Number 117–023
Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
44–925 WASHINGTON : 2021
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HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ, New York, Chairwoman
JARED GOLDEN, Maine
JASON CROW, Colorado
SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas
KWEISI MFUME, Maryland
DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota
MARIE NEWMAN, Illinois
CAROLYN BOURDEAUX, Georgia
TROY CARTER, Louisiana
JUDY CHU, California
DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
ANTONIO DELGADO, New York
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
ANDY KIM, New Jersey
ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota
BLAINE LUETKEMEYER, Missouri, Ranking Member
ROGER WILLIAMS, Texas
JIM HAGEDORN, Minnesota
PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
DAN MEUSER, Pennsylvania
CLAUDIA TENNEY, New York
ANDREW GARBARINO, New York
YOUNG KIM, California
BETH VAN DUYNE, Texas
BYRON DONALDS, Florida
MARIA SALAZAR, Florida
SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin
MELISSA JUNG, Majority Staff Director
ELLEN HARRINGTON, Majority Deputy Staff Director
DAVID PLANNING, Staff Director
(II)
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CONTENTS
OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Hon. Jason Crow ...................................................................................................... 1
Hon. Young Kim ...................................................................................................... 3
WITNESSES
Mr. John R. Dearie, President, Center for American Entrepreneurship, Great
Falls, VA ............................................................................................................... 5
Dr. J.D. LaRock, President and Chief Executive Officer, Network for Teaching
Entrepreneurship, New York, NY ...................................................................... 7
Ms. Denyse Airheart, Business Pathways Director, Mi Casa Resource Center,
Denver, CO ........................................................................................................... 8
Mr. Craig Etkin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Intelligence360,
Sugar Land, TX .................................................................................................... 10
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Mr. John R. Dearie, President, Center for American Entrepreneurship,
Great Falls, VA ............................................................................................. 26
Dr. J.D. LaRock, President and Chief Executive Officer, Network for
Teaching Entrepreneurship, New York, NY ............................................... 63
Ms. Denyse Airheart, Business Pathways Director, Mi Casa Resource
Center, Denver, CO ...................................................................................... 69
Mr. Craig Etkin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Intelligence360,
Sugar Land, TX ............................................................................................. 70
Questions for the Record:
None.
Answers for the Record:
None.
Additional Material for the Record:
Job Creators Network (JCN) ........................................................................... 71
Statement of Lamell McMorris ....................................................................... 73
(III)
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JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 2021
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INNOVATION,
ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in Room
2360, Rayburn House Office Building and via Zoom, Hon. Jason
Crow [chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Crow, Davids, Phillips, Newman,
Bourdeaux, Houlahan, Garbarino, and Young Kim.
Chairman CROW. Without objection, the Chair is authorized to
declare a recess at any time.
Let me begin by saying that standing House and Committee
rules and practice will continue to apply during hybrid proceedings.
All members are reminded they are expected to adhere to these
standing rules, including decorum.
House regulations require members to be visible through a video
connection throughout the proceeding, so please keep your cameras
on. Also, please remember to remain muted until you are recog-
nized to minimize background noise. If you have to participate in
another proceeding, please exit this one and log back in later.
In the event a member encounters technical issues that prevent
them from being recognized for their questioning, I will move to the
next available member of the same party and I will recognize that
member at the next appropriate time slot provided they have re-
turned to the proceeding.
For those members and staff physically present in the Committee
room today we will continue to follow the most recent OAP guid-
ance. Masks are no longer required in our meeting space for mem-
bers and staff who have been fully vaccinated. All members and
staff who have not been fully vaccinated are still required to wear
masks and socially distance. I sincerely hope we do all of our parts
to protect each other and our staff.
The COVID-19 pandemic inflicted a once in a lifetime economic
shock on our Nation. The small businesses that make up the foun-
dation of our economy were particular hard hit. Despite govern-
ment efforts, nearly 200,000 business that closed their doors during
the pandemic may never open. These enterprises were more than
just storefronts, they were entrepreneurs’ livelihoods, they were job
creators, and pillars of their communities.
As we work towards a full recovery from the pandemic we must
fill the void these closures created. Unfortunately, we are amid a
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decades-long decline in entrepreneurship rates across the country.
In 1982, new firms constituted 38 percent of all businesses, but
that fell to only 29 percent in 2018. In recent years, the rate at
which firms were exiting the market outpaced the rate at which
firms entered the market.
This decline in entrepreneurship stems from a variety of dif-
ferent factors. Economic crisis like the Great Recession decrease
aggregate demand and create a tightened lending environment,
hurting business startups. High amounts of student loan debt,
fewer employment opportunities, the increasing consolidation of
businesses have led to slow entrepreneurship rates among
millennials.
Millennials are on track to be the least entrepreneurial genera-
tion in history with startup rates well below baby boomer and Gen-
eration X counterparts. Simply put, we are staring down an entre-
preneurship crisis in the country that has the potential to signifi-
cantly delay our recovery.
Moreover, this decline in business startups also can lower pro-
ductivity, decrease the creation of new technologies, and slow the
overall rate of job growth. I think we can all agree that this sce-
nario of economic stagnation is not acceptable.
Instead, we need our economy operating at maximum strength
and Congress should consider how we can help reverse the decline
in entrepreneurship. This will mean examining existing programs
and considering new initiatives to produce an ecosystem that is
more favorable to entrepreneurs.
One such proposal is my bipartisan bill called the Next Genera-
tion Entrepreneurship Corps Act, or NextGen. NextGen seeks to
accomplish two main objectives: entrepreneurship inclusivity and
increased entrepreneurship in distressed regions. The program
uses a tried-and-true model based on programs with a track record
of positive impacts, like Teach for America and the Peace Corps.
The bill would create a national business proposal competition that
would select fellows annually to start and run businesses in their
communities. The program would reward NextGen fellows with
$120,000, 2-year stipend for living and startup expenses as well as
health benefits. Fellows would then have access to various re-
sources to help them start and grow their businesses.
In addition, the NextGen bill would provide fellows with access
to advice and mentorship through SBA resource partners as well
as valuable networking opportunities. The program would also give
the fellows assistance breaking into the world of Federal con-
tracting.
But most importantly, NextGen would allow underserved entre-
preneurs to obtain the capital traditional financial institutions so
often denied them. As part of the program NextGen fellows would
have access to SBA-backed lenders to receive access to credit.
Lastly, the program would establish a fund to encourage private
investors by providing leverage to those who make an equity in-
vestment in a corps member’s business.
I hope that today’s hearing allows us to examine new ideas, like
the Next Generation Entrepreneurship Corps Act and others. By
revitalizing American entrepreneurship we can transform our econ-
omy to be more productive, inclusive, and prosperous.
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I would now like to yield to the Ranking Member, Mrs. Young
Kim, for her opening statement.
Mrs. YOUNG KIM. Thank you, Chairman Crow, and good morn-
ing to everyone who is joining us in the room and also virtually.
I would like to welcome our witnesses, too.
Today we turn our attention to a topic that is paramount: small
businesses, jobs, and whether the current environment can help
the Nation and its millions of small businesses recover from the
COVID-19 pandemic. In May, the national unemployment rate was
a dismal high point 8 percent, which is virtually unchanged from
April and still far higher than before the pandemic when it was a
low 3.5 percent. In my home state of California, the May unemploy-
ment rate was a stunning 7.9 percent. In my congressional district,
San Bernadino County registered 7.3 percent unemployment and
Orange County 5.9 percent.
Small businesses are still suffering. They are doing their best to
regain footing after the COVID-19 pandemic, but they are facing
dismal national employment numbers, increasing inflation, labor
shortages, and highest costs for their materials. The small business
job situation remains extremely challenging. Entrepreneurs are of-
fering higher wages, cash bonuses, or other incentives are still un-
able to attract workers. In May, almost half of the small business
owners surveyed by NFIB, 48 percent, said they are unable to find
workers to fill jobs.
Moreover, they face a very uncertain future with higher inflation,
more regulations, increasing mandates, skyrocketing taxes, and un-
precedented job vacancies threatening their recovery. Small busi-
nesses are the kindling that light up the American economy, so
when they struggle, so does our Nation.
According to the Federal Reserve’s May 2021 Beige Book, busi-
nesses, and particularly small businesses, are continuing to cope
with a very difficult economic environment. The negative impact of
supply chain and production disruptions, widespread shortages of
materials and labor, and delivery delays make it challenging to get
products to consumers. Just this month the Port of Los Angeles
said ships wait on average about 5 days to get in, adding to the
cost of doing businesses for entrepreneurs. In normal times those
ships don’t have to wait at all. Small firms are plagued by consist-
ently rising costs and more expensive goods used to make their
products.
So, with a generous enhanced Federal unemployment payments,
employment has clearly not show robust numbers and businesses
still can’t fill open jobs. Although some rates are ending the en-
hanced unemployment payments, the jobs outlook remains uncer-
tain.
Small businesses comprise 95 percent of U.S. companies and they
represent half of our Nation’s workforce and they are major drivers
of new job growth, creating 64 percent of the net new jobs. At a
time when these firms are working tirelessly to get back on their
feet, the new administration is threatening them with repealing
the tax benefits of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and other tax in-
creases, and proposing more regulations and red tape. Exactly the
wrong environment for our Nation’s best job creators.
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A recent Tax Foundation analysis found the combined effects of
tax changes and spending in President Biden’s American Jobs Plan
would reduce the U.S. goods domestic product in the long run and
result in 101,000 fewer U.S. jobs. Imagine that. A jobs plan that
would result in fewer jobs. Think about it.
Sadly, my home state of California is a case study on what high
taxes and burdensome regulations can do to tamper job economic
growth. So let us learn from the misguided policies enacted by Sac-
ramento and let us not implement them at the national level.
There is no doubt that the outlook for small businesses is more
uncertainty. However, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and
startups are some of the most innovative and resilient businesses
in the Nation. They are often nimble, fast, and they can adapt to
any situation. Unfortunately, the current environment is creating
headwinds that prevent growth, expansion, and job creation.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about the ways we
can support pro-growth policies that drive our Nation’s small busi-
nesses forward, not backwards.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mrs. Young Kim. The gentle-
woman yields back.
I would like to take a moment to explain how this hearing will
proceed. Each witness will have 5 minutes to provide a statement
and each Committee member will have 5 minutes for questions.
Please ensure that your microphone is one when you begin speak-
ing and that you return to mute when finished. And with that, I
would like to start by introducing our witnesses.
Our first witness is Mr. John Dearie. Am I pronouncing that
right, Mr. Dearie?
Mr. DEARIE. Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman CROW. Mr. John Dearie, the founder and president of
the Center for American Entrepreneurship. CAE is a nonpartisan
research and policy organization whose mission is to improve the
policy circumstances of American entrepreneurs and startups. Mr.
Dearie is the former acting CEO of the Financial Services Forum
and a former officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Welcome, Mr. Dearie.
Our next witness is Dr. J.D. LaRock, the president and CEO of
the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, a global nonprofit or-
ganization that provides high-quality entrepreneurship education
to middle and high school students from under-resourced commu-
nities as well as programs for college students and adults. Pre-
viously, Dr. LaRock served as the president and CEO of the Massa-
chusetts Commonwealth Corporation, where he chaired Governor
Baker’s Commission on Digital Innovation and Lifelong Learning.
He also served as senior education advisor to Senator Ted Ken-
nedy. Welcome, Dr. LaRock.
Our third witness is Ms. Denyse Airheart, the director of Busi-
ness Pathways and Mi Casa Resource Center. She oversees—and
that is in my district, so a special place in my heart from Mi Casa.
She oversees the strategic advancement of the Business Pathways
Department, which supports entrepreneurs through all stages of
business development, helping them explore, launch, and grow
their business through bilingual training, consulting, access to cap-
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ital, and wholistic support services. She previously worked with the
city of Maricopa, Arizona, as the director of economic development.
Welcome, Ms. Airheart.
I will now yield to the Ranking Member, Mrs. Young Kim, to in-
troduce our final witness.
Mrs. YOUNG KIM. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Our final witness
is Craig Etkin, president and CEO of Intelligence360 in Sugar
Land, Texas. Intelligence360 is a business-to-business news aggre-
gation company for top companies across the Nation. Mr. Etkin has
almost 30 years of experience in information products, software,
and technology. He manages the operations of Intelligence360, in-
cluding product engineering, marketing, and business development.
Prior to founding Intelligence360, Mr. Etkin was a member of the
applications team at LexisNexis. And before that, he assisted in
implementing new web capabilities for Dow Jones and Company.
He also was instrumental in the rollout of the Wall Street Journal
Interactive Edition, Barron’s Online, and Dow Jones Interactive,
and supported risk management solutions for Dun & Bradstreet.
Welcome, Mr. Etkin. We look forward to your testimony and
thank you for taking time out of your busy day running your small
business to talk with us.
I would also like to welcome the other witnesses and look for-
ward to hearing your testimony.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mrs. Young Kim. And welcome,
Mr. Etkin, as well.
Mr. Dearie, we will begin with you. You are now recognized for
5 minutes.
STATEMENTS OF JOHN R. DEARIE, PRESIDENT, CENTER FOR
AMERICAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP; J.D. LAROCK, PRESIDENT
AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, NETWORK FOR TEACHING
ENTREPRENEURSHIP: DENYSE AIRHEART, BUSINESS PATH-
WAYS DIRECTOR, MI CASA RESOURCE CENTER; CRAIG
ETKIN, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER,
INTELLIGENCE360
STATEMENT OF JOHN R. DEARIE
Mr. DEARIE. Thank you, Chairman Crow and Ranking Member
Young Kim and Members of the Subcommittee. I appreciate the op-
portunity to be here today.
Despite strong job creation in recent months, the focus of today’s
hearing remains urgently important. Even if the Bureau of Labor
Statistics reports on Friday that a million new jobs have been cre-
ated in June, as some economists have forecast, U.S. payrolls will
still be down almost 7 million from pre-COVID levels and as many
as 10 million jobs short of what total employment would have been
had the pandemic not happened, which is why I appreciate the op-
portunity to express CAE’s strong support for the Next Generation
Entrepreneurship Corps Act cosponsored by you, Mr. Chairman,
and Troy Balderson in the House, along with Senators Chris Coons
and Tim Scott in the Senate. The Act will encourage entrepreneur-
ship and job creation in underserved areas across the country
among diverse background entrepreneurs, who will receive startup
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capital, mentoring, and other support to help them start new busi-
nesses in distressed and low-income areas.
As members of this Subcommittee are no doubt aware, research
in recent years has shown that new businesses, or startups, are re-
sponsible for most net new job creation. Existing companies also
create jobs, of course, but they also shed jobs, as many as a million
a year in aggregate, as they become more efficient, incorporate cap-
ital and technology, and increasingly focus on what they do best.
By stark contrast, new businesses create an average of about 3 mil-
lion jobs each year.
Startups also contribute to job creation more generally as a pow-
erful driver of economic growth. Thanks to the work of American
economist Robert Solow, who won the Nobel Prize for this insight,
we know that economic growth is driven principally by gains and
productivity driven by innovation. The great significance of Solow’s
work is that it not only identified the nature of economic growth,
but also identified its principal source. That is because economists
have long understood that innovation, particularly major or disrup-
tive innovation, comes disproportionately from new businesses.
Unfortunately, as scholars at the Kauffman Foundation, the
Brookings Institution, and elsewhere have documented, entrepre-
neurship in America is struggling. Between 2009 and 2019, the
number of new businesses launched in America each year dropped
by about 100,000 below the historical trend, meaning that over that
decade the United States experienced a startup deficit of about a
million fewer new firms over that period.
Just as alarming as you mentioned, Chairman Crow, economists
Bob Litan and Ian Hathaway have shown that rates of entrepre-
neurship, that is the fraction of all businesses in the United States
that are new, has fallen near a four-decade low. To find out why,
my colleagues and I get out of Washington on a regular basis and
conduct roundtables with entrepreneurs in towns and cities across
the country. Here is some of what they tell us.
‘‘We have the jobs and we need to fill them in order to survive,
but we can’t find enough people who have the skills that we need.’’
‘‘Our immigration polices exacerbate that problem because they
undermine our ability to attract and retain the world’s best and
most innovation talent.’’
‘‘Limited access to portable and affordable healthcare, a lack of
affordable childcare, record student debt, and retirement savings
uncertainty make entrepreneurship especially risky.’’
‘‘Access to sufficient startup capital is a constant challenge.’’
‘‘Regulatory burden, complexity, and uncertainty distracts entre-
preneurs from focusing on their businesses, increasing the chances
of mistakes or even failure.’’
And a number of aspects of our tax code ‘‘are unsupportive of, or
even hostile to, startups and their investors.’’
In conclusion, Chairman Crow, thriving entrepreneurship is the
essential pathway to faster economic growth and job creation, and
revitalizing American entrepreneurship requires changes in public
policy. Fortunately, we have a very good sense of what needs to be
done.
Research conducted in recent years, together with input from en-
trepreneurs by way of roundtables of the sort that I mentioned, has
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produced a uniquely credible pro-entrepreneurship agenda that, if
enacted, would dramatically enhance the circumstances for new
business formation, survival, and growth, which, as you pointed
out, is so important, particularly in the post-COVID recovery pe-
riod. That agenda is provided as the appendix to my written testi-
mony.
The Next Generation Entrepreneurship Corps Act is an impor-
tant part of that agenda and is an excellent example of the kind
of pro-entrepreneurship policy that America needs and deserves
now more than ever. Thank you.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Dearie. Mr. LaRock, you are
now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF J.D. LAROCK
Mr. LAROCK. Thank you, Chairman Crow, Ranking Member
Young Kim, and Members of the Committee. I am honored to share
what we at the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, NFTE,
have learned from providing entrepreneurship education in 14
countries and 25 states, including 47,000 students this year.
NFTE was founded on the belief that entrepreneurship education
ignites passion and opens doors for student in under-resourced
communities. Our model features engaging curriculum taught
mostly in public schools, buttressed by community mentors and vol-
unteers. Our programs culminate in pitch competitions where stu-
dents compete for seed funding to launch their businesses.
We believe in inclusive capitalism and NFTE alumni have built
brands, launched scores of businesses, and created thousands of
jobs. Through the Next Generation Entrepreneurship Corps Act our
Nation can provide future entrepreneurs even more equitable ac-
cess to the productive tools of capitalism.
To underscore the importance of the act I would like to discuss
three issues. First, the barriers that entrepreneurs from underrep-
resented communities face are systemic and require robust inter-
vention. Second, access to sustained mentorship bolsters entrepre-
neurship in ways that financial resources alone cannot. Finally, in-
clusive entrepreneurship is a vital component right now to our Na-
tion’s economic and social recovery from COVID-19.
First, the barriers. According to the Department of Commerce
our minority-owned businesses are more likely to be denied credit
and even when they do receive loans, pay higher interest rates.
CNBC recently reported that 80 percent of Black-owned businesses
fail within the first 18 months. That is significantly more than the
30 percent of all small businesses that close by their second year.
Our education and workforce development systems are starting
to break down these barriers by addressing the first systemic in-
equality, access to learning about entrepreneurship itself. States
like Florida and Texas, national philanthropies like American Stu-
dent Assistance are now supporting widespread opportunities for
entrepreneurship education as well as programs that start students
early on a process of career discovery.
We have seen the difference that this makes. NFTE alumna
Mary Blackford first realized in high school that she could use en-
trepreneurship to make systemic change. Now, just down the road
from us in Ward 7, she is building Market 7. This 7,000 square-
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foot market will establish space for a community grocer and neigh-
borhood micro entrepreneurs to discuss food access and create em-
ployment opportunities. Mary is the very example of the kind of
emerging entrepreneur that the Next Generation Entrepreneurship
Corps Act seeks to identify and support.
Next, the value of mentorship. At NFTE corporate volunteers
from companies like Citi, Santander, Intuit, PayPal, SAP, Micro-
soft, and Ernst & Young, EY, which recently launched the Entre-
preneurs Access Network to help Black, Latino, and women entre-
preneurs, all provide essential mentorship to our high school and
middle school students. Similarly, the mentorship proposed in the
Next Generation Entrepreneurship Corps Act will remove barriers
and accelerate achievements.
NFTE alumnus Andres Cardona was attending high school in
Miami and considering dropping out to help his mother pay the
bills, when a NFTE force helped him realize that he could start his
own business while staying in school. A decade later, his Elite Bas-
ketball Academy is thriving with 20 employees and multiple sites,
generating seven-figure revenue annually. Mentorship was an es-
sential part of his journey and Andres still meets with his mentor
regularly.
Finally, the importance of entrepreneurship to post-COVID eco-
nomic recovery. As you know, the pandemic vitiated minority-
owned businesses. CNBC reported that between February and
April 2020, Black-owned businesses declined by 41 percent com-
pared to a 17 percent decline among White-owned businesses.
Black-, Latino-, and Asian-owned businesses all experienced out-
sized closures and declines in cash balances, according to the Fed.
Simply put, as we come out of COVID our economy cannot recover
fully without entrepreneurship. And there is a legislative vehicle
that provides a timely opportunity to help. The Next Generation
Entrepreneurship Corps Act should be included in the American
Jobs Plan to accelerate post-COVID recovery through entrepreneur-
ship.
In closing, entrepreneurship is inextricably woven into the Amer-
ican dream. When I think about what that means, I think about
NFTE students at Nicolas Junior High School in Fullerton, Cali-
fornia, getting encouragement from their EY mentors while they
compete in one of our global entrepreneurship competitions.
I think about Robert Refkin, CEO of Compass, the real estate
company. He got his first exposure to entrepreneurship through a
NFTE summer camp. Compass recently made its IPO and raised
450 million, and Robert is now on track to be the next and young-
est Black billionaire.
Finally, I think about the thousands of young adults who, with
Congress’ support, will become the inaugural cohort of the Next
Generation Entrepreneur Corps. The American dream belongs to
all of us and entrepreneurship also belongs to all of us. Thank you.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Dr. LaRock. Ms. Airheart, you are
now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF DENYSE AIRHEART
Ms. AIRHEART. Thank you, Chairman Crow and Ranking Mem-
ber Young Kim. It is my distinct honor to be in attendance today
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virtually and to be able to speak on behalf of the small business
community that we are so privileged to work with at Mi Casa Re-
source Center. I would like to share a little history about the agen-
cy I work for because I believe it gives insight and credibility to my
testimony.
In the late 1970s, Mi Casa began offering job training programs
for women to help them break into higher-paying jobs. Recognizing
self employment as another viable route to economic stability, Mi
Casa expanded in the mid-1980s to include bilingual business de-
velopment services to nurture the entrepreneurial spirit of low-in-
come female and minority businesses.
As Mi Casa has grown and developed we have recognized the
need for programs to advance economic self-sufficiency for the en-
tire family. In 2016, our mission evolved to reflect an expanded tar-
get population to advance the economic success of families with
limited opportunities.
As you shared, Chairman Crow——
Chairman CROW. Ms. Airheart, if I could stop you for one sec-
ond.
Ms. AIRHEART. Yes.
Chairman CROW. We are having a hard time hearing you. We
have tried to turn it up on our end, but I think you might need
to speak up slightly or get closer to your microphone, if possible.
Ms. AIRHEART. Sure. Is this a little bit better?
Chairman CROW. It is a little bit better, yes.
Ms. AIRHEART. Okay, okay. The Women’s Business Center at
Mi Casa Resource Center supports entrepreneurs through all the
stages of business development, helping them plan, launch, man-
age, and grow their business through bilingual consulting, long-
term training, as well as business-related workshops and resources.
In 2020, when we collectively experienced a global pandemic, we
had to double down on our services and work even harder to meet
the needs of the highly vulnerable community. We were able to
help over 1,800 businesses, 45 new businesses were launched, over
$2.7 million in capital were obtained with over a million of that
being COVID relief, 27 new jobs were created, and 311 jobs were
retained. Additionally, 24 patents were issued through the pro bono
patent program, which is a partnership with the USPTO.
So, I stand before you to say that the Next Generation Entrepre-
neurship Corps Act has the ability to be a catalyst for distressed
communities. At Mi Casa what we have seen is the systemic issues
that have been shared earlier today and what we do is we work
hand-in-hand with these individuals to remove barriers to success.
A program like NextGen has the ability to ignite economic develop-
ment within distressed communities that continue to see brain
drain, which is talent leaving a local community. Ultimately,
NextGen would be instrumental in creating places where under-
served entrepreneurs can reinvest, hire local, make a local, na-
tional, and hopefully in some cases a global change.
Thank you again for the opportunity to speak on behalf of
women-owned, minority-owned businesses from the Denver metro
area.
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Chairman CROW. Thank you, Ms. Airheart. We appreciate it.
And I think the issue was on our end actually. We turned the vol-
ume up in the room, so I appreciate you bearing with us.
Ms. AIRHEART. No problem.
Chairman CROW. And I think we are fixing it on our end. Thank
you.
Mr. Etkin, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF CRAIG ETKIN
Mr. ETKIN. Thank you, Chairman Crow, Ranking Member
Young Kim, and distinguished members of the Committee. My
name is Craig Etkin. I am the president and CEO at
Intelligence360, a sales intelligence company that provides real-
time data to clients to uncover new business opportunities. In
short, we help other businesses succeed.
In 2018, I graduated from the SBA Leaders Initiative and I
would like to take a moment to recognize the extraordinary job the
team at SBA in Houston does under the leadership of Tim Jeffcoat,
SBA district director, and the work for Yusef Muhammad, south-
west regional vice president at SCORE.
According to the SBA website, since its inception in 2008, the
SBA Emerging Leaders Initiative has trained over 5,000 small
business owners like myself, created over 6,500 jobs, generating
over $300 million in new financing, and securing over $3 billion in
government contracts.
According to SBA’s resource partner Interise, in 2018, Emerging
Leaders alumni businesses saw an average revenue growth of 36
percent, Latino-owned businesses saw 64 percent average growth,
and minority-owned businesses saw 43 percent average growth.
In addition, minority-owned businesses operating in lower-in-
come communities saw 77 percent revenue growth and 60 percent
of new employees were hired locally. It is from that perspective
that I offer my testimony today.
While the yearlong health emergency and associated lockdowns
impacted everyone, some were more hurt and continue to be than
others. Small businesses took the brunt of the pandemic. It is not
a surprise considering small businesses typically operate under
tight profit margins and are more vulnerable to fluctuating eco-
nomic conditions, as well as changed in consumer behavior. The
coronavirus triggered extremes in both cases.
Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy and are
absorbing an outsized proportion of the direct and indirect impacts
of the coronavirus. Policymakers in Washington should do what
they can, not only to shore up current job creators, but encourage
a new wave of entrepreneurialism more broadly.
There are many existing successful programs through SBA’s Of-
fice of Entrepreneurial Development, SBDCs, WBCs, and the Office
of Entrepreneurship Education, SCORE, Learning Center, and the
Emerging Leaders Initiative. Congress through the American Res-
cue Plan has already allocated $100 million to the Community
Navigator Pilot Program for targeted outreach for small business
in underserved communities.
Rather than what is outlined in H.R. 1126, why not promote ac-
cess to capital to these small businesses through the SBA
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Microloan Program rather than a stipend? Getting a microloan can
be a great first step in creating credit history and building finan-
cial relationships needed to sustain and grow a business long term.
Access to education and mentorship is available through SCORE,
the Learning Center, and advanced training in the Emerging Lead-
ers Initiative.
Through Community Navigators connecting with new entre-
preneurs through trusted community relationships, and utilizing
existing programs at SBA, it is my belief we will see not just sev-
eral hundred, but thousands of new businesses and new jobs cre-
ated.
Thank you for reviewing my testimony.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Etkin. I am going to begin by
recognizing myself for 5 minutes and I would like to start with Ms.
Airheart.
Ms. Airheart, our community has areas that have been under-
served for a very long time, and Mi Casa in particular and your
work in particular works to prompt and invigorate entrepreneur-
ship in some of the more underserved folks and populations. I
would love your view as to what you view as the primary barrier
as you are working with prospective entrepreneurs, what is the pri-
mary barrier they face in starting their businesses.
Ms. AIRHEART. Thank you, Chairman Crow. What we see his-
torically are systemic issues within the community. It really is—
you know, for a lot of the Latinx population, whose families are
working together, trying to stay together, and ultimately, there is
that lack of leadership, mentorship. Through program like Mi Casa
we work closely, very similarly as the other programs were de-
signed and were talked about today, to really shepherd individuals
through leadership training, business plan development, you know,
presenting different opportunities to access to capital.
But ultimately, I think it is just the lack of seeing individuals
like themselves be leaders in their own community. So I think that
is why this act, this bill really has the opportunity to ignite and
really develop these distressed communities in a way that has not
been done before.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. And I know we have spoken before
the support ecosystem in a community. Can you kind of just ex-
pand on some of the prior conversations about what an ecosystem
means for our community and how that lack of an ecosystem can
be overcome?
Ms. AIRHEART. Sure. The support of the ecosystem, you know,
can be modeled in multiple different ways. At Mi Casa we do that
by peer-to-peer connection and then we take that, depending on
where they are in their business, we then connect them to mentors
within the community.
Ultimately, what you see when these local business owners are
successful is the stickiness. Right? They are able to hire locally, re-
invest locally, keep their talent in their businesses, so, you know,
it really builds upon the steppingstones that are created. And ulti-
mately, what you are looking for is for these entrepreneurs and
these small businesses to not necessarily leave these distressed
communities, but turnaround and reinvest into them. Therefore,
the ecosystem is strengthening that local economy.
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Chairman CROW. Thank you, Ms. Airheart.
Mr. Dearie, I wonder if you might talk or expand on the issue
of access to capital and why access to SBA lending vehicles is in
some ways better than access to other traditional financial institu-
tional lenders and what barriers might exist with those traditional
lenders or commercial lenders and why the SBA vehicles in par-
ticular, in some circumstances, are more beneficial for entre-
preneurs.
Mr. DEARIE. Sure. The SBA plays a critical role, but particu-
larly with regard to bank capital for new and small businesses. I
am a former bank supervisor at the New York Fed and I can make
a very good argument that banks are not the ideal source of capital
for startups. Startups are inherently risky. Half fail by their fifth
year. And we don’t want, as much as we want to be supportive of
startups, we don’t want to damage the balance sheets of the na-
tion’s banks in pursuit of other national priorities. We got into
trouble doing that in the housing crisis, of course.
The great service, the SBA bridges that gap between depositories
and new and small businesses by assuming some of the risk. And
that assumption of risk becomes critical to enable bank capital to
be a source of capital for startups in particular. Of course, other
sources of capital, you know, from investors instead of depository
institutions, are also critical for startups and are sort of uniquely
appropriate in light of the risk profile of startups. And these
sources are angel capital, venture capital, equity capital, where the
investors bear the risks and if the startup fails, they take the hit
instead of a bank or a depository.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Dearie. My time has expired,
so I would now like to yield to the Ranking Member of the Com-
mittee, Mrs. Young Kim, the gentlewoman from California.
Mrs. YOUNG KIM. Thank you, Mr. Crow. You know, I have
heard from my employers in my district that not only are they hav-
ing difficulty finding workers, but they are having finding the
workers for the right positions and right workers for the right job.
And I think, Mr. Dearie, you also listed that in your testimony as
one of the top issues you and your colleagues have been hearing
from small businesses as you conducted many roundtable discus-
sions.
So, for the entire panel would you be able to elaborate how we
can increase worker skills and transition workers to new skills?
Mr. DEARIE. Sure. You are quite right, there is a lot of attention
paid, and rightly so, to access to capital. But access to appro-
priately skilled talent is just as important for a startup. You can’t
turn your idea, you can’t turn your dream into a successful busi-
ness without the staff, the employees that have the skills that you
need. And we hear that at virtually every roundtable that we do.
As I said, we have the jobs, we need to fill them to survive, we
can’t find enough folks that have the skills that we need.
That is really an indictment of the U.S. educational system. We
are simply not producing enough people that have the skills that
21st century businesses need, including new and small businesses.
The bull’s-eye of that, if you will, is STEM, science, technology, en-
gineering, and mathematics. There has been a great deal of discus-
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sion about how do we address that. Certainly, it is a very complex
question that has a complex answer.
But certainly, I am of the view, and we hear this from startups,
that a great under-used asset in this country is the Nation’s com-
munity college system. There are 1,200 community colleges across
the country. They are typically the first experience of higher edu-
cation for immigrants, for example. They are great sources for peo-
ple to be able to upskill, to get stackable credentials to, you know,
lifelong learning. So, among the many things that can be done to
fix that problem, I think leveraging the community college system
is critical.
Also, we need a more active conversation between the business
community in this country and educators, so that businesses can
tell educators, you know, here are the skills that we need. And if
you are willing to amend your curriculum to teach those skills, we
will hire those people. There is not enough communication, in our
view, going on between the business community and the edu-
cational community.
Mrs. YOUNG KIM. Thanks for mentioning that. That is why I
introduced the Innovations in Informal STEM Learning Act and,
hopefully, that will prepare our next generation of workers for the
right jobs. So, I want to thank you for mentioning that.
And I do want to pose the next question to all the panel. Small
businesses create a majority of the net new jobs, but they are fac-
ing increasing costs, inflation, price pressures, taxes. So, I think
you would agree that these pressures, they are keeping them from
expanding and adding jobs. So, I would like to ask the panel what
price pressures would you like to see eliminated? Dr. LaRock, you
want to start?
Mr. LAROCK. Thank you, Ranking Member Young Kim. You
know, one factor I would point to is just the proliferation of regula-
tion and the impact that that can have on startup entrepreneurs
in particular. At NFTE, we work with many, many graduates of
our program who try to launch and sustain actual businesses. And
more than taxes, more than other policy issues, the regulatory bur-
den that they face and the administrative burden is something that
comes up a lot for our learners, in particular because these—many
of our alumni are really trying to go it on their own as many entre-
preneurs do.
If I could just double back on to your previous question, I would
like to underscore a couple of points that Mr. Dearie made in re-
sponse to your question. A real opportunity for our education sys-
tem is to do much more to expose young learners to the types of
jobs and careers that exist. That is why the efforts of national phi-
lanthropies like American Student Assistance are so important and
why we get a lot of traction at NFTE with career and technical
education leaders because they understand that you don’t have to
be a welder or an electrician or an auto repair technician. You can
have an auto repair shop. You can have an electrician business.
And so we find homes in those types of schools where educators are
making the connection between entrepreneurship, the broader
economy, and personal self-fulfillment in doing of one’s job.
Lastly, and briefly, I would also like to underscore the particular
opportunity now to help community colleges fully embrace entre-
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preneurship education in the way that we see four-year public and
mostly private higher education doing. The gaps that exist between
community college entrepreneurship opportunities and what we see
at other parts of higher ed sustain some of the inequities that we
see in the system.
Chairman CROW. The gentlewoman’s time has expired. The gen-
tlewoman from Georgia, Ms. Bourdeaux, is now recognized for 5
minutes.
Ms. BOURDEAUX. Thank you so much, Chairman Crow and
Ranking Member Young Kim. And thank you to all the witnesses
for joining us today.
I want to start off with one of the issues that was raised by Mr.
Dearie and elaborated on some in this testimony, which is about
the rates of entrepreneurship declining, the concurrent decline in
productivity. And I am just curious if you could elaborate more on,
you know, why this is happening and are there certain sectors
where we are really—we have seen this decline more rapidly over
time?
Mr. DEARIE. Sure. Thank you for the question.
Alarmingly, the research that is—I will speak to your question
as to particular sectors first, if I might. Alarmingly, the research
that has been done on the decline of the share of all businesses
that are new, you know, sort of an interesting gauge of the
entrepreneurialness of the U.S. economy, if you will, indicates that
the decline is pervasive. It is happening, and I am referring specifi-
cally to the very famous Brookings paper by Bob Litan and Ian
Hathaway, who documented this decline in ways that had not been
done before.
They found it is happening in all 50 states. It is happening in
all but a handful of 360 metro areas that they examined. And it
is happening across every industry sector. So, it is pervasive.
In terms of why it is happening, that is exactly the question that
I asked in my own professional transition from financial super-
vision. When I found out about all this I got terribly interested in
it and I went and I asked Bob Litan and Ian Hathaway and other
people who had done the research why is this happening? And they
said we don’t know. We have certain, you know, ideas and theories,
suspicions, but fundamentally we don’t understand it. And it was
with that in mind that I set out on the first road trip of doing
roundtables with entrepreneurs around the country, asking them
quite simply what is in your way? What is going on? Why is this
happening? I wrote a book about that called ‘‘Where the Jobs Are’’
and it was as a follow-up to that book that I decided to launch
CAE, to work with people like you to fix that.
So, if you look through our agenda that is the appendix to my
written testimony, it is chockful of specific ideas grouped in all of
the subject categories that we hear from entrepreneurs at round-
table that my colleagues and I continue to do on a regular basis.
Ms. BOURDEAUX. Okay. So, we have got some reading to do on
that. Thank you on that.
I just, you know, it does occur to me that, you know, prior gen-
erations, like my grandparents’ generation, everybody had a small
business, you know. It was just part of the fabric of their lives. And
now so much of our business is consolidated, you know. It is the
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Walmarts, it is the Targets, you know, and it is just very, very
hard for people to get up and going.
Just another huge issue, my district is very, very diverse and
this is for Mrs. Airheart. I wish we could duplicate your program
all over the country. It sounds like a fabulous program. I just want-
ed to check in with you as you work with women- and minority-
owned businesses, are there things that we could be doing or the
Small Business Administration could be doing to help with the mi-
nority-owned businesses, help entrepreneurs from communities of
color be able to access programs better or know the resources that
are available to them?
Ms. AIRHEART. Thank you for the question. Absolutely, I think
there is always more that we can do. One of my mentors always
said we have to educate the educated. We have to create an aware-
ness of what exists in the community and how to access it.
I am incredibly honored and privileged to work for Mi Casa Re-
source Center. I know that the individuals that walk through our
doors feel like they are walking through a university, a local com-
munity college, and, therefore, they are leveling up—we are lev-
eling up their experience, their access, and their connectivity to
other resources within the community. So, I think that the experi-
ence overall is so incredibly important.
Funding for programs like the Women’s Business Center or other
programs that support entrepreneurship in distressed communities
that focus on the BIPOC population is critical because these are
the individuals that have the interest, the desire. This is—these
are the new builders of the new America. And I think that we just
really have to continue to support programs like the Women’s Busi-
ness Centers and other programs that the SBA has supported in
the past.
Ms. BOURDEAUX. Okay, thank you very much. I yield back the
balance of my time.
Chairman CROW. The gentlewoman yields back. I now would
like to recognize the gentleman from New York, Mr. Garbarino.
Also a fellow fanatic of apprenticeships as I am, so you are recog-
nized for 5 minutes, Mr. Garbarino.
Mr. GARBARINO. Thank you, Chairman. Yeah, big fan of ap-
prenticeships. I don’t think everybody should go to college. I think
there is a lot of people, like you said, Mr. LaRock, that you can be-
come a plumber and then, all of a sudden, run a plumbing busi-
ness. And, you know, one of my good friends from high school did
that and he now has—he makes a lot more money than I do, I will
tell you that, so.
Mr. Etkin, I have a question. The Biden administration released
America’s Jobs Plan in March, which focused on not just regular
infrastructure, but other things as well, and not brick-and-mortar
infrastructure. Right now we are in negotiations for doing just a
brick-and-mortar infrastructure bill. How do you think
prioritizing—would prioritizing true infrastructure projects over
non-infrastructure spending help increase job creation and hiring?
Mr. ETKIN. Well, thank you for the question. My grandfather
was a plumber, so he never went to college and ran a very success-
ful business.
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You know, we really need to focus in this country on rebuilding.
There is a lot of need in infrastructure here domestically. And the
initiatives to focus on roads and bridges and airports and really re-
building our inner cities I think is a great first step in driving new
entrepreneurial innovation.
There are a lot of initiatives that I can’t necessarily speak to
from a policy perspective, but I know that when companies can rely
on their safe neighborhoods and their roads and bridges to get to
work are sound, they have the ability to hire and run a business
from a good foundation in their neighborhoods. So, I wish I could
answer the question beyond the brick-and-mortar.
There are a lot of spending initiatives that I see that a lot of peo-
ple are looking at going why? I mean, the numbers are staggering
to small business owners to hear coming out of Washington in the
trillions of dollars. And quite frankly, I think it is perpetuating an
environment of fear right now in small business owners. They are
concerned about inflation. They are concerned about hiring. A lot
of their new costs are going into labor. They are having to attract
workers back in from sitting at home. Small restaurants, I work
with hundreds of entrepreneurs across the country, mostly in B to
B, but some in B to C that are having real problems bringing work-
ers back and staffing up.
And I think that is due a lot to an environment of fear. I mean,
we literally have moved from a health crisis to a crisis of fear in
small business. Business owners are unsure of their future. They
are unsure of being able to reopen fully. And I think a lot of that
has been perpetuated by a lot of rhetoric coming from politicians
from all levels of government.
People are scared. They need to get back on their own feet. They
need to hire and get back to work. And there are a lot of things
being thrown up as roadblocks to doing that.
And so, unfortunately, you see we are in a position where compa-
nies are struggling and they are struggling to get back to normal.
And bringing employees back to work is, you know, I think a big
part of the way they need to move forward. And——
Mr. GARBARINO. So, Mr. Etkin, I just want to comment on that
because I actually met with the new CO of the Chamber of Com-
merce yesterday. We had a meeting with her and part of the dis-
cussion was how about half of Americans, 49 percent, lost their jobs
during the pandemic reported they are not active at all or not very
active in searching for employment. I had spoken to businesses in
my district that are searching for jobs. They want people to come
back to work, they just can’t find the workers.
But it sounds like you are saying, you know, it might not just
be solely the person not wanting to come back to work. It might—
you know, the employers might be a little hesitant in brining peo-
ple back. Is that what you are saying or did I mishear you?
Mr. ETKIN. No, that is absolutely right and especially in areas
where lockdowns are still—I mean, you see people waiting in lines
just to go into a grocery store. I travel around the country. I mean,
we opened in Texas very early. I think it was a good idea. It was
scorned by many in the political circles across the country, you
know, as a bad policy decision. But I see the benefits of, you know,
opening business back up again.
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So, not only do you see a hesitancy from business owners about
an uncertain path forward, but also a climate of fear with going
back to work.
Mr. GARBARINO. Thank you. I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentleman yields back. Now
I will recognize the gentleman from Minnesota, also a serial entre-
preneur, Mr. Phillips, for 5 minutes.
Mr. PHILLIPS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I would argue
that nothing is more American and wonderfully politically unifying
than entrepreneurship, so thank you for holding this meeting today
to our Ranking Member and Chair and to our wonderful witnesses.
In my experience, to become an entrepreneur you need inspira-
tion, preparation, human capital, and financial capital. Those are
the four legs of the stool. And on the subject of financial capital,
I think we are all aware that only three urban areas in the entire
country, both East and West Coasts, Silicon Valley, Boston, and
New York City, currently account for 80 percent—80 percent—of
all venture capital investment.
So, on a subject that our Chairman already referenced, Mr.
Dearie, what role can Congress play very specifically to better en-
courage a more equitable distribution of startup capital to parts of
the country that right now are starved for it?
Mr. DEARIE. Thank you for the question. It is an enormously
important issue. It is one that we hear at every single roundtable
that we do around the country. There is simply not an equitable
distribution of venture capital across the country.
Just to give you a quick example, it is just one that I know off
the top of my head. I am sorry it is not your state, but it is a near-
by state. At a roundtable in Michigan, we were told by entre-
preneurs and investors there that the state of Michigan has access
to or gets about 1 percent of total venture capital in the country,
and 50 percent of that 1 percent is in Ann Arbor. And so the rest
of the state gets—has to share the 50 percent of the 1 percent that
they get.
We have been involved in, as you know—I believe that you were
a House cosponsor of this piece of legislation and we thank you for
that—there is a bill that was introduced and led by Senator Klo-
buchar in the Senate along with Tim Kaine and Angus King, Ro
Khanna, yourself, Tim Ryan, and Terri Sewell, if I remember cor-
rectly off the top of my head, in the House. And what that bill is,
called the New Business Preservation Act, and what that bill did,
it borrowed from a very interesting experience that happened in
Israel.
In the late ’90s, at that time practically 100 percent of venture
capital was in the United States. It was an American phenomenon.
Israel had lots and lots of new businesses stemming from the fact
that when the Soviet Union collapsed in the late—in early ’90s, a
lot of folks immigrated to Israel and a lot of those folks were engi-
neers and scientists. A lot of them started businesses. So, there
was a lot of entrepreneurship and no venture capital.
And the way the Israeli government tried to address that is they
offered a one-to-one match of public taxpayer funds with private
capital to lure American venture capitalists over to Israel to look
around and consider investing in Israeli startups. It was enor-
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mously successful. We have the same problem except it is inside
the country. We have 80 percent of venture capital in three cities.
And so the bill would do exactly that, it would create a problem
administered by Treasury to offer a one-to-one match of public dol-
lars for venture capital invested in promising startups in heartland
states. I think it would be enormously impactful. Everybody we
talked to about it around the country is enthusiastic, both startups,
entrepreneurs, and investors.
Mr. PHILLIPS. I appreciate that. And perhaps we can even
weave that into the Chairman’s legislation, too.
Mr. DEARIE. That would be great.
Mr. PHILLIPS. Inspire potential entrepreneurs. Mr. LaRock, I
got to say I love NFTE’s entire model. And I was really lucky, I
grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. I was exposed to it at a
young age. And perhaps equally importantly I remember Business
Day in elementary school, which really inspired me and introduced
me to the notion of becoming an entrepreneur myself.
So, in the spirit of rowing further upstream than we typically do,
what specific steps can Congress take to inspire young people, at
least introduce them to the notion of becoming entrepreneurs?
Mr. LAROCK. Thank you, Congressman, and I appreciate the
kudos to our organization. Honestly, I think the foundation, the
foundational concepts of the NextGen bill are what is needed. The
reason that we at NFTE are supporting the bill is because it re-
flects so much of what we have seen work with our own model.
That is number one.
The second is I really do think that our education system, and
not just career and technical education schools, but academic, com-
prehensive high schools and middle schools need to start embed-
ding career exploration and career-oriented education, including
entrepreneurship, starting as early as the fifth grade, but most cer-
tainly by middle school.
Again, innovative philanthropies like American Student Assist-
ance are putting some funding into this and that is great, but it
is a drop in the bucket of what is needed. And when Congress has
the opportunity to review the Perkins Act, ESEA, WIOA, which has
some allowable activities for youth, I would encourage Congress to
take new opportunities to devote more funding for youth entrepre-
neurship, at least more flexibility.
Mr. PHILLIPS. Love it. And I might just, as I close, perhaps we
should consider changing our name to the Small Business and En-
trepreneurship Committee. That would send a nice message to the
country.
And with that I yield back, Mr. Chair.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentleman yields back. The
gentlelady from Illinois, Ms. Newman, is now recognized for 5 min-
utes.
Ms. NEWMAN. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you,
Ranking Member, for putting together this great discussion this
morning. And I will echo Mr. Phillips’ great idea. I think that is
a wonderful idea, so I am on board for that.
So, thank you all. Thank you to our guests today. This has been
more validating, and I mean this in the best compliment, more
validating than illuminating because this is what I hear in my dis-
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trict, that I think Mr. Dearie started out sharing what some of the
challenges are for our small businesses moving forward coming out
of the pandemic and as we work through our recovery and our
economy. You know, and it is what I hear, is that, you know, that
we don’t have enough skilled workers. Therefore, we need more
workforce training. Right?
That our small businesses don’t have enough access to capital.
That childcare is a huge problem. We have lost 70 percent of our
childcare structures in this Nation as a result of the pandemic, and
we have to support that.
There has been denial of credit, particularly in Black and Brown
communities of business. And then our immigration policies don’t
allow us to bring wonderful folks in to do the work that is needed,
whether it is currently skilled workforce training and/or other.
So, I think we all know what we have all been through, Econ
101, that the only way the economy grows is when we have more
people being productive. So, our immigration policies right now are
a little bit challenging. We need to move forward and be in the 21st
century around that.
And then lastly, mentorship is a problem. So, really a long list.
Right?
So, I am going to challenge Mr. Dearie and Dr. LaRock to give
me your top three. And the reason I ask you for your top three
amongst those is that I would say we are trying to build legislation
that prioritizes the biggest problems. And so if you can prioritize
among that list of things that Mr. Dearie shared to address, that
Congress can address, that would be super helpful.
So, with that I will turn it over to Mr. Dearie if you wouldn’t
mind answering.
Mr. DEARIE. Sure. These kinds of questions are very hard. You
know, your top answer, your top three, but I understand the spirit
behind the question.
Reflecting the conversations we have had here today, I mean, if
I were forced to pick three I would say, first of all, entrepreneur-
ship in America today remains an overwhelmingly White and male
phenomenon. We have been talking today about how important en-
trepreneurship is as a pathway to economic development and job
creation. It is also a pathway to economic empowerment and finan-
cial empowerment for the entrepreneurs themselves.
And so I would make a priority, a policy priority, make American
entrepreneurship more inclusive. And that is exactly why we at
CAE at an enormous fan of the NextGen Act because the specific
intent of that is to promote entrepreneurship in underserved areas
and among underrepresented aspects of our population. We need
more women entrepreneurs who are active. We need more Black
and Brown entrepreneurs who are active. And so I would make
that at the top of the list.
The other two, you know, we have talked about the—as Rep-
resentative Phillips just referred to, if there were two other things
that entrepreneurs need aside from their great ideas it is capital
and access to properly skilled people. So, pursuing all ideas and all
options in terms of expanding access to capital, and there are lots
of ideas in the appendix to my testimony. And then also in terms
of, as Congresswoman Young Kim put her finger on, the upskilling
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and the workforce training, the lifelong learning to make sure that
entrepreneurs have access to the people that they need to turn
their dreams into productive businesses.
Ms. NEWMAN. Thank you. And Dr. LaRock, if you wouldn’t
mind adding to adding to Mr. Dearie’s comments.
Mr. LAROCK. Thank you, Congresswoman. I associate myself
with Mr. Dearie’s comments and just go back to, you know, the
three things that I highlighted in my testimony. Focusing any ef-
fort on the disparities that exist and really building in equity as
a design principle I think is vitally important, number one.
Second, mentorship, an explicit component around mentorship is
vitally important. Because what we have learned working with our
NFTE entrepreneurs who have gone on to start and sustain busi-
nesses is that all of their success still doesn’t make up in many
cases for a lifetime of not having the social capital that they
weren’t born into. And government policy can’t recreate that, those
opportunities easily, but they can stitch together communities of
interest, like minority communities and the business community.
We do it in a private sector, nonprofit way at NFTE and I think
it can be done through policy as well.
And then finally, I just underscore what we already talked about
regarding opportunities to promote equity and entrepreneurship in
the education system as well, particularly in the K-12 education
system, but community college as well.
Ms. NEWMAN. Well, thank you both for your comments. Thank
you for being here today and I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentlewoman yields back. So
we have time, we are going to do another round for others who
want it. And I will begin by recognizing myself for another 5 min-
utes.
I just wanted to kind of expound on this notion of infrastructure.
And I am a huge supporter of the American Jobs Plan, President
Biden’s plan, because undoubtedly, I mean, there is, I think, uni-
versal agreement that we don’t have 21st century infrastructure.
That we made investments in infrastructure over 70 years ago
after World War II, then we stopped making the investments in in-
frastructure and even stopped keeping it up for that matter. And
you can’t have bridges falling down, can’t have roads, we have to
expand broadband into vast swaths of America that don’t have it
to prop up entrepreneurship and level the playing field there.
But, you know, one of the largest times of growth in American
history was after World War II. There is a number of reasons for
that, but one of the biggest reasons is that women entered the
workforce. We had an entire segment of the population that was
denied access to the workforce before and then they entered the
workforce and it led to incredible economic growth for the country.
So, looking at it now, we already touched on the issue of immi-
gration and we have to reform our immigration policies to make it
easier for entrepreneurs and incredibly talented people that come
here to contribute to our economy.
But, Ms. Airheart, just expounding on this notion of latent poten-
tial, We have all of this built-up latent potential, incredible talent,
entrepreneurs sitting here ready to go. Can you just talk about in
our community, if we are able to remove some of those barriers—
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childcare, healthcare, student debt, lack of ecosystem and
mentorship—what would that mean? What would that look like?
And how many folks do you think are ready to go to kind of bring
our economy up to the next level in the 21st century?
Ms. AIRHEART. Thank you, Chairman Crow. You know, I smile
because I think it is just—there is certainly a buzz within the en-
trepreneurial community and you nailed it. You talked a little bit
about some of these obstacles, these hurdles, the childcare, the stu-
dent loan debt.
I also—on a regular we will do focus groups and we will meet
with individuals that are going through a career pathway as well
as are small business owners. And they will talk about having to
make the choice between getting a job or not going to school be-
cause the student loan debt is so overwhelming.
So, the way I think about it is that we have these small busi-
nesses and they are only able to grow to the point of butting up
against these obstacles. Right? Whether it is the childcare costs, so
they are not able to grow, they are not able to reinvest into their
businesses because of these broader issues that are really systemic
in our society.
You know, the childcare costs, lack of access to it, is incredibly
challenging for the women that we work with. At Mi Casa we pro-
vide childcare onsite for individuals that are going through our
long-term training. And we see them, they come in with their
young kids and they are so incredibly hopeful for their futures.
So, I just feel like there is this ecosystem, this buzz of entre-
preneurs, but the reality is that they are only able to grow to a cer-
tain level because of these broader issues that really put a cap on
them.
Something else that I would love to add is that earlier someone
asked, you know, what are your top three, and I really—I think
about financial education. I think that for the entrepreneurs that
we work with on a regular basis, their financial acumen is not
there and they lack the confidence to pursue capital investment.
So, I just think that that is a huge area of opportunity that we can
infuse into our youth and then really upskill them through edu-
cation.
Chairman CROW. Mrs. Young Kim, the gentlewoman from Cali-
fornia.
Mrs. YOUNG KIM. Thank you, Mr. Crow. I know we have been
talking a lot about the American Jobs Plan that President Biden
released in March. And since then, both sides have been working
diligently behind the scenes to come out with a bipartisan solution
that we can get to support because we do agree that there is a con-
sensus in getting a good infrastructure legislation to get our econ-
omy moving. But President Biden’s jobs plan calls for—you know,
he started with over $2 trillion and his plan is prioritizing climate
change and other spending over infrastructure provisions, and try-
ing to pay for that by raising taxes, including those on the many
businesses organized by C corporations and S corporations. But as
you know, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce came out with the infor-
mation that many of the C corporations, over 85 percent of them,
are small businesses, too. So, raising taxes on C corporations will
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not just hurt the large businesses, but it will hurt all businesses
and it will really hurt the economy as well.
So, I would like to ask the panel, or, you know, one or two of you
given the time, how sharply increasing taxes will hinder the ability
of those businesses to grow and create jobs. And if you can cite
some specific examples that would be very helpful. Go ahead, Mr.
Dearie.
Mr. DEARIE. I will start. Well, certainly, Congresswoman, all
else being equal, any business, new or existing, would love to keep
more of what they earn than less, for sure. Having said that, I
think it has a lot to do with what the additional revenue is going
to be used for. And I think at the roundtables that we conduct
around the country, there is a broad consensus that we need to in-
vest more in infrastructure, which supports the economy, supports
business.
The other thing I would pass on to you is that the tax issue that
we hear more often than any at roundtables is more about tax com-
plexity and uncertainty than where marginal rates happen to be.
Business people can build a business around virtually any number.
You know, just give me a number and I can build a business
around that. What really drives them crazy and distracts them,
takes their eye off the ball is when—it is the complexity and con-
stant uncertainty.
So, my counsel would be a more simple tax code, a more constant
tax code, and let entrepreneurs focus on what they do best, and
that is build and grow businesses.
Mrs. YOUNG KIM. And I would like to ask Mr. Etkin if you can
share your perspectives on this.
Mr. ETKIN. Yes, thank you. It is amazing to me that at a time
where so many small businesses are really just trying to find the
new normal, that we are talking about increasing tax burden on
small business. They are really having to come out of this pan-
demic, really look up at what their plan is for the next 2 to 5 years,
and now they are facing a policy that is going to increase their tax
burden when they are looking at just bringing people back on
board and making it through probably the most difficult experience
they have had as a small business owner.
We have been in business for 22 years. We have seen the dot-
com bubble bust. We have seen 9-11. We have seen the Great Re-
cession. And now we hopefully made it through the experience of
COVID. And it is my feedback that I get from the hundreds of en-
trepreneurs, business owners, CEOs that I work with at all levels
that now is not the time to handcuff business and job creators with
tax burdens, especially on non-brick-and-mortar infrastructure.
I think there is consensus around the need to rebuild our roads,
our bridges, the infrastructure that people understand are critical
in having successful businesses, neighborhoods, and a base to build
a future from. But when you start moving outside of that, I think
that is when you really look at what are the priorities of this ad-
ministration in terms of bringing jobs back and really allowing en-
trepreneurs to be uncuffed from the restrictions that they have
seen over the last year?
And so it is my opinion that now certainly is not the time to talk
about increasing taxes on job creators.
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Mrs. YOUNG KIM. I appreciate your perspectives. Thank you. I
yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentlewoman yields back. I
now recognize the gentleman from New York, Mr. Garbarino, for
5 minutes.
Mr. GARBARINO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Dearie, you
just touched on a couple different things in a couple of your state-
ments. And I don’t know if my—well, my district is definitely dif-
ferent than my colleagues that are up here. And Ms. Airheart
talked about childcare, healthcare, the limitations there being—
needing to focus on that to help the job growth.
I know for a fact that in my district businesses have left Long
Island because where I am we don’t have sewers. The roads are so
old that they—you know, turning on and getting on a highway, you
can’t do it with an 18-wheeler because they didn’t have them back
when they were built. Our energy grid is so low. So, that is an
issue on my district.
You know, you mentioned the brain drain. You know, people are
not trained for the proper positions that they need to be now and
the focus on STEM and apprenticeships.
So, it is all of the above? Does it matter? Is it different? Where
should the focus be? You know, which one—what is the chicken
and what is the egg and what do we start with? You know, out of
all these different things we are hearing so much testimony. What
do we start with?
Mr. DEARIE. That is a very good question and this is what we
are all here to debate. But, of course, you know, I think we all
agree on what the issues are and it is a question of sequencing, a
question of prioritizing. Certainly with physical infrastructure
there is a broad consensus that we have—you know, we are way
behind the eight ball and we need to do more now. All you have
to do is drive the George Washington Parkway of the other side of
the Potomac and you see that.
However, there are other issues that are enormously significant.
I will just focus on one, childcare, because we are talking about it.
It is true that out of 40 industrial democracies around the world,
the United States is the only country that does not have a national
childcare policy. We are the only one.
We did have a national childcare policy at one point in our his-
tory, and the Chairman referred to this sort of, and that was dur-
ing World War II. And the reason was all the men were overseas
fighting the war and we needed the factories to be staffed. And so
there was an enormous publicly funded childcare program that led
to, after the war, the entry of women into the economy and led to
booming economic times, simply because there were so much more
people in the economy starting and growing businesses and going
to work for other businesses.
When we do roundtables with women entrepreneurs and when
we started the Senate Entrepreneurship Caucus in March of 2019,
the very first event that we did with that caucus was a roundtable
of women entrepreneurs that we flew in from all over the country.
The top issues that they wanted to talk to the Senators about were
barriers to them: healthcare, childcare, record student debt, and re-
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tirement security uncertainty. It is those uncertainties, those life
risks that are keeping them from being entrepreneurs.
So, those are super important issues. If we were to solve them,
I am convinced that it would lead to a very significant boost in eco-
nomic growth, job creation, tax receipts, et cetera, et cetera.
Mr. GARBARINO. Do you think we should do that before we do
brick-and-mortar? I mean, like I said——
Mr. DEARIE. Yeah.
Mr. GARBARINO.—in my district you can’t open a restaurant,
you can’t open a business because the Health Department will tell
you, no, we don’t have sewers.
Mr. DEARIE. Yes. Well, certainly if there are physical impedi-
ments to actually opening a business, that is top priority for sure.
But I think it would be a mistake to push these other issues back
on the backburner.
I mean, you know, just continuing very briefly, the average
American family pays $10,000 a year for childcare for one child.
Childcare is more expensive than sending a kid to college in 38
states. Every single state in the Union and the District of Columbia
fails the government’s own definition of affordability in terms of
childcare. That is a big problem and it is standing in the way of
economic growth.
Mr. GARBARINO. I did want to—I have a minute left, but one
thing I have also heard, I have a lot of contractors and other, you
know, businesses all around, that they are saying the cost of goods,
inflation, I mean, they can’t bid out projects now and—well, they
can bid out, but the bids can’t last longer than 3 days because, you
know, lumber, everything, steel, everything has been going up.
This is for the—maybe Mr. Etkin or Dr. LaRock, if you want to
talk about it, or Ms. Airheart. What are we hearing from small
businesses now about inflation? How bad is it on their bottom line?
Anyone?
Mr. ETKIN. Is that directed at me?
Mr. GARBARINO. Hello, Mr. Etkin. You can start first.
Mr. ETKIN. Well, I can speak of it firsthand. I am in the middle
of building a building and we deal with contractors all day about
pricing for materials. And it has been shocking to see the price dif-
ferences in just, like you said, a matter of weeks on steel, on lum-
ber, on availability, on timelines.
Part of my business is monitoring the commercial real estate
markets. We see projects in all stages going from design to bid to
construction. I think we see that in that industry more than any
other the impacts of supply chain issues coming out of the pan-
demic.
It is a complex issue. It is not simply policy, but long-term infla-
tion is something that we all need to look at and watch closely. Be-
cause as I mentioned before, start talking about trillions of dollars
of spending, I think that is at the back of everyone’s mind, cer-
tainly business owners as well, who have to keep an eye on cost
of goods. And so it is certainly something to be concerned about.
Mr. GARBARINO. Thank you, Mr. Etkin. My time has expired.
Mr. ETKIN. Yes, sir.
Mr. GARBARINO. I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentleman yields back.
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So, thank you to all the witnesses today for this really enlight-
ening discussion. It is something that is actually, unfortunately,
more rare than it should be, and this is something called legis-
lating and debating, which I know is a crazy concept for this body
sometimes. But it was great. I learned a lot from all of you, so
thank you for taking the time.
It is clear that the entrepreneurship crisis is one of the bigger
challenges facing this Nation. The title of this hearing, ‘‘Jobs, Jobs,
Jobs,’’ was the title that we came up with because we wanted to
be really clear that we want to get people to work. We want to get
more people to work and it is not just getting them into jobs, but
it is also getting them into great jobs and good jobs. And one of the
best ways to do that is to grow new businesses, to expand the eco-
nomic pie.
This is a real challenge, but there is also good news in that this
is one of the most bipartisan committees in Congress. We work
really well together. We don’t always agree on how to get there, but
we actually do agree on where we want to be in the conclusion and
what we are trying to achieve. And I look forward to working with
all of you in trying to figure out these challenges, and the wit-
nesses as well for informing both the staff and the members as we
figure this out and have this debate and figure out how we can
grow the economic pie and get people to work and really help re-
build the American dream is where we want to be.
And, you know, part of that is continuing to have the discussion
around the Next Generation Entrepreneurship Corps Act. I will be
the first to say that is not—it won’t solve the problem, but it is a
first step. And if we take the first step we can build on that, we
can learn from it, we can get people to work. And this is something
that obviously both the House and the Senate in a bipartisan way
has come together around, so I look forward to continuing to build
support for that bill and others like it that we heard about today.
So, with that, I would ask unanimous consent that members
have 5 legislative days to submit statements and supporting mate-
rials for the record. Without objection, so ordered.
And if there is no further business to come before the Committee,
we are adjourned. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 11:23 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
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APPENDIX
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SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 54 here 44925.029
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55
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 55 here 44925.030
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56
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 56 here 44925.031
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57
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 57 here 44925.032
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58
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 58 here 44925.033
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59
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 59 here 44925.034
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60
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 60 here 44925.035
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61
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 61 here 44925.036
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62
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 62 here 44925.037
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63
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 63 here 44925.038
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64
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 64 here 44925.039
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65
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 65 here 44925.040
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66
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 66 here 44925.041
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67
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 67 here 44925.042
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68
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 68 here 44925.043
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69
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 69 here 44925.044
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70
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 70 here 44925.045
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71
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 71 here 44925.046
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72
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 72 here 44925.047
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73
Æ
SBD026 with DISTILLER Insert offset folio 73 here 44925.048
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File and source
- File
- CHRG-117hhrg44925.pdf
- Size
- 87,750,357 bytes
- SHA-256
- 304b072e5b429a5275be56dd440cb426ac75278bfab174d10eceec79758e6ba7
- Our copy
- CHRG-117hhrg44925.pdf
- Original
- www.govinfo.gov