(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), Ranking Member of the Committee, led a resolution that recognizes the week of April 28, 2024, through May 4, 2024, as “National Small Business Week.” The resolution today passed with significant, bipartisan support.
“Through this bipartisan resolution, we recognize the resiliency of the nation’s growing number of small businesses, their critical role in creating jobs and solving America’s toughest challenges and their ability to bolster America’s leadership on the global stage,” said Chair Shaheen. “We are in the middle of a historic, small business boom thanks to investments made by Congress and the Biden-Harris Administration. Even more, women entrepreneurs lead the way in small business growth. Now is not the time to relent, and I will remain laser-focused on continuing to lead legislation that provides the resources needed to maintain and grow small businesses in the Granite State and across the country.”
The resolution highlights the integral contributions of small businesses to the United States:
- There are more than 33 million small businesses in the nation;
- these small businesses support 62 million jobs;
- small businesses play an integral role in the U.S. economy; and
- the efforts and achievements of small businesses and their owners and employees impact every community in the United States.
Resolution text is available here.
As a long-time member and current Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Chair Shaheen is a fierce advocate for small businesses in New Hampshire and across the United States. Shaheen led action in the U.S. Senate in support of the State Trade Expansion Program (STEP) and helped create it as a pilot program in 2010. Shaheen is focused on reauthorizing STEP, which has helped more than 13,000 American small businesses find trading partners overseas. Earlier this year, Shaheen also introduced the Right Start Child Care and Education Act of 2024 to address the child care crisis by adjusting the tax code to make child care more affordable and accessible for entrepreneurs and their employees. To ensure SBA resources are adequately available to all entrepreneurs, Shaheen also introduced the bipartisan Supporting Disabled Entrepreneurs Act with Sen. Braun (R-IN), which would expand access to SBA programs for entrepreneurs with disabilities.
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