Pelosi Remarks at Steering & Policy Hearing - 'Reigniting the American Dream: America's Entrepreneurial Spirit as Centerpiece of the Supercommittee's Work'
Washington, D.C. - Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee held a hearing today entitled, "Reigniting the American Dream: America's Entrepreneurial Spirit as the Centerpiece of the Supercommittee's Work." Below are the Leader's opening remarks:
"Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all very much for being here. A special welcome to our very special guest, whom I will reference in a moment. I first want to thank our Steering and Policy Committee Co-Chairs, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and Congressman George Miller for bringing us together once again. We'll be joined shortly by the Ranking Member of the Small Business Committee, Nydia Velazquez, and our Steering and Policy Vice Chair Henry Cuellar, who has been working very hard on this issue--the issue of small business and entrepreneurship being the centerpiece of the work of the Supercommittee.
"Today's witnesses: John Arensmeyer, the Small Business Majority; Dr. Gail Mellow, President, La Guardia Community College, Long Island City, New York; Steve Graham, Founder and CEO, Analytical Scientific Instruments, Inc., El Sobrante, California--I know Mr. Miller will brag on that; and Veronica Wright, co-owner, Grady, Wright and Associates from Glen Burnie, Maryland.
"Today's hearing--our second one in really a matter of weeks that we have held this fall--is about our commitment to reigniting the American dream, creating jobs and promoting America's entrepreneurial spirit as the centerpiece of the work of the subcommittee, excuse me, the Supercommittee, and the Congress.
"This committee, this Supercommittee has an historic opportunity to do something great, to do something big, something bold, and something that is balanced in terms of job creation.
"Since the Supercommittee began its work, I think it's important to note that President Obama has offered his American Jobs Act; the Democratic Ranking Members of committees have submitted their suggestions for job creation to the Supercommittee; the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness released its October report that contains strong entrepreneurial proposals.
"Apropos of our meeting here, is that the Democrats in the House have met with thousands of small businesses and entrepreneurs to hear their view, to hear your view on the President's American Jobs Act--your view is what our leader, Congresswoman Velazquez has talked to us about--issues that relate to small businesses, as well as to get their own suggestions from small businesses as to how we can act and act now with the Supercommittee to strengthen small businesses and expand them with the recognition that that is where jobs are created.
"Today, I sent a letter to the Supercommittee members reflecting what we heard from small businesses and America's entrepreneurs, their most urgent needs. So here is what the letter says, and you will have a copy of it.
"These critical challenges deserve the immediate attention of the Supercommittee. First, Make It In America--we must stop the erosion of America's manufacturing and technological and industrial base. Two, improve access to credit--that sounds familiar, right? Three, provide a trained workforce. We are going to hear from Gail, Dr. Mellow about that. Increase demand, increase demand, we can't have demand if people don't have jobs, so we have more customers and we want to expand our markets as well. And build America's infrastructure. Yesterday, the President made a very important statement about this. He's been saying it all along, but his most recent one was yesterday. And it's self evident what that says, I'm not going to take time to describe those things, the provisions of some of the fleshing out of those recommendations are in the letter.
"Today, we look forward to your testimony and working with the committee to reignite the American dream, increase opportunity for small businesses, create jobs in the private sector, recognizing that private-sector job growth depends on public sector education, our public education system, safety of our neighborhoods, other public sector initiatives help private sector growth. We believe that job creation is the best deficit reducer. We believe that job creation springs mightily from small businesses and the entrepreneurial spirit of America. That's why we are so eager to hear what you have to say today.
"Thank you for your leadership in your communities, in your businesses in our country, and for sharing your ideas, which we look forward to today. With that, I am going to yield to Congresswoman DeLauro and thank her again for bringing us together this morning."