Bill Clinton: “Good morning. Welcome to the White House, and thank you for coming. A year and a half ago, the Small Business…”

“Good morning. Welcome to the White House, and thank you for coming. A year and a half ago, the Small Business Administration issued the first microloan grants. To date, SBA has awarded 47 grants. We now more than double the program with 49 new grants. And we believe that 42,000 jobs will be created as a result. This administration is committed to helping en- trepreneurs create profits and jobs, and the microloan program is integral to our strategy to make that happen. I want to thank Senator Pressler and Senator Bumpers for their attendance here today. And I want to say a special word of praise to my State's senior Senator, Dale Bumpers, who sponsored this legislation to create the microloans, something that he learned about as a result of a community development bank operating in our home State. I am very proud of it. It was modeled on the South Shore Bank in Chicago, and when I was Governor, we worked hard to bring the bank there. We know that this concept works. And I appreciate very much the work that Senator Bumpers has done to bring this concept throughout America. I also want to say that if the Congress, later this year, adopts our proposal for community development banks, then there will be more banks out there supporting the SBA in the work of making microloans. This is very important because an enormous percentage of the jobs in America are now being created by small business people and by people starting up their own businesses and by people who are self-employed.…”