Jeff Miller: “as a former small businessman before entering Congress, I certainly recognize the importance of small business. My…”

“as a former small businessman before entering Congress, I certainly recognize the importance of small business. My community in Florida, in Sarasota, is totally dependent on small business. And certainly the Small Business Administration does a lot of very fine things and should continue. I have some concerns, this being brought up under suspension, for a rather significant increase in money, and maybe I need to have explained to me a little bit more, because the total amount of money authorized is a significant increase over what is currently being appropriated, and I recognize this still has to go through the appropriation process, and as a member of the Committee on Appropriations, though not the subcommittee for small business, I will be able to follow this. But under the 1997 bill, appropriation bill, we have an authorization or outlays of $820 million, and it is going to increase next year to $1.3 billion. So it is a rather significant increase that concerns me, that we are doing this under suspension, where we have no opportunity to offer amendments and question it.”