John Barrow: “I rise in support of today's Small Business Bill of Rights, but I feel it necessary to address the concerns of the one…”

“I rise in support of today's Small Business Bill of Rights, but I feel it necessary to address the concerns of the one small business community whose concerns are not addressed in this resolution, America's minority-owned businesses. This is not a small part of the small business marketplace. It is not a niche market, though this resolution treats the minority small business market as though it were a niche market. Despite the fact that nearly one-third of America's population consists of minorities, these individuals own only 15 percent of America's small businesses. Earlier this month, the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore) and I attempted to offer an amendment to address this disproportion. Our amendment was simply a call for modernizing and streamlining the eligibility criteria of the Small Business Administration's 8(a) program so that minority-owned small businesses had substantially the same eligibility criteria that we use to serve the rest of the small business community. The 8(a) program was created nearly 40 years ago, and it is the major business development program that this government offers to help minority business development. Currently, businesses applying for 8(a) certification have to meet a number of restrictive criteria.…”