the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship will meet on March 14, 2013, at 10:30 a.m. in room 432 Russell Senate Office building to hold a roundtable discussion entitled ``Helping Small Businesses Weather Economic Challenges &…

Thank you for taking the leadership to do this very important overview as we enter into one of the most important debates for our Nation.

I am not in so that big banks can fail and the taxpayers have to pick up the tab again.

There is actually some possibility of actually changing something.

as Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I remain focused on the needs of small businesses. Much of what we do on the committee involves overseeing the Small Business Administration's contracting…

as we begin our work this afternoon, I wished to come to the floor to make a few comments about the Homeland Security appropriations bill which is now going to be included in the amendment offered by Senator Mikulski and Senator Shelby as…

I come to the floor today to introduce the Expanding Access to Capital for Entrepreneurial Leaders Act, or the EXCEL Act. This legislation will enhance the already successful Small Business Investment Company, SBIC, program at the Small…

I have said this is one of the great injustices in the law today.

I want to show you a picture is worth a thousand words. This is what the coast of Louisiana looks like.

Thank you for being willing to serve. It's a very important job that the President has nominated you for.

We have to be better prepared for the next storm . . . and rebuild not just better . . . but smarter . . . and more resilient.

to spend taxpayer money smartly, again rebuilding these communities for the future, not rebuilding past communities.

They need our help. And the longer they have to wait, the more they are confronted with additional problems.

Well, the Congress can mandate them to do so. I will be very interested in doing that.

I am going to put them on notice today.

Smarter designs, better materials can withstand some of these storms up to 150, sometimes 200-mile-an-hour winds.

I will continue to push them, because this is just not fair.

the Congress, as you know, provided $11.5 billion in needed FEMA funding for response and recovery for Hurricane Sandy and other ongoing disasters.

It is just imperative for us to really push forward to get particularly these small businesses back up and running.

We have a $40 billion backlog--$40 billion--of which your project was one of those backlogs.

I think this was one of the successes of your advocacy and the team from this region, to advocate for the $50 billion.

I think there is not a community in the United States that is not vulnerable from something.

I am very concerned about the impact sequestration will have on the Nation and in particular the Hurricane Sandy rebuilding effort.

I will commit that we will be doing a meeting in Washington with your delegation through my subcommittee on this.

Without their leadership, a lot of these reforms would not have been possible.