John Tierney: “It is obviously essential that we finally take some action on this legislation. We need to extend critical funding to…”

“It is obviously essential that we finally take some action on this legislation. We need to extend critical funding to women's business centers across the United States. In particular, the Center for Women and Enterprise in Boston serves many of the constituents in my district and throughout the State of Massachusetts. It has been long overdue, and many of these centers have already suffered because of Congress's inaction. It is a bit disturbing to know that it has been 10 months since the Small Business Administration authorization bill has expired. And it continues to linger, and we need the majority to come forward and the White House to come forward at this point in time and bring it and put it on the agenda. Everybody has great rhetoric about how important small businesses are to our country, to our districts and to the economy. But now it is time to put that rhetoric into action and make sure we move on this bill. We do not have to tell people or remind them about how this economy is suffering: almost 2 million jobs lost in the last several years and still not anywhere near back to where we were in January of 2001. We know what a generator of jobs, what a booster of the economy small businesses can be, and we also know how important the Small Business Administration is in providing capital for these businesses.”