Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairwoman Velazquez for yielding me the time. Since coming to Congress 10 months ago, I have been focused on protecting jobs in the State of Maine, and that means helping small businesses succeed. Thousands of small businesses in my State have launched or grown with help from small business development centers, or, as you heard them referred to, SBDCs. Just last year, SBDCs served over 1,500 small businesses in my State, helped to start 136 new businesses, and worked to protect or create more than 800 jobs. Here are just a few of the small businesses that I have heard from directly in my district about this program: SBDCs helped The Maine Meal in Skowhegan purchase a building in order to launch their new business; The Milk House in Monmouth received the accounting and tax advice that they needed to help grow their business from an SBDC adviser, an important farming and dairy industry right there; SBDCs helped Lost Valley Ski Area in Auburn, just across the river from my hometown, to develop a business plan so that they could secure the financing they needed to acquire and continue the Lost Valley Ski Area, which is very important to our community, particularly during the winter months. I have visited each of these businesses and seen their work firsthand. These are just a few of the thousands of SBDC success stories in the State of Maine.…”