Olympia Snowe: “as Chair of Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I rise today to introduce The Small Business…”

“as Chair of Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I rise today to introduce The Small Business Partners In Reconstruction Act of 2006. This legislation, co- sponsored by Senator David Vitter, is the product of 3 hearings held in my Committee in September and November 2005, and in February 2006, which examined the response of the Small Business Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Homeland Security and its Federal Emergency Management Agency, and other Federal agencies to the devastation wrought by the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on our Gulf Coast states. Speaking on September 15, 2005 from New Orleans' historic Jackson Square, President Bush declared that ``It is entrepreneurship that creates jobs and opportunity; it is entrepreneurship that helps break the cycle of poverty; and we will take the side of entrepreneurs as they lead the economic revival of the Gulf region.'' Unfortunately, the Federal Government's performance has not matched the President's declaration. This is particularly true with regards to the role of small firms, especially Gulf Coast small firms, with regards to contracts and subcontracts for recovery and reconstruction. Too often, small contractors have been treated in the disaster contracting process less like the partners in disaster recovery and economic revitalization they are, and more like unwanted stepchildren. Eight months after Hurricane Katrina, it is time for this to change.…”