Bill Pascrell: “Mr. Chairman, we know that the new digital economy is leading the way, is a necessity for economic success of American…”

“Mr. Chairman, we know that the new digital economy is leading the way, is a necessity for economic success of American businesses and particularly small businesses. We are concerned deeply that many small businesses lack the adequate resources to participate fully in the digital revolution. I see many minority-owned small businesses in my district, the Eighth District of New Jersey, that have particular concerns. In order to keep up, they cannot afford to fall back and to play catch up. Today, there is almost 2.1 billion different and publicly accessed Web sites on the Internet, a larger percentage of them being commercial, business-operated sites. Current figures show that Americans have already spent $3.5 billion online, which averages out to 13.5 million households, spending $263 per person. It is clear that if small businesses are not part of the new digital economy, they will soon be out of business. The private sector will need to fill, as my colleagues have already heard, 900,000 new information technology jobs. Right now, we can only fill half of those jobs.”