Marsha Blackburn: “I am pleased to join my colleagues and celebrate National Small Business Week. I love this poster that they have…”

“I am pleased to join my colleagues and celebrate National Small Business Week. I love this poster that they have prepared today because Tennessee is right at the heart of this. For over five decades, National Small Business Week has been an opportunity to recognize the tremendous contribution of small businesses and entrepreneurs to the American economy. We know and we hear it said so often that there is nothing small about small business because of the economic impact it has. I tell you, the statistics really do bear that out. According to the most recent report from the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy for my home State of Tennessee, there are over 603,000 small businesses located in our State. Now, 99.4 percent of all the businesses in our State are small businesses. That speaks to the health and vitality of our economy. Collectively, these small businesses employ over 1.1 million people, and that accounts for 42.3 percent of the entire workforce in the State. So small business has an enormous footprint in the State of Tennessee. Now, we have heard a lot about the booming economy in recent weeks, and as we celebrate Mother's Day this week--and I do hope it is a happy Mother's Day for everyone.…”