Well, thank you for the question, Jeff.

Do you find people stepping up to the plate in that regard?

We have introduced two pieces of legislation which I think will help spread the gospel of employee ownership.

the U.S. Employee Ownership Bank Act that you just heard about can play an important role in facilitating such deals

Tom, thank you very much.

Bill, thank you very much, and thank you for the pioneering work you guys have done in Ohio.

this hearing wouldn't be happening unless Senator Sanders saw through this

We strongly believe that the U.S. Employee Ownership Bank Act can play an important role in facilitating such deals.

This is an enormously important economic issue and let's go forward together.

Two bills that Senator Sanders has proposed will be a big step forward for rooting our firms in our communities and leading to better-quality jobs and spread economic democracy.

In my view, the concept of employee ownership can and will be an important tool for addressing all of these goals.

Outsourcing is, I can tell you, a major concern in this country.

In this way, our political democracy would also support our economic democracy.

This is the first left wing person in the U.S. Congress

My guess would be that that is a marketing advantage, right? Would I rather buy a product manufactured in the United States by a worker-owned company or a product manufactured in China?

I think people feel very uncomfortable that increasingly it is difficult to buy a product manufactured in the United States of America.

Study after study has shown that employee ownership has been proven to increase employment, increase productivity, increase sales, and increase wages in the United States.

We see the pressing need and support the bills Senator Sanders is proposing.

if some entrepreneur started a business and was successful, he was aging, that he would have--and he was going to leave the business, that he knew about or she knew about the option of employee ownership

Thank you for championing the cause of ESOPs in Washington.

We need new economic models which create and retain jobs here in the United States of America, not in China.

And how many people, how many employees?

I visited Steve's operation at King Arthur over a year ago and he had a whole lot of workers out there.

The two bills proposed by Senator Sanders would be a big step forward in rooting our firms in our communities and leading to better quality jobs that spread economic democracy.

We're delighted to have joining us as a State representative from the Ohio Employee Ownership Center.