WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the House Committee on Small Business is holding a full Committee Member Day Hearing.

Chairman Williams’ opening statement as prepared for delivery:

Good morning, and welcome to today’s House Committee on Small Business Member Day hearing. I want to thank each of you, who may not sit on this Committee, for taking the time to come and share with us what you are hearing from the small businesses in your districts. I think this is an excellent way for those of us on the Committee to broaden our understanding and hear about what is going on in different parts of the country.

It is also always beneficial to hear how different Members interact with the small businesses in their districts. As I’m sure we have all seen, America’s entrepreneurs have had to confront historic challenges over the past few years: the COVID-19 pandemic, out-of-control inflation, broken supply chains, high interest rates, and a national labor shortage. But as small businesses have done countless times before, they endured.

Here on the Committee on Small Business, we are working to create an environment where businesses can thrive. We know that small business owners dedicate their lives and finances to the products and services they bring to the marketplace. Every extra hour of paperwork is one less hour they can tend to their personal livelihoods, every inflated tax is an extra dollar that could have gone somewhere else, and every job vacancy is one more a small business owner must cover themselves. As we listen to these first-hand accounts, we salute the small businesses who continue to fight and give selflessly back to their communities. We are eager to enact policy solutions that will help pave a path toward success for both now and the future.

This is why we are looking forward to our conversation today. There is always something to be learned and increasing the dialogue about small businesses between Members can only strengthen and broaden our collective experiences on how to better serve our nation’s biggest job creators.

I want to thank you all again for being here with us today, and I am looking forward to today’s conversation.

With that, I will yield to our distinguished Ranking Member from New York, Ms. Velázquez.

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