WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, Congressman Roger Williams (R-TX), Chairman of the House Committee on Small Business, and Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO) hosted a roundtable titled “Main Street at Work: Empowering Small Businesses to Deliver Greater Affordability” in Kansas City, Missouri. During the roundtable, Members heard firsthand from small business owners to understand how the Committee can best support their growth.

This marks the first stop of the Committee’s small business roundtable series: The Open Road: Small Business Conversations Across Main Street America.

Quote Attributable to Congressman Roger Williams (R-TX), Chairman of the House Committee on Small Business:

“Our Open Road roundtable in Kansas City reinforced what we know to be true: small businesses are the engine of the American economy,” said Chairman Williams. “Hearing directly from small business owners about the challenges they face keeps the Committee’s work grounded in real-world experience. These conversations will continue to shape our efforts to cut red tape, lower costs, and ensure Main Street businesses have the freedom to grow and succeed.”

Quote Attributable to Congressman Mark Alford (R-MO):

"From family shops to growing startups, small businesses are where innovation and opportunity begin. Our goal is simple: remove the obstacles and let them thrive. I’m grateful to the entrepreneurs and job creators across MO-04 who showed up, shared their stories, and continue investing in our communities every single day,” said Congressman Mark Alford. 

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Watch the full roundtable here.

Below are some key excerpts from today’s hearing:

Chairman Williams: “Over the past year, this Committee has been working to lower costs for Main Street by reducing red tape and restoring guardrails at the SBA. We have oversight of the SBA—the Small Business Administration—and it’s doing great. I mean, we’ve seen huge growth. We’re seeing a lot of regulations released. We even raised the limit the other day from 5 million to 10 million for small businesses to start or expand. We’re becoming very Main Street friendly, and the SBA is doing a great job. When I talk about bipartisanship, we’ve passed 30 bipartisan bills out of the House—30—to make the federal government work more efficiently for our small businesses nationwide, and to make sure that we compete against each other and not compete against the federal government. We don’t need to be doing that, and we’re trying to make that happen.”

Rep. Alford: “America is made up of small businesses. It is the fabric of America. It always has been, and Kansas City was built around small business. You think about Francois Chouteau, who came here in the western expansion to trap fur on the Missouri River—a small business. You think about Harry S. Truman, who set up a haberdashery shop not too far from here, Chairman, in downtown Kansas City. Many of you in this room, many of us on our panel today, who are small business leaders in our community, helping make a difference, are the backbone of our local economy and the heartbeat, really, of our communities. Today’s roundtable is an opportunity for us here to listen. We’re here to hear directly from you and you in the audience as well about what is working, what is not working, and how we can effect positive change in Washington, D.C. and be a better partner. As moderator, my goal is very simple: to have an honest and productive discussion about the challenges facing small businesses and the opportunities ahead. We’re all here today to hear from the small business owners and community leaders about how Main Street—and that is our focus under the leadership of Chairman Williams—Main Street America, and how it’s fueling affordability in our country. Folks, these are not abstract policies in debates. They affect whether a business can expand, hire workers, invest in new technology, or even keep its doors open and running.”

Rep. Downing: “Well, everybody here understands that small businesses grow the economy, create jobs, and that’s not a partisan issue. I’m glad we have colleagues with whom we can work to find solutions so small businesses can thrive. My wife and I are involved in a couple of small businesses. We take perfectly good, Montana malted barley and sweet corn and turn it into bourbon, so I’ve got a kindred spirit over here on the panel. I also have a small manufacturing company that makes athletic wear. So, another, Made in America, American source material. I understand the difficulties in accessing capital and hiring employees—we do a lot of exporting—when navigating this in our apparel company. So, I understand these problems, and I’ll say one of the biggest issues is access to capital. A lot of the things we are looking at with the reforms of the SBA and some other programs are: how do we make it easier for a small business to be able to finance what they are doing so they can grow the economy, so they can create jobs, so they can be everything that they are right now?”

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