This week marks National Small Business Week. Here in the House, we salute small business owners and entrepreneurs for their contributions to our nation’s economy and communities.
Long before he came to Washington, Majority Leader McCarthy was a small business owner himself. At the age of 19, he took his savings out of the stock market to open Kevin O’s Deli, a sandwich shop in Bakersfield, California.
Trying to make each dollar go as far as it could, he even built the counter of the business in his father’s garage. The values he learned in that small business are the same values that every small business owner in America learns: You’re the first one to work, you’re the last one to leave, and you’re the last one to be paid.
According to the U.S. Labor Department, small businesses create two out of every three net new jobs. That’s why it’s essential we provide our small businesses with the certainty they need to grow and thrive.
In the House, we are leading by example and passing bipartisan bills that help small business in a competitive economy. In the first 100 days alone:
- We passed the Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act (H.R. 527) to scale back the regulatory red tape that burdens Main Street so that small businesses are free to grow.
- We passed the Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act (H.R. 37), which cuts excess regulation so that small businesses have access to the capital they need to grow and create good-paying jobs.
- We passed the Small Business Tax Relief Act (H.R. 636) that helps to reduce uncertainty from government so that small businesses can invest in their future and grow.
- We passed the Save the American Workers Act (H.R. 30), which restores the 40-hour work week that Obamacare’s employer mandate destroyed so that small businesses can hire more workers at the hours that work for them.
- We passed the Hire More Heroes Act (H.R. 22) to exempt veterans from Obamacare’s employer mandate threshold if they already have health care through TRICARE or the VA so that no employers are penalized for hiring a veteran and that no veteran is left jobless because of the mandate.
- We repealed the unfair death tax (H.R. 1105) to reform our tax system so that small businesses can be kept In the family, even when a loved one dies.
As Majority Leader McCarthy said on the House floor,
“The last thing a small business needs is uncertainty from their government, changes in the tax code, or even whether it’s going to go forward…So as someone who as a former small business owner, knows the challenges, knows what you have to do to hire someone, I ask that we look to a new American Congress and put people before politics… so we can grow America’s economy.”