From the Office of Senator Kerry

Wednesday, June 6, 2001

"I've made fighting for small businesses one of my top priorities in the Senate, and I've always worked to do it in a bipartisan way. I look forward to the opportunity to pick up the mantle of Chairman where Sen. Bumpers and Sen. Bond left off, with the same spirit of bipartisanship. We have a lot to accomplish for our nation's small businesses which account for 97% of our businesses and employ over 50% of our workforce.

I want to keep the government on the side of those businesses when it can help them grow, and I want to get the government out of their way when its involvment diminishes growth and innovation. There's a balance we can strike, and we'll strive to -- remembering that of the 22 million jobs created in the United States since 1992, small businesses were responsible for three quarters of them, and that occurred because in many cases pro-business leaders on both sides found common sense answers and listened to our businesses.

As Chairman I'm not here to defend unresponsive bureaucracy or bash business -- government is not always the answer, nor is it always the enemy. We all need to remember that. We also need to remember that small business issues should never be pigeonholed -- health care, technology, energy, and workforce issues are small business issues, and I'll work with the small business community to find common ground on these and other issues and forge new consensus."