Two hours. [inaudible] in the mcmahon to have the sba. Thank you so much for being here. We have senators blumenthal and mcmahono introduce mrs. Both of these gentlemen have run against mrs. Mcmahon and vice versa, so i hope they didnt bring their files. Weve been trying to forget. Sen. Risch in any event, senator blumenthal, the floor is yours. Thank you so much for gracing us with your presence. Blumenthal thank you. Im pleased to introduce our fellow colleague, Linda Mcmahon. We know her as a fellow citizen of connecticut and as a successful business leader. As the cofounder and former ceo of the wwe and as a generous contributor to many significant charitable causes and educational institutions in connecticut, including, for universitycred heart , near where we live. In my view, mr. Chairman, i recommend her because i think she would be an excellent fit for this agency based on her experience and expertise. As a business leader. She knows, as i do, that Small Businesses are the backbone of our economy. They are the most vibrant and vital job creators. They not only innovate by fostering new jobs, but they also invent new projects. They are the startup in every sense and they embody the american dream. Having been to connecticut, i know how they create jobs, new products, and opportunities for others. The sba plays an Important Role, as this committee well knows, in supporting fault Small Businesses financially, but also encouraging them with expertise and experience. Linda mcmahon has that kind of expertise and experience. Leader and aless tenacious fighter. Her professional life has been about building businesses. She has started and struggled in the entrepreneurial trenches, with payrolls, hiring and firing, working hard for a vision. We have known our share of differences. But i have never questioned her unwavering drive and focus. She has used her business to realizeerans and women their own dreams and opportunities. I am hopeful that under her leadership, the Small Business administration will continue its focus on veterans and women. She has played an integral role in spearheading the opportunities and dreams for women. That has been the focus of her life, her professional life most recently. I am pleased to be here to introduce her and recommend her to the committee. She understands the needs of arees like connecticut, who still working hard to recover from the economic recession, who need new jobs and i hope that she will continue to have connecticut at the top of her mind as she assumes this new role and i look forward to working with her. And i know the other members of the committee will as well. Thank you very much. Thankyou, sen. Risch you, senator blumenthal. I was hoping she would have idaho at the top of her mind. Senator blumenthal i will let her say that. Sen. Risch the floors yours. Senator thank you so much. It gives me great pleasure to help introduce our fellow nominee, Linda Mcmahon, to serve as the next administrator of the Small Business administration. Individual will be amusing and surprising to the folks in connecticut who watched us duke it out under two long senate campaigns. But politics cant work if political branches note grudges never die. They have to find a way to Work Together. Im here to support linda. Not because we have magically become of one mind on how we approach every problem the country faces, but i have confidence that she is going to give good, sound counsel to President Trump when it comes to policies affecting Small Businesses and i believe she has the pot the passion for the job. At the core, the mission is simple, to help americans start, build, and grow businesses. Virtually every owner and starter of the Small Business wants to one day be the owner of a big business. Before you today sits a very talented and experienced businessperson who did just that. Over the past several decades she has shepherded her Small Business from a one desk operation to an incredibly profitable enterprise. Hundreds of employees around the world. She also understands the unique challenges facing Women Business owners. She cofounded the womens Leadership Organization and equipped women to become successful business leaders. Her work there assures me it she is going to build on the significant momentum of her predecessor in the Obama Administration. The federal government just recently surpassed its fiveyear excuse me its 5 contracting goal for women owned his misses. I have confidence that Linda Mcmahon is going to further empower women to create thriving businesses with the help of Partner Organizations like the womens Business Development council, which is had success in connecticut. Listen, i saw firsthand the fight that she brings to any endeavor that she takes on. I am sure that we will never question whether she has the experience and the determination necessary to lead this great agency and i would really urge the members of this committee to support her nomination and im very pleased to join with senator blumenthal and introducing her to you today. Senator murphy sen. Risch senator murphy, thank you so much. We will keep the score book of records on this event and get it duly noted. You are suddenly welcome to stay, but knowing that we are all drinking out of a fire hose these days, we will certainly give you the excuse, im sure, you will see this when you need to see it. Thanks so much, thank you for coming. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Sen. Risch thank you. Linda, so you know where we are headed here, and for everyone else, im going to make a very brief Opening Statement and then yield to sen. Shaheen do likewise and at that point we will administer the oath that is required by committee rules. And in the floor will be yours to make an Opening Statement and, as you can see, you have a list of people with deep and probing questions who will then take turns from each side. In any event, first of all, thank you for coming to spend the time that you did. Thank you for being willing to take on this important appointment. Small Business Administration is not a large federal agency, as federal agencies go. , a to a business person Small Business person, it can be one of the most important and critical endeavors that the government undertakes. You and i had the opportunity to talk about a couple of endeavors that the sba does. They are of course known for loaning to Small Businesses. You will find, i think, when you a veryown, that there is robust fleet of lenders out there who service the Small Business community through the Small Business administration. I think you will be well satisfied with how they operate, what they do, and the work that they do for Small Business. Of more importance to me, actually, because that part of the operation is doing so well, the efforts that the sba undertakes to try to level the Playing Field, for Small Businesses. When we talk with every business these days it used to be that when i started in politics the most hated organization of any government was the irs. Andirs has fallen way back the other agencies that do the regulatory things that the government does have really risen to the top. In my state, and our dealings, the epa is way up there. And after that there are others that come in behind. If you ask any businessman today, Small Business man or big businessman, but particularly Small Business, whats the biggest challenge you face . Say bly they wont well, its access to capital approval or taxes being too high or have you, they will tell you that the regulatory structure of the government in America Today is strangling was strangling businesses. Everyone can tell you stories. Within the office of advocacy, they are supposed to be independent, but they havent been. They are supposed to stand up complain loudly every time the federal government does something that affects Small Businesses. There is a process in place for them to formally do this. It hasnt worked very well. Im hoping that as we go forward we are going to be able to make it better. The poster child for that was the rule proposed regarding the waters in the united states. The office of advocacy rightly complained in said look, this is a big problem, especially for Small Businesses in agriculture. Others, too. The agency said that they were making a finding that this would not have a Significant Impact on businesses. You have got to be brain dead to reach that kind of conclusion. In any event, i know that you share my concern about that. I hope we will be able to Work Together to try to do more for Small Businesses. We all know that when the ,overnment puts on a regulation the General Electric corporation comes in and hands it to an army of lawyers and compliance officers and what have you, they have to take care of it. If it comes to a guy thats fixing lawnmowers in his garage and he gets a multipage from the federal government, it becomes a big problem when it comes into his work dramatically. Will work on that as we go forward and look forward to hearing your thoughts on that. Would that i would like to yield to my distinguished colleagues. Thank you for a much, mr. Chairman. Thank you for holding todays hearing and congratulations on taking over the gavel as the chairman of the committee. We have had the opportunity to Work Together in the past and i look forward to working with you to this coming session address the needs of Small Businesses. I also want to recognize the new members of the committee. Did duckworth on the democratic side and on the republican side, senators in half, young, and brown. Welcome to this committee. I think you will find that this is a committee that works in a very strong bipartisan way to address the concerns of Small Businesses and i look forward to continuing to do that. Im also very pleased to welcome Linda Mcmahon, President Trumps nominee to head the Small Business administration. I appreciated the opportunity to meet with you and to hear your passion for the work that Small Businesses do. You know, i got on this committee in 2008, after i got elected to the senate, because Small Business is such a concern for New Hampshire. 96 of our employers in hampshire are considered Small Businesses. Just important to New Hampshire and so many of the states represented on the they are thet engine of the economy that drives this nation. Two out of every three jobs created are from Small Businesses. They are our leaders when it comes to innovation. They produce, this is one of my favorite statistics. More patents than large businesses. Im not sure that most people appreciate the innovation that occurs in our Small Businesses. Unfortunately, unlike big business, our Small Businesses have not yet fully recovered from the great recession. For example, according to a Harvard Business school analysis, Small Business loans have dropped by 20 since the financial crisis. Lending to large firms has increased by 4 . Thats why the fda and its programs sba and its programs are so critical. Last year they backed 70,000 loans to Small Businesses, supporting 29 billion in lending and nearly 100,000 jobs. The sba also helps Small Businesses win 90 billion in federal contracts, providing counseling to more than one million entrepreneurs. Of course, there is more work to be done. And thats why you are here, mrs. Mcmahon. I know you share those goals and values for what we need to support Small Business in this economy and i look forward to hearing your Statement Today and your response to the questions. Senator shaheen mentioned new members of the committee, they may be new but they have been around the wall a while. Dont expect softball questions. With that, i would ask you to stand and be sworn. If you would raise your right hand . [indiscernible] my understanding is it you might have some introductions of your own . Im proud to introduce my daughter, stephanie, and her husband. Sen. Risch welcome, welcome. 1 i have wonderful friends senator blumenthal linda i have wonderful friends who have traveled from around the country today and im appreciative to them as well. Thank you. Linda thank you very much. Sen. Risch thank you very much. At this time, the floors yours for an Opening Statement. Linda thank you very much. Thank you, chairman. Ranking member shaheen and the singers members of the committee, im honored to have your consideration to serve as the head of the u. S. Small Business Administration. I would like to thank senators blumenthal and murphy for their kind introduction. And it was nice to be on an even Playing Field today. To stress mylike gratitude to President Trump for his opportunity to join his administration and his confidence in me. As an entrepreneur myself, i have share the experiences of the nations Small Business owners. We are more than our products and services. We are people. We are families. The Small Businesses that are the engines of our National Economy are driven in part by people working to put food on the table, pay for braces and swimming lessons, save for college and prepare for their own retirement. Whether it is an organic farmer or apt Developer App forgeter, we can never that Small Businesses are people with goals and values that cannot be calculated just on a profit and loss statement. I will do my best. My husband and i built our business from scratch. We started out sharing a desk. Over decades of strategic growth and hard work, we built it into a publicly traded Global Enterprise with 800 employees. I am proud of our success. I know every bit of the hard work that it took to create the success. I remember the early days. With every month i had to decide whether i should continue to lease a typewriter or if i could finally afford to buy it. Yes, believe it or not that 12 per month at that time made a difference in our budget. Like all Small Business owners, i know what its like to take a risk on an idea, manage cash flow, navigate regulations and tax laws, and create jobs. Since stepping down as ceo of wwe in 2009, i have worked to help more people have the opportunities to pursue those goals. In my travels throughout connecticut, 2010 to 2012, when i was campaigning, i met with more than 500 Small Business owners. To wring shops, restaurants, uring shops,to restaurants, offices. Small businesses are responsible for half of private sector jobs in the majority of new jobs. They were my focus. I have past two years floated women in. Ntrepreneurship i wanted to share my vast experience with others who were launching startups and looking to scale their businesses. Through live events and webinars, we were discussing things like applying for loan and developing a Business Plan. We also worked to build their confidence. I always say that even entrepreneurs with the best ideas sometimes need a little window beneath their wings. Sharing our by stories of success and failure, our networks of contacts and resources and our strategies for addressing challenges can give Small Business owners the confidence to help propel them forward. Small Business Owners do not just need confidence in themselves. In order to take a risk, they need confidence in the economy. I will work to revitalize the spirit of entrepreneurship in america. Small businesses want to feel that they can take a risk on an expansion or new hire without fearing onerous new regulations or unexpected taxes, fees and fines that will make such growth unaffordable. We want to renew optimism and our economy. Small businesses have had some tough blows in the past decade. I know what its like to take a hit and i have learned that it is not how you fall, but it is how you get up that truly matters. Early in my career when we were young, my husband and i declared bankruptcy. We invested in a company didnt we didnt understand and trust th