Said they were able to legally work in United States. Very few of the people are being prosecuted for these felonies. Would jeh johnson move to prosecute them . If you did that it would be a big to turn for more illegal aliens to come into the United States and take american jobs. Now called just a civil infraction. It should be a crime. Those are the two comments. Secretary johnson has not that he willally direct u. S. Customs and immigration to go after employees who are working. What they are doing is more employer verification, everify is out there for employers to determine if your legal authorization to work. I9 in the audits of your and it verifies we are a u. S. Citizen, if your paperwork is not in order, the they are going after the employer more often. States including arizona have verify their own e requirements to punish employers and target employers. The ideas is if you take away the magnet come you take away the draw. Yes. Nt have any stats it is relatively early so we are mexicot zero gain for border crossings. They are the lowest in the last four years but they are up last year they were up this year from last year. We try to figure out who is working. You target the employer or the the department has taken the approach to go after the employer. We might see more employer verification. We have gone away from the days of raids. You can remember pottstown iowa, on meat packing plant with the rest of the number of workers. And they prosecuted the people who ran that facility. Those days are a little over. We are not seeing the raids of employers prayed we see more of people verifying i9s. Host quacks on the next washington journal, matt kibbe will talk about the privacy rights of americans. Setter discusses attorney general eric holders call on states to repeal laws that prohibit felons from voting after their release from prison. The Obama Administration is considering using drone strikes against american citizens abroad with ties to al qaeda. We will be joined by christopher anders. As live everyrnal morning at 70 and eastern with your calls, tweets, and they spoke comments facebook comments. Eventsring Public Affair from washington directly to you ofting you in the room congressional hearings, briefings, encumbrances, and offering complete gaveltogavel coverage of the u. S. House. We are cspan, created by the cable tv industry 35 years ago and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. Watch as an hd and follow us on twitter. Next, the Senate Aging Committee and Small Business committee look at the growing trend among Older Americans who start their own businesses. The joint hearing examined how to reduce barriers for Senior Citizen entrepreneurs and outline the various things that could help their businesses. This is a little over one hour. Good morning. With the chairmans very kind permission, i am going to convene our hearing. We do expect to have a series of votes later this morning so we want to make sure we have ample time to hear the testimony from our great panel of witnesses. I am very pleased that the chairman has been able to put together this joint hearing with the senates Small Business committee. We have just been joined by the chairman of that committee, senator landrieu, who is chairman for a few more hours, i think, before she changes committees. Senator cantwell becomes the chairman of the Small Business and entrepreneurship committee. I am also very pleased to welcome my colleague from South Carolina who has been a terrific member of the senates special committee on aging, senator scott. Thank you for being here with us today. Our chairman, senator bill nelson, will be joining us shortly. Our nations heritage as the land of opportunity owes much to the hard work, energy, and optimism of those who take the risks to start up businesses of their own. Through their success, they help to create a better life for themselves and to create jobs for others. The role played by americas Small Businesses in creating jobs and opportunity is well known, but the role played by americas seniors may come as a surprise. Individuals between the age of 55 and 64 make up the largest percentage of new Business Owners in the United States. Moreover, this has been true for decades, even at the height of the dot com boom. Twice as many new businesses were founded by those over age 50 than by those under age 25. Most seniors dont want to spend their retirement just on leisure. Many simply need to earn extra money to help make ends meet. Seniors often have advantages that make them excellent entrepreneurs such as their life experience, real world education, and the networks they have established and maintained throughout their work careers. Let me give just a few examples from my home state of maine to illustrate these points. Bruce borman spent his career in the catalog business and as an advertising manager for a maine bank. As a hobby during his work years, he also created high quality, custommade knives in his own small machine shop. After he retired, with the help of score, a terrific program run by the sba that taps into the skills of retired Business Owners, he was able to turn his hobby into a fulltime job and now sells his knives to customers around the world. Dana from maine spent 28 years at international paper. When he retired, he and three colleagues started a small Consulting Firm to help other entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground. Dana said the great thing about running your own business in retirement is that you can work as much or as little as you want and still make a difference in the world. By choice, much of the work that he does is now pro bono. Martha from maine lost her job when she was 64 years old. She picked herself up and got back in the game by starting her own Public Relations business, calling on skills she had used earlier in her career. Now she works out of her own home on her own schedule directing the marketing for coffee news, the Worlds Largest weekly restaurant publication. Seniors like these have become successful entrepreneurs, not only through their hard work, but also with the assistance of experts at score and with the support of programs run by the sba. I was telling the sbas representatives today that other than being a United States senator, my favorite job was when i was regional administrator of the Small Business administration in new england and saw firsthand the difference the sba could make. I am particularly pleased that they are represented here today. I am also absolutely delighted to see Elizabeth Isele at the witness table this morning. Elizabeth is a knowledgeable and tireless advocate for Senior Entrepreneurship, and just as important, she hails from the great state of maine. Chairman nelson and chairman landrieu, thank you for calling this important hearing. I appreciate the chairmans staff to tell me to proceed. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses on how sba and other assistance programs can be even better tailored to help seniors start up businesses and create good jobs for themselves and for others. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you. You all may be surprised that senator collins and i actually run this committee together. Senator landrieu, madam chairman, and congratulations on being madam chairman of the energy committee. Thank you very much. As the Ranking Member said, for the next few hours i am still maintaining my gavel as chair of the Small Business committee to get through this hearing. Later this afternoon, i will take the gavel of energy and that is how important this hearing was to me and to our team at sba. Senator nelson, thank you and senator collins for being willing to join us in this effort because i think it is such a promising subject to be explored and to be supported. I love the term encore entrepreneur. I think it just says it all. It really is an exciting opportunity for our country with older people, older citizens still very healthy, very experienced, wiser, calmer in their older years to be able to think and dream and build great businesses. I think our country, if i might say, our structure here in washington, in our states, and in our local communities really needs to recognize this wealth and treasure and structure ourselves to better help them. I will submit my statement to the record, but i want to underscore what senator collins said. The Kauffman Foundation which i found to be a reliable source of good information about entrepreneurship, not partisan at all, but very good facts says from 1996 to 2010, 26 of entrepreneurial activity in this country, which is the backbone of our economy, was produced by people ages 20 to 34. What is not expected is that almost 40 were produced by people 55 to 64. This difference is expected to widen as more americans age over the next two decades. We have to be better positioned here in washington and our state capitals and in our cities to be good partners with these entrepreneurs. Louisiana has approximately 960,000 residents over the age of 55 ready to go, ready to create jobs and opportunity. The sba just this year, senators nelson and collins, launched a Strategic Partnership with aarp. This Partnership Focused on providing counseling and training to entrepreneurs over 50 who wanted to start and grow a business. By october 2013, the collaboration had met and exceeded its goal of reaching 120,000 seniors. Through our core partnerships with score mr. Yancey is here here representing them the Womens Business Centers which all of us have supported, a series of other other partnerships with the private sector, i think this is so promising to not only provide an opportunity for our seniors, but really more importantly, for seniors to create wealth for themselves, their families, their communities, and for the United States. I will stay for a few minutes. I have to conduct another hearing this morning. I will submit the rest of my statement for the record. It has been a privilege to work with you all on this. Senator nelson and i have introduced a bill empowering encore entrepreneur act. It is s. 1454. Perhaps some of the testimony can enhance our efforts in that piece of legislation and we can join together with our republican colleagues and move something forward in the near future. Thank you, senator nelson. I will submit for the record a statement. First, we are going to hear from ms. Montgomery. She serves as associate administrator of the office of Entrepreneurial Development in the u. S. Small Business Administration. And then, from kenneth yancey, ceo of score. Then, conchy bretos, she is the ceo of the miami Senior Living solutions in miami. Then, Elizabeth Isele. We are delighted to hear from the cofounder of the Senior Entrepreneurship works and she is accompanied by dr. Greg oneill, the director of the National Academy of aging society. With that, we will start off with you, ms. Montgomery. Your written testimony is inserted as part of the record. If you will share with us about five minutes and we will go right down the line. We will open it up for questions. Ms. Montgomery. Thank you. Chairman nelson, chair landrieu, Ranking Member collins, and senator scott. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on sbas work to serve americas encore entrepreneurs, new and aspiring Small Business owners over the age of 50. We commend you for highlighting this important topic and are grateful for your ongoing leadership and support. We all know the facts. Small businesses employ half of the private sector workforce and create two out of every three net new private sector jobs. What many people dont realize is that americans between the ages of 55 and 64 comprise the fastestgrowing group of entrepreneurs in the country. According to the Kauffman Foundation, encore entrepreneurs start new firms at a higher rate than any other age group. Moreover, about 7. 4 million selfemployed workers are 50 and older. Research shows that one in four americans between the ages of 44 and 70 are interested in starting a business or a nonprofit. That is why at sba we are committed to ensure that encore entrepreneurs have the tools they need to turn great ideas into successful companies. Through our 68 district offices and nationwide network of Resource Partners which includes 11,000 volunteer score mentors, 900 Small Business development centers, and more than 100 Womens Business Centers, we counsel and train more than one million current and aspiring entrepreneurs annually. We have always assisted Small Business owners over the age of 50, but our new initiative with aarp enables us to more effectively target our services to encore entrepreneurs. In april 2012, sba and aarp entered into a Strategic Alliance to provide encore entrepreneurs with the tools and information they need to launch new companies. The objectives were threefold. First, to increase our outreach to this growing segment of prospective entrepreneurs. Second, to connect these individuals with our programs and Resource Partners. Third, to present entrepreneurship as a viable next step for older retiring americans. One that allows them to translate their ideas and vast professional experience into successful Business Ventures. Between april 2012 and may 2013, we held hundreds of in person workshops and mentoring sessions on topics ranging from writing a Business Plan and exploring franchise opportunities to accessing new markets and addressing the Technology Needs of encore entrepreneurs. We also offered online resources such as webinars and ecourses. Also, a selfassessment tool for determining if an individual is ready to start a business. In order to increase awareness and connect more encore entrepreneurs with mentors, last april, sba and aarp established the First Annual National encore entrepreneur mentor month. Throughout the month, our district offices and Resource Partners teamed up with state aarp offices to host and promote more than 100 events around the country. Events included speed mentoring, which allowed mentors and entrepreneurs to share information for five minute sessions and mentor lunches for entrepreneurs to learn best practices from established Business Owners. As a result of this effort, aarp and our Resource Partners engaged almost 120,000 individuals. Due to the initiatives ongoing popularity, we have seen a rise in the number of Older Americans taking advantage of sba programs. We know that these aspiring Business Owners are poised to join the ranks of other successful sbasupported encore entrepreneurs. Folks like vicki frankovich who leveraged her 21 year career in banking and her husbands background in construction to form Business Solutions inc. In reno, nevada. Vicki secured government contracts with several federal agencies, growing her companys revenues from 3 million to 15 million a year. Together with our Resource Partners and friends at aarp, we look forward to continuing this important segment of this population and helping more encore entrepreneurs grow and prosper. Thank you again for the opportunity to testify and i am happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, ms. Montgomery. Mr. Yancey. Thank you. Chairman nelson, senator collins, chairman landrieu, senator scott. My name is ken yancey and i am the ceo of score. Thank you for the opportunity to offer testimony regarding the advantages and challenges of Senior Entrepreneurship and our experience in serving this important and growing segment of our population. First, i would like to thank senator landrieu and senator rich for sponsoring and introducing senate bill 2008, score for Small Business act of 2014. A reauthorization bill seeking to strengthen the resources for entrepreneurs by improving the score program. The additional funds provided by this bill will allow us to continue to improve the Services Offered by our volunteers, improve our efficiency, improve our outreach in both rural and underserved communities to include senior and encore entrepreneurs. Score is a resource partner with the u. S. Small Business Administration and we are celebrating our 50th year this year. Today, score has over 320 chapters and more than 11,000 volunteers nationwide, most of whom are also seniors. Many have been entrepreneurs and many are still actively employed or running their own business. They give back to their communities by volunteering in score and they have significant economic impact. In fiscal year 2013, those voluntee