National Small Business Week, 2021
| Published date | 15 September 2021 |
| Citation | 86 FR 51257 |
| Record Number | 2021-20031 |
| Section | Presidential Documents |
| Court | Executive Office Of The President |
Presidential Documents
51257
Federal Register
Vol. 86, No. 176
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Title 3—
The President
Proclamation 10253 of September 10, 2021
National Small Business Week, 2021
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
The American entrepreneurial spirit is a defining quality of our Nation
which time and again has lifted us to new heights and carried us through
our greatest challenges. Small businesses are not only the engines of our
economic progress—they are the heart and soul of our communities. During
National Small Business Week, we celebrate our Nation’s small businesses—
the pillars of their neighborhoods and towns—and all of the people who
dream them, build them, and make them run.
When the COVID–19 pandemic first struck last year, it posed a historic
challenge to America’s small businesses. From coast to coast, in big cities,
small towns, rural enclaves, and Tribal communities, small business owners
and workers demonstrated remarkable courage and resilience, adapting to
sudden changes in our way of life and stepping up to serve their communities.
Across the country, small businesses extended helping hands to their neigh-
bors during the pandemic’s darkest hours, all while entrepreneurs and em-
ployees worked tirelessly around the clock to keep their businesses afloat,
make payroll, and ensure the safety of their teams and customers.
Despite the determination of our Nation’s small business owners and their
employees, the pandemic hit them hard. Throughout 2020, empty storefronts
and goodbye signs hanging in windows could be found on Main Streets
across the country. The pizza place that your kids loved best. The hardware
store that always had the tool you needed. The barber shop that sponsored
the local Little League team—and had the first dollar bill it ever earned
still framed on the wall. The pandemic exacted an incalculable toll not
only on lives and livelihoods, but on far too many small business dreams
and family legacies.
To ensure that these community pillars have a fighting chance to reopen
and stay open, my Administration is delivering the loans and support that
our Nation’s more than 30 million small businesses and innovative startups
need. The American Rescue Plan delivered billions of dollars in economic
relief to millions of small businesses—including programs targeted to the
hardest-hit industries such as restaurants and performing arts venues. We
revamped the Paycheck Protection Program to reach our smallest businesses,
with more than 95 percent of the nearly $300 billion in loans made during
my Administration supporting small businesses with less than 20 employees,
reaching a higher share of businesses in rural and low- or moderate-income
communities than in the previous two rounds of the program. Through
our Restaurant Revitalization Fund, we provided an essential lifeline to
more than 100,000 businesses across the country, delivering $28.6 billion
in direct support. Last week, my Administration began accepting applications
for an improved COVID–19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which
will put more than $150 billion in funding to work offering long-term,
low-interest loans that small businesses can use to retain workers, make
rent, and pay down more expensive debt. In the American Rescue Plan,
we established the Community Navigator Pilot program to create a network
of trusted organizations, local governments, and community champions to
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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 176 / Wednesday, September 15, 2021 / Presidential Documents
help underserved small businesses navigate resources at all stages of their
growth.
We have also fully vaccinated more than 64 percent of adult Americans,
so that more small businesses can reopen their doors and welcome back
their customers. My Administration created a tax credit to help small busi-
nesses—which employ nearly half of America’s private workforce—give their
employees paid time off to get vaccinated and recover.
My Administration is also committed to nurturing small businesses that
have faced historic barriers in rural and urban America, including businesses
owned by veterans, women, and people of color—especially Black, Latino,
and Asian American businesses. These entrepreneurs continue to face per-
sistent barriers to the capital, markets, and networks they need to start
and grow their businesses, and many were left out of early rounds of
relief in the earlier days of the pandemic.
To help ensure that small businesses in every community benefit from
the Build Back Better agenda’s landmark investments in our infrastructure,
we are strengthening our contracting programs for underserved small busi-
nesses. As part of this effort, I announced a Government-wide goal to grow
Federal contracting with small, disadvantaged businesses by 50 percent,
translating into an additional $100 billion over 5 years. By ensuring that
more disadvantaged small businesses can compete for and win Federal con-
tracts, we can boost job opportunities and economic prosperity in every
corner of America.
Our Nation’s small businesses define our communities, drive innovation,
and create the products and services that enrich our lives and solve global
problems to build a better and more sustainable world. By harnessing the
power of our small business economy and equipping our entrepreneurs
with the tools and resources they need to innovate, adapt, and grow, our
economy will continue to build back better than ever before. America’s
small businesses are up to the task.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States
of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution
and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 12 to
September 18 as National Small Business Week. I call upon all Americans
to recognize the contributions of small businesses to the American economy,
continue supporting them, and honor the occasion with programs and activi-
ties that highlight these important businesses.
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IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this tenth day of
September, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-one, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-
sixth.
[FR Doc. 2021–20031
Filed 9–14–21; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3295–F1–P
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