Ernst Highlights Small Businesses’ Enduring Legacy

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) delivered openingremarks in a hearing examining how small businesses in Iowa and beyond have been essential to America's success as our nation enters its next 250 years.

Watch Chair Ernst's remarks here.

Ernst's full remarks:

"As we are just weeks away from the 250th anniversary of our nation, we are taking time to focus on the cornerstone of American commerce: Main Street small businesses.

"The merchants, shopkeepers, and small business owners who have kept Main Street alive serve as the heartbeat of everyday commerce and the guarantors of American prosperity.

"For 250 years, Americans have sustained our towns and cities through their dedication and hard work.

"American ingenuity has provided communities throughout the country with boundless opportunity.

"As we've discussed in prior America 250 hearings, limitless American determination has empowered countless generations of pioneers in an ever-expanding nation, turning barren and untamed land into thriving Main Streets.

"From the general store to the agricultural market, our earliest businesses created the foundation of our society as we know it.

"Innovation and progress are an important part of our American story. While the American Revolution was unfolding, an industrial revolution was also transforming Main Street, bringing a new kind of small business, the factory, to our communities. Together, the American and Industrial Revolutions, transformed the world.

"Let me take you to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, during the worst of the Great Depression in 1933.

"A young entrepreneur, Arthur Collins, founded Collins Radio Company, a small business designing and producing shortwave radio equipment.

"Starting with limited resources, this Iowa entrepreneur developed groundbreaking communication systems that became essential for NASA's Apollo missions, enabling astronauts to communicate and transmit data from the moon back to Earth and contributing to one of America's greatest technological achievements at the time.

"Now we stand at the forefront of technological innovation, having unlocked new digital frontiers connecting nearly every corner of the globe. And there is still much more to come.

"I was proud to lead the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act to reform and reauthorize the SBIR and STTR programs. My legislation is generating new opportunities for small businesses at the forefront of R&D to scale their technologies into production and commercialize breakthrough innovations.

"As we continue striving to fulfill our founders' promise of a more perfect union, I have no doubt America's small businesses and entrepreneurs will continue leading the way.

"Today, we're continuing our America 250 series by reflecting on our storied history and listening to folks from four states that played pivotal roles in early American commerce: my home state of Iowa, Idaho, Delaware, and Nevada.

"Iowa embodies the American entrepreneurial spirit of the heartland, with settlers building thriving Main Streets from the prairie. Within new towns, small businesses and family farms were the catalyst for success.

"In Idaho and Nevada, a similar entrepreneurial mindset emphasized innovation, self-reliance, and the pursuit of opportunity, driving the expansion of boomtowns and fostering innovation in logistics during our westward expansion.

"In Delaware, small businesses like mills and traders have existed long before American independence, but the region was also home to some of the first mechanized production in the Americas and continues to innovate to this day.

"I am grateful for our panel of witnesses for joining us today. I look forward to hearing from them about how their small businesses have contributed to Main Street America and how they will continue this legacy for generations to come."

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