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“ON SMALL BUSINESS” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H3436-H3437 on June 4, 1997.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ON SMALL BUSINESS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Brady] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BRADY. Mr. Speaker, today on Capitol Hill there were a number of representatives of the National Federation of Independent Business, the organization that represents more than 600,000 of our small and independent entrepreneurs in America, led capably by Jack Farris.
They were here today to talk about government and about the role it plays in stifling small business and the jobs they have the potential to create. It reminds us and helps remind us that small business is the engine of our economic growth in America. They are the quiet, very quiet heroes of our American economy.
We all know that most of the jobs in America are created by small businesses, but they are creating jobs at 8 times the rate at small businesses than are created in the larger companies with 500 or more employees. In fact in 1995, there were 800,000, 800,000 new businesses starred in America, a 5 percent increase over the year before.
Not only do these small businesses help our economy, but they help stimulate the economy in our community as well. They have a ripple effect each time one is created. A business with up to 100 employees not only brings new families and school children to our communities, but they also spin off another retail establishment to help support it. They create over half a million dollars in retail sales within that community and over a million dollars of more personal income to be spent to generate the local economy.
Not only do small businesses stimulate the economy, they always give back to the community in which they live. Employees of small businesses, by research, are more charitable, give back to their communities, give more donations to the service providers that help our community run.
These quiet heroes are all around us. Recently in a local newspaper, the Family Image, which is run by an entrepreneurial company, Ron and Barbara Frazier, who like to reinforce the family values that are the foundation of our country, there is a profile of a small business, of a small businesswoman K.C. Choe. She is owner of Schlotzsky's Restaurant on 1960 West near the intersection with I-45 in north Houston.
K.C. was born in Seoul, South Korea, came to America after high school and in 1979 became a U.S. citizen. After working in the Houston hotel for three years, she caught the entrepreneurial spirit of this country and bought a restaurant in 1984 that her mother helped her buy. That restaurant became Schlotzsky's later in 1995. K.C. and her coworker Tammy Karpas work 70 hours or more a week. Her mom works there as well and helps take care of K.C.'s 12-year-old son Joey, who attends Twins Creek Middle School in Spring, TX, and K.C., Tammy and her mom work there day in and day out providing quality service to their customers.
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She and her family have faced a thousand challenges to keep that company alive and growing and prospering, and like a lot of businesses, it is hard to believe the type of regulation and the challenges they are up against that government helps create.
Recently Herman Cain, who is the chairman and CEO of Godfather's, jotted down in a local magazine, Success Magazine, some of the regulations that they face, just Federal regulations, that a typical restaurant in our communities will face, and it is amazing. Let me read just some of these organizations and agencies they have to comply with.
The Department of Justice, for accessibility to disabled customers; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, for the occupational tax for alcohol sellers; Occupational Safety and Health Administration, for blood-borne pathogen program for employees who give first aid; the EPA, for car pools for employers in high pollution areas and cooking emissions in high pollution areas; Department of Justice, for copyright law and restaurant music; Food and Drug Administration, to comply with egg refrigeration standards; Department of Labor, the Family and Medical Leave Act; the grease trap waste disposal regulations by EPA; health claims and restaurant food regulations by the Food and Drug Administration; health benefit plans and Americans with Disabilities Act by the EEOC; the Immigration Control Act regulates them as well.
Job application forms and the questions they can ask are regulated of their employees are regulated by the EEOC. Their lockout and tagout requirements are complied with through OSHA; minimum wage is determined and audited by the Department of Labor; the national origin discrimination is regulated by the EEOC; the FDA regulates the nutrient-content claims and restaurant food.
The IRS, of course, outlines overtime pay rules and the payroll tax deposits. The Department of Labor has the ban on the polygraph for employee testing. The Department of Labor has regulations on restaurant closings and advance notice to employees; the EEOC, sex discrimination; the IRS, tipping-income audits. The Department of Labor has uniforms and deposits; the National Labor Relations Board, the union contracts; the Department of Labor has the Veterans' employment rights; and earned income credit payment, the IRS regulates that on the W-5 form. And those are just the Federal regulations.
Restaurants also have to, even the smallest restaurants, also have to comply with State permits and regulations, city health inspections, and other registration requirements.
Mr. Speaker, we need to reduce this kind of burden on people like K.C. and other independent businesses, small businesses especially. Again, these are the quiet heroes, Mr. Speaker, that we honor this week.
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