Small Business Week, 2004

Proclamation 7787 of May 14, 2004

Small Business Week, 2004

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

The dedication and entrepreneurial spirit of small
business owners are vital to our Nation's economic
growth and prosperity. We celebrate Small Business Week
to applaud the efforts of America's small business men
and women in our communities.

Small businesses are a central part of America's
economy. They create approximately 70 percent of new
private sector jobs in this country. As our Nation's
economy continues to grow stronger, we must encourage
their spirit of enterprise.

To help small businesses invest and create more jobs,
we have decreased the tax burden. We have given small
business men and women a fair chance to bid on
government contracts. We have a plan to create more
opportunity for America's small businesses and workers
by making health care costs more affordable and
predictable; streamlining regulations and paperwork
requirements; reducing frivolous lawsuits; making
America less dependent on foreign sources of energy;
and permanently eliminating the death tax.

In this Small Business Week, we salute America's small
business owners and entrepreneurs and workers for their
contributions to America's prosperity and for making
our Nation better and stronger.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim May 16 through May 22, 2004,
as Small Business Week. I call upon all the people of
the United States to observe this week with appropriate
ceremonies, activities, and programs that celebrate the
achievements of small business owners and their
employees and encourage and foster the development of
new small businesses.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
fourteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord two
thousand four, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and twenty-eighth.

(Presidential Sig.)B