National Entrepreneurship Month, 2022

Proclamation 10487 of October 31, 2022

National Entrepreneurship Month, 2022

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

During National Entrepreneurship Month, we celebrate
the doers, dreamers, and job creators whose vision and
grit fuel our economy and capture the essence of
America.

Starting and owning a business has always been a key
path to the American Dream--a way to build wealth,
serve your neighbors, and leave a mark in a community
and on the world. Requiring risk-taking and daring,
entrepreneurs faced additional challenges during the
pandemic and the economic crisis that it created. Two
years ago, hundreds of thousands of small businesses
closed, while others struggled to find workers and
stock their shelves. But as we have recovered,
Americans have responded with entrepreneurial spirit,
seizing the opportunity to build new businesses and
launch new careers.

Our Administration is working across the board to help
them all succeed. Today, American entrepreneurship is
booming. A record 5.4 million new businesses were
started in 2021, over 20 percent more than any year on
record. New entrepreneurship rates have increased the
most among minorities, particularly in Hispanic and
Black communities.

The American Rescue Plan distributed $450 billion in
emergency relief to more than 6 million businesses at
the height of the pandemic. The Restaurant
Revitalization Fund kept restaurants open. Our expanded
State Small Business Credit Initiative is helping
entrepreneurs tap $10 billion in investment and loans,
and we are making the Minority Business Development
Agency permanent to boost minority entrepreneurs'
access to capital and markets.

Meanwhile, our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is
rebuilding America's roads, bridges, railways, and
ports so businesses can get goods to consumers quickly
and affordably. It is bringing high-speed broadband to
small towns and rural areas so Americans anywhere can
run a business online. Our CHIPS and Science Act is
making historic investments in semiconductor companies
that produce the tiny computer chips that power
everything from smartphones to cars--benefitting
thousands of smaller businesses along the supply chain.
Our Inflation Reduction Act is slashing health
insurance and energy costs for entrepreneurs,
increasing research-and-development tax credits, and
incentivizing manufacturers to use American suppliers,
creating more good-paying jobs. We are also investing
in small business support and STEM education to give
entrepreneurs access to the skills and workforce needed
to thrive. We are making sure that when the Federal
Government spends taxpayer money to buy the things it
needs, it buys them from American companies--including
from small disadvantaged businesses, to whom we have
already awarded a record amount of contracting dollars.

I have long said that America can be defined in one
word: possibilities. Entrepreneurs' willingness to take
risks, work hard, and never quit make those
possibilities come alive. They turn vision into reality
and ideas into products, profits, and national
prosperity. This month, we celebrate their
contributions as a point of national pride and recommit
to giving them the space and support to make sure
America wins the 21st century.

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 November 2022
as National Entrepreneurship Month. I call upon all
Americans to commemorate this month with appropriate
programs and activities and to celebrate November 15,
2022, as National Entrepreneurs' Day.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
thirty-first day of October, in the year of our Lord
two thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
seventh.