Small Business Week, 1999

Proclamation 7200 of May 22, 1999

Small Business Week, 1999

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

From the Industrial Revolution to the Information Age,
small businesses have powered the American economy and
created much of our prosperity. Generations of
entrepreneurs have found in small businesses an outlet
for their creativity, the source of their livelihood,
and a chance to share in the American Dream. Millions
of American consumers have found in small businesses
the innovative products and vital services they need to
improve the quality of their lives.

Today, America's 24 million small businesses employ
more than half our country's work force and generate
more than $16 trillion in revenue--more than 50 percent
of our gross domestic product. Small firms are also a
true avenue of opportunity for women and minorities,
for older and younger workers, and for part-time
employees and those formerly on public assistance. They
provide 67 percent of working Americans with their
first job and their initial on-the-job training in
basic work skills.

My Administration is deeply committed to creating an
environment in which small businesses can thrive.
Through programs administered by the Small Business
Administration (SBA)--such as the business loan
guarantee program, the economic development loan
program, the microloan program, the small business
investment company program, and the disaster loan and
surety bond programs--we have given small business
owners access to financial assistance. Last year alone,
the SBA guaranteed almost $11 billion in loans to small
businesses, provided technical and management
assistance to almost a million people, and helped
entrepreneurs compete for more than $33 billion in
Federal contracts. Through tax relief and regulatory
streamlining and by opening overseas markets and
providing export assistance, we are helping America's
small businesses compete successfully in the global
marketplace.

The men and women who own and manage America's small
businesses have made enormous contributions to the
technological innovations, job growth, and prosperity
we enjoy today. But those contributions cannot be
measured in dollars and cents alone; entrepreneurs give
back to their communities in myriad ways, making them
better places in which to live and work. During Small
Business Week, we have a special opportunity--and
obligation--to acknowledge the achievements of small
business men and women and to express our appreciation
for the vision, energy, and effort they bring to their
enterprises.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, 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 23 through May 29, 1999,
as Small Business Week. I call upon Government
officials and 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 encourage the
development of new enterprises.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-second day of May, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-nine,

and of the Independence of the United States of America
the two hundred and twenty-third.