Ehrlich on Washington column, November 3, 1996

MEWS FROM Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. Second Congressional District of Maryland 1 407 York Road, Suite 304 Lutherville, Maryland 21093 EHRLICH ON WASHINGTON By Congressman Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. 315 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 205 1 5 Week of November 3, 1996 The 104th Congress: A Review of Important Issues FIGHTING FOR SMALL BUSINESS Before I was elected to Congress, I spent a lot of time visiting with shopkeepers and small business owners across the Second Congressional District. I listened to their suggestions on ways to improve the business climate. These conversations formed the cornerstone of my legislative agenda in Washington. Small businesses are the economic engines that make our country run. They account for 99.7 percent of all employers and employ 54 percent of the private workforce nationally. In 1994 small business-dominated industries produced an estimated 62 percent of all new jobs. By helping small businesses, we are in fact creating an economic climate in which all Americans may prosper. Since becoming your Congressman, I have taken the following steps to make life easier for the small businesses of the Second Congressional District: • Most of the small business owners I meet cite overregulation as the issue which concerns them the most. I voted in favor of common-sense regulatory reform legislation which will guarantee that each regulation promulgated by Washington is absolutely necessary and truly worth the price of implementation. • I am a member of a select legislative panel — the Speaker’s Special Advisory Committee