As prepared for delivery.

“Main Street has struggled in the Biden economy. We’ve heard directly from small businesses during our hearings around the country about the real challenges they face today. Their testimony exposed the painful reality that the economy under President Biden is harming small businesses.

“To help strengthen small businesses forced to navigate price spikes, worker shortages, and supply chain failures, the Ways and Means Committee is putting forward the Small Business Jobs Act, with solutions that cut IRS red tape, expand jobs and investment, and support rural communities.

“We’re reducing burdensome requirements for American workers and small businesses. A Georgia small business owner noted that certain paperwork tax rules for contractors have remained unchanged since 1954. Business owners have to send tax forms to contractors that provide more than $600 of work to their business – an amount that meant something totally different almost 70 years ago. We can spare them the headache by increasing the reporting threshold for subcontract labor – a solution recently introduced by Representative Schweikert – something which should have been done long ago.

“The last thing American’s want is a government crackdown on selling a used couch, concert tickets, or paying your neighbor’s kid to mow the lawn. And yet Democrats reduced the 1099-K reporting threshold for third-party payment platforms — like Venmo and PayPal — from $20,000 to just $600. Even the Biden Administration realized that this provision was problematic and delayed implementation by a year. A year? We say get rid of this rule entirely – a solution recently introduced by Representative Miller – to ensure Americans aren’t saddled with a mountain of paperwork, confusion, or taxes that they don’t owe.

“I hope our Democrat colleagues will support these policies and frankly all of the policies before us today. Unfortunately, I expect we might hear how even these commonsense reductions in paperwork will somehow harm the IRS’s ability to effectively use its new massive $80 billion pay raise Democrats gave the agency under the Inflation Reduction Act to target more Americans. I suppose that’s a question of who will we prioritize? IRS bureaucrats? Or working families and small businesses? I for one will stand with our workers and job creators.

“The Small Business Jobs Act unleashes jobs and innovation in the U.S. and opens the floodgates of investment by expanding tax incentives now to support more than half of all our business entities – a solution introduced earlier this year by Representative Kustoff. Startup companies less than five years old create the majority of net new jobs in our economy, creating 1.7 million jobs per year.

“The bill helps farmers and machine shops invest in new equipment and expand their businesses by increasing immediate expensing for small businesses to $2.5 million – a solution recently introduced by Representative Moore. This will lead to more productivity, boosted wages, and more jobs. This is based on the success we saw under 2017’s tax reforms that doubled the expensing limit from $500,000 to $1 million.

“And for those rural communities who need additional support, our new Rural Opportunity Zone program – a solution recently introduced by Representative Ferguson – will revitalize struggling communities. Opportunity Zones (OZs) created in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act helped attract jobs and capital to low-income communities across the country. But with 95 percent of these investments going toward urban areas, we need to allow rural communities to benefit too.

“And we also need better transparency surrounding the OZ program. That’s why the Small Business Jobs Act also includes legislation supported by Representatives Kelly, Kildee, and Sewell that restores a provision that was stripped out of the TCJA during Senate consideration.

“I urge my colleagues to support this bill.”