[Federal Register: September 16, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 179)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Page 54323-54324]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr16se03-105]
Presidential Documents
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 54323]]
Proclamation 7704 of September 12, 2003
Small Business Week, 2003
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
The success of small businesses in America reflects the
innovation, determination, and hard work of the
American people. During Small Business Week, we
celebrate the entrepreneurs and business people who
create goods, services, and jobs, and bring opportunity
and economic prosperity to communities throughout our
country. We also reaffirm our commitment to helping
more small business owners and their employees realize
the American Dream.
Small businesses create the majority of new jobs in our
Nation and account for more than half of the output of
our economy. They lead the way in generating new ideas
and creating new technologies, goods, and services for
our country and for the world.
Small businesses also reflect the diversity of America.
Nearly 40 percent of small companies in the United
States are owned by women. There are also more than 3
million minority-owned small businesses across the
country.
Because small businesses are vital to our Nation's
prosperity and reflect the hard work of the American
people, my Administration has taken important steps to
assist small businesses and the people they employ. We
have reduced taxes, encouraged investment, and removed
obstacles to growth. The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief
Reconciliation Act of 2003 I signed into law will
provide 23 million small business owners with tax cuts
averaging more than $2,200 each. The Act also
quadrupled the amount that small businesses can expense
for new capital investments, encouraging new investment
in technology, machinery, and other equipment. This new
technology and equipment will increase productivity and
create new jobs, thereby contributing to the overall
strength of our economy.
We are also seeking to permanently eliminate the death
tax. With the repeal of this tax, small business men
and women will be able to pass their life's work to the
next generation without having to pay a punitive tax
that in many cases forces the sale of the business or
many of its assets. And I support legislation that
would make it easier for small businesses to offer
health coverage options to their employees. Through
Association Health Plans, small businesses could pool
together to offer group plans to all of their
employees, like those available to large businesses. In
addition, we are working to streamline small business
regulations and paperwork. To this end, I issued an
Executive Order that requires all Federal regulatory
agencies to minimize these burdens on our Nation's
small businesses.
The Small Business Administration (SBA), which helps
American innovators and risk-takers launch and build
their businesses, celebrates its 50th anniversary this
year. By helping small businesses succeed, the SBA
continues to strengthen America.
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 September 14 through
September 20, 2003, 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
[[Page 54324]]
owners and their employees and encourage and foster the
development of new small businesses.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twelfth day of September, in the year of our Lord two
thousand three, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and twenty-eighth.
(Presidential Sig.)B
[FR Doc. 03-23868 Filed 9-15-03; 1:44 pm]
Billing code 3195-01-P