Hearings to examine 250 years of Main Street, focusing on retail to research.

And entrepreneurship to order. As we are just weeks away from the two-fiftieth anniversary of our nation, we are taking time to focus on the cornerstone of American commerce, Main Street small businesses. The merchants, shopkeepers and small business owners who have kept Main Street alive service the heartbeat of everyday commerce and the guarantors of American prosperity. For two hundred and fifty years, Americans have sustained our towns and cities through their dedication and hard work. American ingenuity has provided communities throughout the country with boundless opportunity. As we've discussed in prior America two fifty hearings, limitless American determination has empowered countless generations of pioneers in an ever turning barren and untamed land into thriving Main Streets. From the general store to the agricultural market, our earliest businesses created the foundation of our society as we know it. Innovation and progress are an important part of our American story. While the American Revolution was unfolding, an Industrial Revolution was also transforming Main Street, bringing a new kind of small business. the factory to our communities. Together, the American and Industrial Revolutions transformed the world. Let me take you to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, during the worst of the Great Depression in nineteen thirty-three. A young entrepreneur, Arthur Collins, founded Collins Radio Company, a small business designing and producing short-wave radio equipment. Starting with limited resources, This Iowa entrepreneur developed groundbreaking communication systems that became essential for NASA's Apollo missions, enabling astronauts to communicate and transmit data from the moon back to the earth, and contributing to one of America's greatest technological achievements at the time. Now we stand at the forefront of technological innovation, having unlocked new digital frontiers connecting nearly every corner of the globe. and there is still much more to come. I was proud to lead the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act to reform and reauthorize the SBIR and STTR programs. My legislation is generating new opportunities for small businesses at the forefront of R and D to scale their technologies into production and commercialize breakthrough innovations. As we continue striving to fulfill our founder's promise of a more perfect Union, I have no doubt America's small businesses and entrepreneurs will continue leading the way. Today we're continuing our America two fifty series by reflecting on our storied history and listening to folks from four states that have played pivotal roles in early American commerce. My home state of Iowa, Idaho, Delaware, and Nevada. Iowa embodies the American spirit of the heartland, with settlers building thriving main streets from the prairie. Within new towns, small businesses and family farms were the catalyst for success. In Idaho and Nevada, a similar entrepreneurial mi- mindset emphasized innovation, self-reliance, and the pursuit of opportunity, driving the expansion of boom towns and fostering innovation in logistics during our westward expansion. In Delaware, small businesses like mills and traders have existed long before American independence, but the region was also home to some of the first mechanized production in the Americas and continues to innovate to this day. I am grateful for our panel of witnesses for joining us today. I look forward to hearing from them about how their small businesses have contributed to Main Street America and how they will continue this legacy for generations to come. And when the ranking member joins us, we'll have his opening statement as well. And so again, I want to extend a warm welcome to our witnesses, and I'm thankful that you all took time out of your busy schedules to come to DC, to share your expertise before the committee, and we will now go ahead with our introductions. And first, we have Mister Don DeWaard. And he is the Mayor of Pella, Iowa. And since twenty twenty, Mayor DeWaard has served the city of Pella. Notably, he has worked to increase workforce housing and expand child care access. He previously spent thirteen years in public accounting, nine years in the tire business, and fifteen years in real estate development. Mayor DeWaard holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from Central College and earned his CPA certificate. And next, okay, we're waiting on Senator Risch who will introduce our Idaho um uh representative and I'll go ahead and introduce Mister Jack Pruebe and you go by Jack, is that correct? Okay, we'll go ahead and do that. So Mister John Jack Pruebe is the Vice President of Strategy and Outreach for PerceptView, a counter unmanned aerial system provider in Boise, Idaho. He served in the US Air Force for over twenty years and as an officer, a fighter pilot and commander of the fourth operations group, amassing over three thousand flying hours and one hundred and seventeen combat missions. After his service, Mister Ruby found two founded two companies and served as President of Black Sage, an innovator in the counter-UAS space. He holds a bachelor's degree in international

Thank you, Chair Ernst, and the Ranking Member Mark. He's not here, but we so appreciate this, uh, uh, two fifty series of small businesses. It's really great. And, uh, we're su- such a pleasure to have you all here. But today, It is my distinct pleasure to introduce Cameron C. H. Miller. He is the President and CEO of the Urban Chamber of Commerce in Las Vegas. The Urban Chamber marks forty-six years this year as one of Nevada's oldest organizations dedicated to the success of black-owned businesses and the broader small business community. Mister Miller brings nearly two decades of experience building businesses in beauty, real estate, and film production. Miller grew up in a family of casino workers and small business owners in Las Vegas. He knows firsthand what it takes for Nevada's small businesses, well, to survive and thrive, and what they need, honestly, just to keep going in today's environment. I thank him for his commitment to our community and to supporting and building uh small businesses everywhere. Thank you. Yield.

Thank you, Senator Rosen, and next I will recognize Senator

Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, and I am happy, uh, to welcome and to introduce a friend, uh, and a leader in innovation in our community, Doctor Chris Vade. Um, Doctor Vade has been a part of Delaware's innovation ecosystem for twenty-seven years, uh, ten percent of the total history of the modern United States. Uh, he has been involved in the creation, um, the launch and leadership of three different companies dedicated to discovering treatments and cures. for terrible diseases. For the past decade, Dr. Vati's led Prelude Therapeutics, uh which is inventing precision cancer medicines to treat underserved patients. Dr. Vati represents the best of what our country can be, um when we live up to our founding ideals, when we welcome uh immigrants and newcomers eager to take part in the American experiment when we enable risk-taking competition and investment, and when we reward hard work and innovation. Uh I will let uh Dr. Vati tell the rest of his

Yes, thank you so much, and if uh Senator Risch does uh join us here in committee, we'll have him welcome you as well. So uh thank you all to our witnesses for being here again, and I ask unanimous consent that the witnesses' full statements be included in the record, and without objection, so ordered. As your written testimony has been made part of the record, the committee asks that you limit your oral remarks to five minutes. And with that, Mister DeWaard, you are recognized for five minutes for your testimony.

Uh, thank you, uh, Chair Ernst, for inviting me here today. I'm extremely excited and honored to be here. Uh, there's two things I really love. Uh, it's small business and Pella, Iowa, and so for me to have the opportunity to talk both of those, I'm very very excited about that. So my name is Don DeWaard and I'm honored to serve as Mayor of Pella, a community of approximately ten thousand six hundred residents, located in South Central Iowa. As America approaches its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, there is perhaps no better time to recognize the role of small businesses, entrepreneurs, and local communities that have played in building this nation. While Pella is known for our Dutch heritage in tulips, Our story is ultimately one of entrepreneurship, hard work, innovation, and cooperation. Those values have shaped our community for nearly two centuries, and continue to drive our success today. So in my written uh testimony, I kind of focused on four different areas. I don't have time to read my whole written testimony, so I wanna kinda highlight those areas. So I think when you talk, when you think about Pella, uh you need to understand, you need to know about the history of Pella, so Pella was founded in in eighteen forty seven by Dutch immigrants seeking opportunity and the freedom to build a better future. The entrepreneurial spirit that brought these settlers to Iowa remains deeply woven into our community today. Our history is filled with stories of individuals who started with an idea, worked hard, took risks, and built companies that now serve customers around the world. We have three really good examples of a business that started as a very small business and has grown into a very large business. In nineteen twenty five, Pete Kuyper founded Pella Corporation. Uh, today that company employs more than ten thousand people, and is recognized as one of the leading window and door manufacturers in North America. In nineteen forty eight, Gary Vermeer founded Verveer, Vermeer Corporation, a small machine shop in Pella. Today, Vermeer is a global company generating more than one billion in annual revenue employing over four thousand people worldwide. And just for the record today, my wife and I were walking around uh Capitol Square and out in front of the li- uh library, there was a a group uh cleaning up some branches down. There was a Vermeer woodchipper sitting right there. So I was able to take a picture of that and send it back to some of the family of Vermeer. Uh the another company, PPI, another company founded by local has grown into a global leader in engineering, conveyor, com- components. Today it's employee owned, serves international markets, and employees, and employs more than seven hundred people. Uh, so one thing that we've, uh, Pella has done is we celebrate and have held on to our heritage, and that's had a huge impact on our tourism indus industry. For a community our size, our tour in this tourism industry is very, very vibrant. Uh, we just celebrated our ninety first tulip time in Pella. Pella is a town of, as I said, short, a little under eleven thousand people. Every fir- every first Thursday, Friday and Saturday of May, we celebrate our tulip festival, which celebrates the Dutch heritage of our community. Uh, we get around two hundred thousand people that come to visit our community during tulip time and the rest of the year, and so our tourism uh industry is very vibrant and it's a huge economic driver for our for our community uh and and very very important but to to do that to have a festival like that with that many people coming into a small town uh it takes a whole lot of volunteers and so volunteerism is a huge part of our community uh you can imagine uh with that many people coming in over a three day period a lot of uh logistical issues and so it takes uh an army of people to pull that off year in and year out And it's only growing. Um. I see I have about a minute left. Uh, one, the last thing I wanna talk about is power of cooperation, as I s- as I talked about some of our large corporations. The thing is, uh, the our large corporations are supported by our s- many, many small businesses. On any given day during the week, Monday through Friday, we have somewhere between five and six thousand people that commute into Pella on a daily basis to work. And so our local restaurants, our uh gas stations, our shops have to support all those people and one of the challenges for us as a community is to continue to be able to uh for our large corporations to stay in a community our size and so it takes all of those small businesses to support our larger businesses and as a community working together in cooperation we've been able to accomplish that.

Thank you very much, uh, Mayor DeWaard, and did you bring me any Yarsma, uh, treats today?

Uh, I'm sorry, I did not, hoping that, hoping that means you'll come to Pella and I can give them to you that.

I will, I will have to, and an open invitation to everybody to come to Tulip time as well. It really is beautiful. And thank you so much for your testimony. And next, um, we are going to recognize, uh, Mister Miller for five minutes. Thank you for joining us.

Thank you very much, Chair Ernst and distinguished members of the committee, for allowing me to be here today. From Reno to Las Vegas, Nevada has always been built by people, innovators, founders, who arrived with nothing but hope and a plan. Las Vegas, founded one hundred twenty-one years ago as a railroad stop, is one of the first places the world pictures when they think of this country, because of what people with big ideas and a willingness to work built there. Small business by small business, Generation by generation, that is the Nevada story. Now, as Senator Rosen has noted, ninety-nine percent of businesses in Nevada are small businesses. This is not a side note, it is the foundation of our state's history, and it's why I'm here today. I am Cameron C. H. Miller, I lead the Urban Chamber of Commerce, and for almost forty-six years we have been dedicated to helping small businesses start, grow and stay. Before this role, I served in the Nevada legislature and spent two decades building businesses of my own. So I know what it takes to make payroll happen when margins are tight, what it looks like when a business built over years starts losing ground in months, and I know firsthand how decisions made in buildings like this one land on the ground for real people like our members. The good news, Nevada posted a thirteen percent increase in new business formations this year, placing us in the top five in this country. That is a real win. People know that Nevada is open for business. But the question this committee should be asking is not how many businesses are being created but how many of them will still be open in five years and what policies are in place to help them get there. A reliable small business infrastructure is the backbone to a safer, stronger, and more economically secure middle class America. It's the difference between a community that holds together and one that has to be rebuilt. Now, in Vegas we know this story all too well. We had a front row seat to the devastation of the historic Jackson Avenue, established way back in nineteen forty, a thriving black business main street known as the Black Strip. Its history reminds us that thriving business districts require more than individual determination. They require access to capital, technical assistance, supportive institutions, and long-term investment. When that infrastructure disappears, communities suffer. When it is restored, communities can thrive again. Jackson Ave is on the brink of recovery. But with sixty seven percent cuts to small business administration funding, the new business that starts there could face the same realities of those that came before them. A reality that keeps many of our members up at night. Business owners who survived two thousand eight and made it through COVID are telling us this is the hardest stretch they have ever faced. And it's not only in southern Nevada. From every major metro corridor to every rural main street across the state, owners are dealing with rising costs, customers pulling back and support systems that are not keeping up. Now, tourism shapes Nevada differently than most states. When visitor volume drops, the impact does not stay inside the resorts and hotels. It hits every restaurant, every boutique, every service business in the state. Las Vegas' visitation fell seven point five percent in twenty twenty five. That's the steepest drop since the pandemic. International visitors who stay longer and spend more have pulled back. And our conference and events members tell me that groups make more make these decisions twelve to eighteen months out, meaning the recovery ahead could be longer than anyone expects. Let me tell you about two business owners from our state. One, a live events vendor who is also the only Black-owned Plastics Manufacturer supplier and distributor in the country. He says tariffs, high fuel, shipping, and freight costs have hit his business hard. He is not asking for a handout, he is asking for stability. Another built a landscaping team from scratch. Right now that team is navigating rising costs and immigration policy uncertainty. If they cannot keep their team, they cannot take on larger contracts, if they cannot grow, the families depending on those wages are on their own. These are not unusual stories, they are what chambers across America hear every single day. In twenty twenty three, the urban chamber in partnership with CSN and access CDFI launched a capital the federal capital readiness program. Then in twenty twenty five, a federal executive order paused it. advisors were laid off, technical assistance stopped, businesses went without support. That gap never made national news, but it showed up in the loan not being funded, the contract not won, and the small business doors that closed. So in closing, I have three asks for you today. First, maintain the capital readiness program and similar advisory programs with a renewed commitment to stable multi-year funding and strong small business infrastructure. Second, invest in chambers as a delivery system. We are trusted. We are efficient and we are underfunded for the work our communities count on us to do. Third, for tourism dependent states like Nevada, create a federal response network with a defined trigger, like a clear threshold tied to visitor volume or small business closure rates, that initiates in it as a coordinated response before the damage becomes irreversible. Nevada's small businesses made it through recessions and they made it through a pandemic because people were willing to work hard and there were systems in place to support them when things got tough. All I'm asking today is for us to consider that that infrastructure be protected. Thank you.

Thank you, Mister Miller, and next we'll go to Mister Ruby, you're recognized for five minutes.

Good afternoon. On behalf of Doctor Ross Lamb, founder and president of Perceptivu, and the all Boise-based team, it's my honor to re- represent small businesses across America, or specifically in Idaho. the uh the modern phase of main street manufacturing, highly technical, agile, deeply committed to national security, and entirely dedicated to remain to maintain a robust and domestic supply chain. Our specialized small business focuses on research, development, software, and hardware engineering for advanced long-range, electro-optical and infrared um surveillance tracking, and counter small unmanned aircraft system technologies. In the spirit of America two fifty, our story reflects a timeless American tradition. a nimble, innovative firm, identifying critical vulnerabilities, building an expert uh an expert localized team, and i- and iterating practical solutions faster and more efficiently than traditional contractors hardened and burdened uh by legacy overhead. For for small businesses in the advanced manufacturing, advanced hardware sector, physical infrastructure represents one of the steepest financial hurdles to scaling operations. The specialized tax credits for manufacturing and production space embedded within the one big beautiful bill act serves as a as a essential catalyst for domestic industrial growth much like past landmark reforms lowered corporate barriers to allow family owned businesses to expand these targeted uh production space incentives drastically reduce the after-tax cost of contracting of constructing expanding and upgrading high-tech facilities. More specifically, um, recent conflicts have made clear that technological advantage now turns on speed adaptability and direct feedback from the field. Ukraine's success in resisting Russia's aggression has demonstrated that rapid innovation especially in drones sensors electronic warfare, and counter unmanned aircraft systems is no longer a secondary battlefield advantage. It is essential to operational survival. It's critical. Solutions are being designed, tested, modified, and redeployed in compressed cycles measured in days or weeks, not years. That model should inform how the United States invests in its own small business innovation base. Furthermore, the rapid proliferation of inexpensive, commercially available small unmanned aircraft systems, or SUAS, has created immense economic utility, but has concurrently introduced a highly complex asymmetrical threat. Uh to the homeland, unauthorized or malicious drone operations present severe security, safety, and operational challenges across a diverse array of domestic targets, including commercial airports, national laboratories, energy facilities, military installations, and highly populated outdoor sports and entertainment venues. Um how because these environments vary dramatically, a rigid one size fits all defensive posture is fundamentally in insufficient. This mission has taken on uh highlighted significance following the passage of the Safe the Safe Skies Act of twenty twenty six. This critical legislation represents a groundbreaking shift in domestic airspace defense comprehensively expanding counter-US detection and mitigation authorities to state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies, as well as federal and state correctional facilities. By authorizing the cross-deputization of local law enforcement officers, and unlocking hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grant funding, including critical security allocations for host cities, managing massive public events, such as the World Cup. The Safe Skies Act of twenty twenty-six establishes an unprecedented inter-agency framework to intercept and neutralize um the drone, the illicit drone operations. But in closing, the m- the uh the narrative of the American experiment is inextricably linked to the stories of its builders makers and independent innovators. As we commemorate America two fifty, supporting the small manufacturers on Main Street is not merely an economic priority. It is an absolute national security imperative. The next chapter of American technological leadership will be written in communities like Boise, where dedicated small teams turn pressing national challenges into practical resilient um capabilities. To see these uh cutting edge capabilities firsthand, Perceptive Ease extends a warm invitation to the members of this committee, and its staff, um to visit our facilities in Idaho. Boise proudly experiences a world-class river and trail system throughout the city, picturesque foothills, and four beautiful seasons, all providing a spectacular practical backdrop to witnessing the drive of the Idaho growing technology sector. More importantly, a site visit will afford the committee a live comprehensive demonstration of our counter-UAS capabilities in a realistic operational environment. We would be deeply honored to host you to demonstrate how American small businesses build a secure, domestic systems that seamlessly fly, detect, track, identify and safely defeat unmanned aerial systems to protect our national critical infrastructure and preserve the security of our skies. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mister Rubey, and next, Mister Vaati, you are recognized for five minutes.

Madam Chair, Ranking Member and distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity of appearing before you today. I founded Prelude Therapeutics in two thousand sixteen and serve as as Chief Executive Officer in Wilmington, Delaware, with a handful of scientists and big vision to bring new treatment options for patients with cancer. Today, Prelude is a thriving clinical stage oncology company with a promising pipeline of potential medicines for multiple cancers. As the CEO, I'm honored to lead team of highly dedicated individuals with a singular mash mission of advancing our fight against cancer. My testimony, however, is not about me. It's about a promise, a promise that this country has made to every person who dares to dream, who is willing to work hard, and who believes that their idea might make a difference for the society. I'm here today simply as one small piece of evidence that that promise is real and urge you to protect it. I grew up in India, the son of a physician. My father was the first doctor in a small town and a very devoted one. I watched him, my whole childhood, working day and night to take the best care of anyone who came to see him. And I was moved by what he did. But what fascinated me most were the medicines he used to treat his patients. Those pills, those injections that could reach inside the human body and make his patients better. I wanted to create more of them. That desire eventually brought me to the United States. I arrived as a graduate student with money my father had raised by mortgaging our family home. I want you to understand what that means. My family had no safety net. For me, to fail was just not a personal disappointment. It was the dismantling of everything my father had staked on my behalf. Failure was simply not an option. My first job in America after graduate school was a small start-up company in Boston called ProScript. We were truly a small business, about twenty scientists, but we had something that large companies often struggled to hold on to, the belief that a small group of driven people connecting the dots that others cannot see can solve big health care problems. We were right. The team's work led ultimately to the development of a medicine called Velcade, a treatment for multiple myeloma, a deadly blood cancer. Velcade has given hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide more time to continue living their lives and be with people they love. It was born in a start-up with limited resources by scientists who worked relentlessly. While ProScript didn't survive as an independent company, the lessons I learned stayed with me. Starting small does not mean limited impact or limited scope. Small can be the beginning of something that matters enormously. A few years later, I had the opportunity to be part of a small start-up team, again, to re- reinvent a company called Insight. We were just coming off of an acquisition of DuPont Pharmaceuticals company in Delaware, where we worked and decided to stay in Delaware and continue our important work that we started there. The work that I had the privilege of championing at inside resulted in a medicine called Jacofi, the treatment that transformed the outcomes of patients with serious blood disorders and personally the most meaningful part of my career's journey to date. Again, the work we started as a small team was the foundation for what Insight has become today a global enterprise with over two thousand people still headquartered in Delaware that's not an unusual story in America it is in fact, a defining one. Everything I described, the companies, the medicines, the patients who benefited, the employees who built their careers, all of it traces back to a graduate student who arrived in this country with nothing but a dream and a belief uh that America is the right place to chase it. That belief was correct, and it remains correct today for millions of people around the world who are watching this country and wondering whether that d- door is still open. America's willingness to welcome ambitious people, give them access to capital, and protect their ability to take risks and allow them to compete, these are not the incidental features of our economy. These are the source code of our innovation. America is still the shining city on a hill. I respectfully ask the committee to help preserve the conditions that make this country the destination choi of choice for the world's most driven dreamers. Thank you.

Thank you very much to our witnesses, and I understand, uh, Rankin, remember, you'll submit your statement, opening statement for the record? Okay. And without objection, so ordered. And we will go ahead and start the question answer portion of our committee hearing. I will hold my questions until the end of uh the first round, so we'll go ahead and start with Senator Young.

Well, thank you Chair Ernst and and ranking uh uh uh our ranking member for um for this hearing. This is really terrific. I want to thank our witnesses, enjoyed your testimony. Gonna begin with um Mr. Ruby, um uh in part because you're an Air Force Academy grad, I'm a Navy guy. Uh, and um,

Be gone.

and I find your, I find the uh, counter UAS uh, a business uh, that uh, you're employed by, Perceptvue intriguing. Um, they provide counter unmanned systems services, um, much needed these days. Um, just this week the FBI announced it had disrupted through counter UAS intervention. in part uh alleged plot involving explosive drones targeting the White House. This was during a UFC event that was well publicized. There were nearly a hundred thousand attendees at that event. We have the World Cup also going on in this country at this time, which is the largest sporting event in the world. There's been much discussion for many months about the threat that unmanned systems could conceivably pose to to fans. Good people are doing everything they can to prevent that. In my own state, Indiana, we host the Indianapolis five hundred, the largest single day sporting event in the world. So I I itemize these different events and episodes because um these are things that are are rituals of our daily life, these these sporting events, and they they must continue. Eh but we've gotta figure out this problem set. Your business is doing that. Doing that through close coordination among federal agencies, state and local governments, and industry partners. And, uh, Mister Ruby, I'll just ask you, how can the federal and state entities be a better partner with small UAS and counter US, UAS manufacturers to accelerate the testing, evaluation, and deployment of these technologies, and make sure they're built here in the United States?

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you, Senator, for that uh that statement, that question. Um and also this morning I just read an article in Atlanta associated with the World Cup there was upwards of fifteen or more drones uh that were detected and, and um and captured if you will uh s uh by the FBI so it's,

Wow.

it's, it permeates all aspects of life and from outdoor events as you mentioned to uh sporting events to to concerts to um prisons national labs you name it and that really the there's no one size fits all solution. So there there's a lot of players in this space.

Right.

Um if anybody tells you they can provide the the answer or the solution, then you're probably you you're looking at a teamed approach, a layered approach. I would say two things uh specific to your question. The SIBA reauthorization uh act or the SIBA SIBA reauthorization earlier this year i- is a big step forward for uh you know small business especially in this tech space and other emerging techs Quantum AI et cetera.

Yes.

Uh, there's a long list, I'm I'm just uh touching on a few.

Sure.

Um, obviously, you know, putting safeguards in place that were put in in this legislation uh were essential, uh but there is some long lead time that come with with SBIR program, for um we can discuss that somewhere else or separately, but uh also I think uh prioritizing congressional ads for small businesses. You know, the larges, the large OEMs, the primes, they have full lobbying teams, they have full teams here in DC government affairs. For small business across America that are trying to navigate this tech space,

Yes.

um prioritizing well-vetted um small business congressional ads is of tremendous benefit cuz it it comes direct to that small business um and it's partnered with uh an accepting government uh program manager or ki a sponsor who is ready to utilize those funds and that work so tho- those are kind of two initial answers to your question.

Great, yeah, great suggestions. Back home there's a lot of discussion, uh, in addition to, you know, concern related to sporting events. Uh, there's, there's discussion surrounding where our office was able to work with the governor and other members of our federal de- uh delegation to earn a testbed designation for drone testing in the state um and potentially counter drone testing activity and uh Crane Naval Base as you may be aware, is, is also managing the drone dominance portfolio for DOD. So I've asked some of the stakeholders if there are regulatory procurement or testing barriers that prevent small UAS and counter-USAS companies from scaling production or deploying their technologies to keep up with adversaries. Is there a thing or two you'd really quickly, since my time is running out.

Yeah. You bet. I would say, and I have been to your test range in Indiana. Musc- Muscabat- it starts with an M.

Yeah.

I know that. I can't remember the exact name. It's been a few years.

Muscatatuck?

Yes,

You went down there?

yes, I've been there.

Okay.

I think when you have a government uh test event, that the results of that test event are validated. If it's an army test event, it's good for the Marine Corps, it's good for the Air Force, it's good for the Navy, it's good for um FBI, it's good for other agencies within the government, so I don't, we don't have to go and do a different test event at different sites across the country every week, every month. I think that would be very helpful.

Let's stay in touch with your indulgence, sir.

Chairman.

Thank you very much, Senator Young. Next, I recognize Ranking Member Markey for five minutes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And uh, today is the third hearing in this committee's series celebrating small businesses and the foundational role they have played in the history of our country. And I want to thank you, Madam Chair, for having an inclusive bipartisan approach to this um in entire process. Um, but this series actually stands in stark contrast with what we are witnessing from the White House as President Trump hijacks our nation's two hundred and fiftieth birthday and turns it into a celebration of himself, and yet another opportunity for self-dealing. Freedom two fifty, run by the White House and stacked by Trump loyalists, should really be called corruption two fifty. Trump's celebration of self-dealing allows corporate donors to write blank birthday checks to the president with no oversight. The one million dollar uh donors are invited to a thank you reception hosted by President Trump but two point five million donors get to speak at an event in Washington on July fourth. And instead of celebrating our nation's Independence Day, President Trump's July fourth celebration will be a partisan Trump rally on the National Mall that shamelessly makes himself the center of attention. And among Freedom two fifty donors we know about many of them are large government contractors with regulatory issues pending before the Trump administration. And meanwhile, a report I released last week found, this is unbelievable, this is the contrast, that for small businesses, they've dropped by forty seven billion dollars and sixty five hundred small firms have left the federal marketplace since January twenty of the last year. The goal of Trump's power consolidation is clear, reward billionaires, trillionaires, big contractors who can buy their way to the birthday bout, all at the expense of small businesses. The contrast is just so stark, what he is doing to small businesses in our country. So, mister uh Bhati, I was struck by a figure you cited in your testimony, as many as half of new medicines in the world. are invented here in in America. And that's astounding and something we should be proud of. But we should also recognize that much of the brain power and risk-taking was supplied by people who were not born here, but were drawn to America because of the opportunities it offers hard-working people with bright ideas. According to MIT, immigrants are eighty percent more likely to start businesses than someone born here, eighty percent more likely. Accounting for now, twenty-four percent of all entrepreneurs in our country, uh, despite making up only fourteen percent of our population. And when it comes to innovation specifically, twenty-three percent of all new patents annually are produced by new Americans. So your story is not unique. Uh, it is absolutely at the core of what is going on in our country right now. And when he sends out this signal that it's just so anti-immigrant, these people are gonna go to other parts of the world. They're just not gonna feel welcome here. So I understand, Doctor Vati, that your company used SBA's Small Business Development Center in Delaware to help develop its growth strategy. There are countless other immigrant owned businesses that have used the SBDC program to grow and have used SBA lending programs to get capital. So if the s- if the Trump administration shuts off small business resources to immigrants, how will this affect our competitiveness? as a nation in sectors like biotechnology. Mr. Bani.

Thank you for the q uh question. Yes, um as uh you know as a start-up company in Delaware we were enormously benefited by the support we received from the state in the form of grant, in the form of space and the laboratories where we could actually turn some of our ideas into you know meaningful molecules that ultimately attracted a lot of uh venture capital funding and and allowed us to grow continuously and this is the story of I would say like you quoted a significant a fraction of the new businesses particularly in biotech um really uh without uh the support of of uh the government and the policies and uh particularly immigration where um you know uh we we really rely on a number of students that come to this country for higher education for the you know uh great uh institutions that we have in the country to really you know hone in their skills and if we don't have the policies that is supportive of uh this uh uh you know this um sort of aspect of our our country i think there's gonna be a significant price to pay in the long run

And and again Mr. Fadi you are the perfect example of the American dream. We have to throw out the welcome mat to immigrants like your family, cuz they are making the difference. That would help, that's what helps to regenerate our country, make uh America a more perfect union. Just continually improving on who we are today. And uh all I can tell you is that uh if we don't have a government policy that's exclusive inclusive of immigrants uh then we're gonna lose the global battle. So we thank you, we thank your family, uh and the impact you've had on your community as well for all that you're um, thank you, all that you're representing here in testimony before the committee today. Thank you.

Thank you, ranking member, and again I'll wait until the end, the second vote has started, so I wanna make sure that we can all make our vote, um but I will now recognize Senator Revzin for five minutes.

Well, thank you Chair Ernst, ranking member. Marky, for holding the hearing. Thank you for the witnesses uh being here today and Especially Mr. Miller. I wanted just to say quickly about uh uh what um Senator Young s uh talked about. We are entering a decade of sports, international sports. We've got the Olympics, we have World Cup of course in Las Vegas, we've got a F one and we've had Super Bowls and and and we have it all. And so understanding those spec those UAS threats and the SEER ratings, the special event activity ratings, we worked on those and Homeland Security Committee uh they've been very responsive to the increased challenges that drones place on these large uh, particularly these large exciting sporting events that we have that generate uh so much for our communities and we have to continue to build on that so I wanted to say we I have been working on that in the past we will continue to do that, but uh um I'm gonna talk a little bit about tourism and I think our favorite bill on child care, Senator Ernst. So uh, Mister Miller, what you described in your testimony exactly is what I've been hearing from our Nevada businesses. Um, some of the erratic policies that are coming out of Washington, they really have a a detrimental effect on our tourism and the cost of doing business, because travel and tourism are the backbone of Nevada's economy. Again, world class events of the Las Vegas trip to outdoor recreation on our public lands. We are the most mountainous state in the lower forty-eight, so from uh hiking and biking and uh um uh skiing, you name it, we have it all. Nevada's exciting entertainment, natural beauty attracts visitors from around the world. Um and those visitors that come to all of our attractions, they draw in small businesses who wanna participate in our booming tourism economy. We're known for those large casinos, but those businesses only make up one percent of our thriving business community. Like I said, ninety-nine percent of businesses in Nevada, small business, so this is super um super important to us and really the fabric of our community and uh the flavor of our community, I will say. So, Mister Miller, you mentioned Las Vegas, that visits fell seven point five percent in twenty twenty five. I'm hearing that um President's harsh treatment of our allies, particularly Canadians, we have a lot of Canadian tourists, they love to come to southern Nevada. Visitation dropped around twenty percent from Canada. What are you hearing from your members about a slowdown in international tourism generally that's impacting our businesses um in Nevada.

Well, thank you for the question, Senator, and there are a lot of great reasons to come to Nevada,

Yeah.

and that is why tourism is uh the backbone of our economy and supports uh so much. And what happens when visitors stop coming to Las Vegas, and I think I mentioned this, it doesn't just stay in the one percent of the businesses, it radiates throughout the community, and what that looks like for a restaurant is one less table turn an hour. What that looks like for uh uh an employee is less tip income, which then results into the barbershop or the beauty salon having someone book every other week or every other month versus every on their regular cadence. Um that has a radiating effect throughout the entire state, uh and it to every single business in every sector that we can ultimately imagine the decrease in visitors, uh, international visitors, and particularly those from Canada who are the largest share of our international visitors on a regular and consistent basis. Those international travelers spend more dollars and they stay longer.

They stay longer and stay smart. That's right.

So when they're there spending all of their money, staying as long as they can, every business benefits from that. So when that is not happening, it becomes a de- a decrease. in the possibilities for every business owner.

Yeah, uh, and I think you're exactly right. What happens uh even in the Tulip Vessel, people come spend there and then uh your folks who benefit from that, they go buy other things in the community, go out for an extra dinner, buy a maybe a new washer-dryer, what whatever those things are, so it um really important. But I wanna get in the last remaining moments, child care. The rising cost of child care, severe shortage of affordable options are squeezing Nevada families, families across the country. Lack of access to child care is a problem for small business and parents alike. It creates a barrier for parents who wanna start a business, grow a business, and makes it harder for small businesses to retain employees um who are struggling to find affordable care so the chairwoman and I have uh a wonderful bill together, the Small Business Child Care Investment Act, it's a bipartisan bill, it's gonna increase the availability of uh f- affordable q- high quality child care by allowing non-profits, your local church or synagogue, boys and girls clubs, YMCAs to take advantage of SBA loan programs that for-profit companies can to help those child care deserts. So, Mister Miller, can you talk about how the child care crisis really impacts people who wanna start a business and or hire people for their business?