Calls on Senate to pass legislation that America's small businesses need.

WASHINGTON, July 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- United States Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., today called on her colleagues in the Senate, Republicans and Democrats, to put aside the partisan rhetoric and deliver help to America's 27 million small businesses who are starving for adequate access to capital and desperately seeking to hire workers and expand their businesses.

"After months of negotiations, we now stand at a crossroads for small businesses," Senator Landrieu said. "For months, members of both parties have come to the Senate floor and authored countless press releases praising small businesses for their role in our economic recovery and their ability to put people back to work. Now is the time for us to deliver for them. I am proud to say Republicans and Democrats have offered provisions with broad support, provisions that we have included in this package to appeal to small business owners in every state. We have moved forward with transparency and a willingness to put aside partisan politics because the economy needs this boost.

"I am urging my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats, to take a bold stance with today's vote, and move this legislation out of the Senate. Stand up for the corner store back home that anchors a small, rural community who could expand its services with the help of this package. Stand up for the family-owned restaurant that has been passed down for generations desperately trying to make it though these tough economic times. Stand up for the entrepreneur that wants to live his or her dream of owning their own business, and with a little help from us, might be able to. We always talk about the things Americans want and do not want, and the American people have made it very clear that they not only want this package to pass, but many of them need it to pass to preserve their way of life. We have worked for months to get this package this far, and I hope that my Republican colleagues will join me in supporting these small businesses, if for nothing else than because it is the right thing to do."

The U.S. Senate will vote today, July 29, 2010, at 10:45 to invoke cloture on the Small Business Job Creation Act of 2010.

SOURCE U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship