Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-ID), chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, today spoke on the Senate floor in support of Linda McMahon’s nomination to lead the Small Business Administration. Click here or on the image below to watch his speech, or continue reading for excerpts of his remarks.

Excerpts of Senator Risch's floor remarks:

“I rise today to support the nomination by President Trump of Linda McMahon to head the Small Business Administration. Linda McMahon has strong bipartisan support, which is rare in Washington, D.C. these days.

“At the confirmation hearing, Mrs. McMahon was introduced by, endorsed by, and spoken well of by her two Connecticut senators, Senator Blumenthal and Senator Murphy. Perhaps for the first time in history, you had a member of the opposite party supported by the two senators from that state from the other party. But, most importantly, she had run against both of those people. They had been adversaries previously, but they were here and they appeared before the committee to enthusiastically endorse her as the head of the SBA and as President Trump's appointee.

“Mrs. McMahon has the experience in the small business world, both from her struggles at the beginning to her great success as she worked through making her business succeed, to actually understand what small businesses go through. In meeting with her and discussing how important it is what we do on the committee, I can tell you that she shares the passion that I have about what we can do with the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee and indeed all committees in the United States Senate—to get the government out of the way while Americans attempt to build a business. She shares the passion that I have with reducing to a bare minimum the regulatory structure that has grown up in America today and is really stifling businesses at all levels, but particularly businesses at the small end of the scale.

“Based upon her qualifications, based upon her view of small business and entrepreneurship, based upon her experience in small business and in growing small business, and based upon what I think perhaps is going to be one of the only bipartisan efforts we make to construct the cabinet or assist the President in constructing his cabinet, I would strongly recommend and join my colleague the ranking member in urging all members of the Senate to support Linda McMahon in this effort and in her confirmation.”