Earlier this month, the President sent legislation on the Small Business Lending Fund to Congress earlier this month, along with a new state small business credit initiative that will help expand lending for small businesses and manufacturers at a time when budget shortfalls are forcing states to cut back on lending programs.  Today, the President will urge the House and Senate to move quickly on these and other proposals that encourage investment in our nation’s small businesses, which are crucial to our efforts to create new jobs across the country.

The President’s remarks as prepared for delivery are below:

Good afternoon, and welcome to the White House.  This is the beginning of National Small Business Week, which every President has recognized since John F. Kennedy started the tradition in 1963.  And with us are some of the most successful, hardworking entrepreneurs from across America.  Each of you has distinguished yourself as the Small Business Owner of the Year in your state or region, and later today the national winner will be announced.  But all of you should be extremely proud of what you’ve accomplished this year.  I know I am.

Being a successful small business owner isn’t just about collecting a profit or outperforming your competitors.  It’s about contributing to the success of this country’s economy.  It’s about securing your piece of the American Dream.

What has always distinguished us as a nation is the belief that this is the place where anyone with a good idea and the will to work hard can succeed.  It’s the belief that has brought millions to our shores, and carried us through even the toughest economic times.

And it’s how small businesses begin.  Maybe someone finally decides to take a chance on his dream.  Or maybe a worker decides it’s time she became her own boss.  Either way, these entrepreneurial pioneers embody the spirit of possibility, the tireless work ethic, and the simple hope for something better that lies at the heart of the American ideal.

You’ve opened the mom-and-pop stores that have led to some of America’s biggest, most successful companies.  You’ve launched technology companies – software and IT services that have redefined the marketplace.  And you create two out of every three new jobs in this country.  Two out of every three.  That’s why small businesses aren’t just the backbone of this economy – you are the driving force behind this recovery.

The problem is, small business owners have also been some of the hardest hit by this recession.  From the middle of 2007 through the end of 2008, small businesses lost 2.4 million jobs.  And because banks shrunk from lending in the midst of the financial crisis, it’s been difficult for small business owners to take out the loans they need to open up shop.  For those who do own a small business, it’s been difficult to finance inventories, make payrolls, or expand if things are going well.

Now, government can’t create jobs, but it can help create the conditions for small businesses to grow and thrive and hire more workers.  Government can’t guarantee a company’s success, but it can knock down the barriers that prevent small business owners from getting loans or investing in the future.  And that’s why so much of our economic agenda has been focused on small businesses.

Last year, we enacted seven tax cuts for America’s small businesses, as well as the Making Work Pay tax credit that goes to the vast majority of small business owners.  So far, the Recovery Act has supported over 64,000 loans to small businesses – more than $27 billion in new lending.  More than 1,200 banks and credit unions that had stopped making SBA loans when the financial crisis hit are lending again today.  And more than $8 billion in federal Recovery Act contracts are now going to small businesses.

Right now, a series of additional tax incentives and other steps to promote hiring are taking effect.  Because of a bill I signed into law a few months ago, businesses are now eligible for tax cuts for hiring unemployed workers.  Companies are also able to write off more of their investments in new equipment.  And as part of health reform, 4 million small businesses recently received a postcard in their mailboxes telling them that they could be eligible for a health care tax cut this year.  It’s worth perhaps tens of thousands of dollars to a company.  And it will provide welcome relief to small business owners, who too often have to choose between health care and hiring.

I also want to say a few words about what the Small Business Administration has been doing to help those workers and business owners who’ve been affected by the oil spill in the Gulf Coast.  From the very beginning of this disaster, the SBA has acted quickly to assist fishermen and fishing-dependent small businesses.  They’re offering low-interest loans and deferrals of existing loans.  And while small businesses are encouraged to file claims with BP, these loans and deferrals can provide much needed temporary assistance.

All of these steps are making a real difference in the lives of the people who own and work at small businesses all across America – including the people here with us today.

I just met with Trapper Clark and Tom Sturtevant, who are the state of Maine’s Small Business Owners of the Year.  They started a company that manufactures aluminum trailers about four years ago with twenty employees.  They’ve grown rapidly over the last few years, and that growth has been supported by a Recovery Act loan from the Small Business Administration.  They also got some fees waived.  And today, they have 85 employees, are planning to add another 15 by the end of this year, and hope to add another 30 by the end of 2011.

Frank and Donna Masley are also here with us today.  They’re Delaware’s Small Business Owners of the Year.  Ten years ago, they launched a glove-making business to provide flexibility and protection for our men and women in uniform.  When they won a contract to supply gloves for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009, they received a Recovery Act loan through the SBA and saved thousands on fees.  It was that loan that allowed Frank and Donna to rehire some employees who had been laid off during the recession, and today their business is growing and thriving once more.

So many people who are here today have stories just like this.  Their success isn’t the result of a heavy-handed government.  It’s the result of a government that lends a helping hand – that complements the sheer grit and determination of America’s small business owners.  And I believe we need to do even more to give these men and women a boost.

That’s why I’m calling on Congress to pass small business jobs package as soon as possible.  This legislation should ensure that credit worthy small business owners can get the capital they need to expand and create jobs.  It should include needed tax relief, like our proposal to completely eliminate capital gains taxes for those making key long-term investments in small businesses.  It should include expansions of vital Small Business Administration loan programs that are needed now more than ever.  And it should include two important lending initiatives that I recently sent to Congress.

The first initiative is the $30 billion Small Business Lending Fund I called for in my State of the Union address.  This fund would target only small community and neighborhood banks, and it would help these institutions increase lending to small businesses.  The second initiative is the new state small business credit program that we recently proposed – an initiative that will help expand private lending for small businesses and manufacturers at a time when budget shortfalls are leading states to cut back on vitally important lending programs.

I am very pleased that elements of this small business jobs package have already passed the House Financial Services Committee last week, and I know the Senate is working on the issue as well.  I urge both chambers to act on these proposals as soon as possible.  This shouldn’t be a partisan issue.  This shouldn’t be an issue of big government versus small government.  This is an issue of putting our government on the side of the small business owners who create most of the jobs in this country.  It’s about giving them tax cuts and loans so they can keep growing and keep hiring.  It’s about unleashing the great power of our economy, and the ingenuity of our people.  In so many ways, each of you here today have shown that ingenuity as you’ve successfully navigated your companies through an extremely difficult time.  You should be very proud of that achievement, and know that you as you continue that journey, you will always have a fierce advocate in your President and your government.  Thank you, and congratulations.

A fact sheet on the Small Business Jobs Package can be found HERE.

Even while the federal government was officially shut down due to the severe snow storm that was incapacitating the Washington, D.C. area, the president still welcomed Rev. Al Sharpton, NAACP President Benjamin Jealous and National Urban League President Marc Morial into the Oval Office for their first formal meeting since Obama became the country’s first Black president.

”The assumption is that because the president is African-American he should be up for representing African-American interests,” Sharpton said. ”That’s like saying because you’re from the labor union you should represent labor interests.”

Described as a ”very candid and open” dialog, the leaders met for more than an hour exploring a framework for reducing the excessive job loss numbers in the nation’s inner-cities, according to a telephone conference with reporters after the meeting.

”Our meeting with the president was a positive conversation,” Morial said. ”We support very strongly the president’s 2010 focus on jobs and job creation. We certainly share with him the great challenges that our communities are facing as the result of the jobs crisis and its high levels of long-term unemployment. And while, no doubt, the great recession has affected all Americans it has disproportionately African-Americans, Latinos and those living in urban communities.”

Because of the weather, iconic civil rights and women’s right stalwart Dorothy Height, who was also invited, was not able to attend the meeting. The 97-year-old chairwoman of the National Council of Negro Women was, until that point, also fully involved with the deliberations.

The particular focus on African-American employment by the president and civil rights leaders came about because the Black jobless numbers are teetering near rates that rival Great Depression levels. While the country’s unemployment rate fell below the double-digit highs it posted at the end of 2009 in January to 9.7 percent the jobless rate for Black continued to rise to a dizzying 16.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

At this time last year, when President Obama first took over an already severely economically recessed country, the Black unemployment rate was at a still extreme yet more modest 12.8 percent.

”We will not rest until the unemployment rate comes down to acceptable levels. That means way down in the four and five percent range,” said Morial, who’s aiming for a target rate never seen by African-Americans.

For the past six months, the National Urban League has been advancing a six-point jobs plan. In November, the NUL chief executive sent a letter to the Obama Administration and congressional leaders that outlined his organizations’ recommendations to address the jobs issue, which included proposals such as direct funding to lower than federal-level municipalities, schools and non-profit community-based organizations to hire staff for critical community services, expansion of the Small Business Administration’s Community Express Loan Program and the Youth Summer Jobs Program, among other provisions.

”We’re not saying that you should do this or that you should take action with this specifically but we are saying, ”Here are some ideas”, Morial said, calling his organization’s jobs plan a ”laundry list” of provisions put together by leading economists.

The group said that after courting Obama as an ally on their war on jobs loss they want to share the same concerns with an embattled Congress that is currently trying to hash out job creation legislation. Mirroring healthcare, a jobs bill narrowly passed the House along party lines in December but the Senate is facing a growingly tougher task.

”We are looking for a way to target the frustration, particularly at the Republicans in the Senate,” Jealous said.

The NAACP leader said that he is growing weary of Republicans continued use of obstructionist tactics to railroad Obama’s domestic agenda. He is also frustrated with the passive Democrats, who, despite enjoying unprecedented leverage as the party in power in both the legislative and executive branches – are allowing legislation to be dragged along.

He said that the Senate bill should favor the House bill, which looks to use leftover bank bailout money to aid states, extend unemployment benefits, invest on infrastructure and expand tax credits for families with children.

Since a Senate jobs bill is still being debated, Morial said that he will push for the inclusion of a number of provisions from his jobs plan.

”We believe that any jobs bill passed through Congress needs to be inclusive, needs to have focus on those areas that have high unemployment,” Morial said.

Sharpton insisted that he was not looking for a race-based jobs bill but argued that the involvement of leaders representing communities hardest hit by unemployment was essential to a successful jobs recovery.

”We must have input in this jobs and training bill,” Sharpton argues. ”Why? Because our communities are the most impacted. We have to live and suffer with the results so we have to be at the table.”

In a memo circulated Friday, Chief Deputy City Attorney Bill Carter says the mayor can remove the heads of departments and people in appointed offices but he does not have the power under the city charter to fire most city employees on his own.

Villaraigosa ordered the immediate layoffs on Thursday to help to balance the city’s budget. The move came a day after the city council voted unanimously to postpone any action on job cuts for 30 days while they explore other options.

Mayor’s counsel Brian Currey says Villaraigosa will work through department heads to make sure the layoffs and transfers happen.