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Floor Speech

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Ms. DUCKWORTH. Madam President, I have come to the floor today to express my support for Dilawar Syed, and his nomination to be Deputy Administrator of the Small Business Administration.

This Republican obstruction has gone on long enough. I ask my colleagues from across the aisle to join me in supporting this important nominee. Dilawar Syed is more than qualified to serve in this role at the Small Business Administration. He is an entrepreneur and a job creator, with decades of firsthand experience in business entrepreneurship and community engagement.

He has experience working directly with small business owners and has led efforts to drive economic growth at the local, State, and Federal levels.

Simply put, at the SBA, he would be an asset to our Nation's small businesses and would bring a critical voice to the Agency which currently lacks a fully staffed leadership team.

The SBA has not had a Senate-confirmed Deputy Administrator for more than 5 years. This is a critical mistake. This high-level absence weakens the Agency and inhibits the SBA's ability to serve the millions of small business owners looking to the Agency for resources, assistance, and capital to start and grow their businesses.

Some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have launched unfair and baseless attacks against Mr. Syed and have held up his nomination for years. They have even repeatedly failed to show up to vote on his nomination in the Small Business Committee.

These partisan attacks are simply efforts to undermine President Biden and his administration at the SBA, as well as their ability to successfully serve our small businesses nationwide.

These Republican attacks also unfairly disparage Mr. Syed, who is not only a successful business leader and community organizer, but also, importantly, a first-generation immigrant who fully exemplifies the American dream.

With this unique and important background, Mr. Syed would bring an influential new voice and perspective to help the SBA improve its outreach to immigrant communities that have been traditionally overlooked and underserved by the Federal Government.

My friends on the other side of the aisle know the importance of filling this vacancy at the SBA. Yet they have continued to play their partisan games.

Ahead of this vote on Mr. Syed's nomination, I ask you to join me in supporting this eminently qualified nominee. Let's do our jobs and finally get this nominee confirmed.

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