TRIBUTE TO LOUIS TAYLOR

Mr. BOND.

Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to Louis Taylor who has provided great service to the Committee on Small Business, the U.S. Senate and to me personally. Louis Taylor is stepping down this week as Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the Senate Committee on Small Business. When I became chairman of the Committee on Small Business in January 1995, one of my first actions was to hire Louis. For the past 31⁄2 years, Louis has provided outstanding leadership to the staff on the Committee on Small Business and he has been instrumental in support of my efforts to transform the committee so that it is the eyes, ears, and voice in the U.S. Senate for small businesses.

In his tenure on the Committee on Small Business, Louis Taylor played a significant role in crafting important pieces of legislation to help small businesses. Two such legislative accomplishments stand out among the numerous bills that originated from the Committee on Small Business and were enacted into law—the HUBZone Act of 1997 and the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, also known as the Red-Tape Reduction Act. The HUBZone program expands the opportunity for small businesses in economically distressed areas to compete for Federal contracts, bringing jobs and new investments to inner cities and poor rural areas. The Red-Tape Reduction Act established safeguards to improve the Government’s regulatory fairness to small businesses and established an independent ombudsman and regional citizen review boards to give small businesses a voice in evaluating Federal agency actions. Without Louis Taylor’s contributions, the ultimate enactment of these important statutes would surely have been much more difficult.

In addition to these impressive legislative achievements, Louis Taylor played an integral role in ensuring that the Committee on Small Business capitalized on its expansive oversight jurisdiction to be a strong advocate for small business in the U.S. Senate. On those issues where the committee did not have legislative jurisdiction, Louis Taylor helped me guide the committee in its efforts to call attention to the impact such issues have on small business. For example, using its oversight jurisdiction, the committee was successful in including a number of small business provisions in the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, which was signed into law last week. These changes to the structure of the IRS and improved taxpayer rights will help small business owners to resolve tax problems more efficiently while providing them with the service and respect that they deserve from the agency. The committee has also been extremely active in ensuring regulatory fairness for small businesses and women-owned businesses, in particular. Perhaps the provision that will have the broadest impact, however, is the provision of 100 percent deductibility for health insurance for the self-employed and their families. This measure ultimately will make health insurance more affordable for 5 million Americans who do not carry it now.

In conclusion, the entire committee and I certainly will miss Louis Taylor as he moves on to other endeavors, but the contributions that he has made and the leadership he has given to the Committee on Small Business are greatly appreciated and will not be soon forgotten.∑