Consumer Blog

We're coordinating the unprecedented event in coalition: U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Main Street Alliance, Small Business Majority, and Consumers Union.  

Our release follows: Reporters seeking more information, call the office at 202-546-9707 and ask for Jane Regan:

URGENT - MEDIA ADVISORY for NOVEMBER 3

Over 130 Small Business Owners Coming to D.C. to Ask for Real Health Reform

Events with Senate leaders, White House, and Their Legislators

 Who:  Over 130 small business owners from 24 states across the country, speaking at a Senate leadership press event at the Capitol, attending a briefing at the White House and visiting Congressional offices on Capitol Hill to explain why small business needs real health reform. 

What:  Several events, as well as multiple interview availabilities – photo ops/interview ops, in person/via telephone

 Events:

 9:30 a.m.: Mansfield Room, The Capitol

Press event with Senate leaders

 Speakers:

 * Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chair, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee Chairman

 * Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Chair, Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

 * Three owners of small businesses from across the country

 Note for media: Over 130 owners of small business from across the country will be available to speak to members of the media after the event.

11 a.m.: The White House

Briefing with Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services

 Note for media: Please contact the White House Media Affairs Office for more information – 202-456-1414

 Throughout the Afternoon Congressional Office Visits

Owners of over 130 small businesses will be visiting the offices of Senators and Representatives to explain why America’s small businesses need real health reform

 Note for media: All of the business owners are available for interviews, on Capitol Hill or at the offices of U.S. PIRG, 218 D Street, SE, between 2nd and 3rd

 BACKGROUND

 U.S. PIRG • Small Business Majority

Main Street Alliance • Consumers Union

  American Independent Business Alliance • Business Forward • Employee Benefits Cooperative (AEBC) • Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership• National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce • National Council of Asian American Businesses • New Voice of Business 

Small Business-owners Meet Senators, White House & Deliver a Message:

Small Businesses Need Real Health Reform

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 – As Congress prepares for floor debates on health reform this week, the owners of over 130 small businesses from across the country will fly into Washington, D.C., with one simple yet urgent message:  America's small businesses need real health reform.

Landscapers, chocolate-makers, home inspectors, and the owners of nail salons, cafes, bookstores, fishing boats, shoe stores and funeral parlors took a day off from running their businesses to make sure their voices are heard in a health care debate which is often mostly dominated by politicians and lobbyists for the health care industries.

“We've tried to do everything right. We run a successful business. We treat our employees like family. We haven't bitten off more than we can chew. But now we're in danger of losing everything simply because we don't know if we can count on our health insurance to be there when we need it," said Bob Montoya, owner of Cedar Ridge Landscaping of Pueblo, Colorado.

Montoya and small business owners from 24 states will join Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Chair of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, for a morning press conference on Capitol Hill.

At midday, the businesspeople will attend a White House briefing on health care by Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services.

 The entrepreneurs will also meet with many of their Congressional representatives.

 "With children to raise, a business to run, and a wife to support, I'm afraid to go to the mailbox each day because of what the health care bills might say. This isn't the way our country is supposed to work. The time for reform is now," Montoya added.

 The states from which businesspeople are coming include:

 Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin

 The four main sponsors of the unprecedented effort are

U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Main Street Alliance, Small Business Majority, and Consumers Union. 

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  U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization. For more information visithttp://www.uspirg.org.