Congresswoman McCollum’s House Budget Committee Remarks

[as prepared]

Thank you, Mr. Zients.

I'd like to shift gears here a little bit and talk about part of the budget that we usually don't ever discuss here in the Budget Committee. I'm hoping I can capture the Chairman's interest, and we can talk about this some more in the coming months.

The Red Cross, Meals on Wheels, Habitat for Humanity – these and thousands of other nonprofits are working to solve problems and improve quality of life in communities across the United States.

The country's estimated 1.5 million nonprofits are a distinct sector of the American economy, and they employ 10 percent of the country's workforce.

Let there be no doubt, nonprofits are job creators.

Nonprofits tackle issues that are often beyond the reach of government and below the bottom-line of the business sector.

That is why the work nonprofits do isn't extra – it's essential.

Every American community depends on the nonprofit sector.

And the federal government depends on nonprofits to implement many federal programs, from worker re-training to crime prevention.

All of us in Washington, OMB, and Congress need to start paying attention to the health of the nonprofit sector – much like we do with the small business sector.

This budget requests $948 million for the Small Business Administration to protect, strengthen, and represent the interests of the nation's small businesses. But the Nonprofit Capacity Building Program, authorized at $5 million, is recommended for $0.

I'd like to ask you a couple of questions.

Do we know how much of this budget would be implemented by the nonprofit organizations in communities and across the country?

Do we know how much federal funding is being leveraged with local government and private funds by nonprofits?

Do we know how many jobs nonprofits will create with the federal funds in this budget?

This isn't a "gotcha" because nobody normally asks these questions. I would very much like to work with you as you get

these answers because none of us on this committee, to my knowledge since I've been on the Budget Committee, has asked about the nonprofit sector. I hope the Chair takes some interest in this and looks at how this is interrelated.