Every day, American entrepreneurs combine passion, resilience and resourcefulness to solve difficult problems and create products and businesses that improve our lives. American entrepreneurs create and scale new technologies, products and services. They create businesses and, in some cases, entire industries. Their work helps grow our economy, creates good jobs and increases our prosperity. Entrepreneurs have risen repeatedly to address the complex challenges of our nation and our world, and during National Entrepreneurship Month we celebrate our nation’s entrepreneurs – past and present – who exemplify the American spirit. and recognize their important contributions to our people, our economy and the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed historic challenges for our country and our nation’s entrepreneurs. Many businesses have closed and the main streets have become quiet. Despite these setbacks, American entrepreneurs have shown incredible courage, finding innovative and effective ways to scale their businesses as we tackle a crisis that is unique in a century. To help our nation’s businesses and entrepreneurs recover during the pandemic, my administration ensured that nearly $ 300 billion in paycheck protection program repayable loans went to our smallest businesses, including over 95% go to companies with less than 20 employees, and have contributed more than $ 28 billion. supporting more than 100,000 businesses through the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. Amid the economic disruption caused by the pandemic, Americans created more than 4 million businesses last year, a 24% increase from the previous year – the most monthly business apps ever recorded – and start-up rates are increasing the most among immigrants and Black Americans, Latinos and Asians, native to Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. This is important to our future success, as small businesses are the engines of our economic progress and the heart and soul of our communities.

My administration is committed to supporting all entrepreneurs in our Nation so that they can continue to play a key role in strengthening our economy and our society for years to come. My administration’s Build Back Better framework will deliver the critical infrastructure investments that are the foundation for the success of entrepreneurs across the country. From investing in universal and affordable broadband to making the largest federal investments ever made in transit, passenger trains and bridges, we will revitalize communities and their local economies. The cadre of my administration will also provide much needed support to our entrepreneurs, including new loan and venture capital programs targeting smaller businesses, small manufacturers, clean energy start-ups and others, as well as investments in child care, health care and workforce development. We will also provide more support to businesses that want to participate in the hundreds of billions of dollars the federal government spends each year to purchase goods and services and invest in research and development. My administration will fully implement the $ 10 billion state-owned small business credit initiative, which will enable states to implement new small business lending and venture capital programs established by the plan. American rescue.

Collaboration between entrepreneurs, innovators and the public sector has led to some of the world’s most important technologies and industries, including cellular communication, energy storage, agricultural technology and advanced manufacturing. My administration is proud to support entrepreneurs and innovators across the country, from hard-working women and men who start a business to meet the needs of their communities, to visionaries who strive to change the world. Together, we are partners in solving challenges big and small, global and local, and we will work to increase America’s competitiveness in the world and meet the challenges of the 21st century.

THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by authority conferred on me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, proclaim November 2021 as National Month of the entrepreneurship. I call on all Americans to commemorate this month with appropriate programs and activities and to celebrate November 16, 2021 as National Entrepreneur Day.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have appended my signature this twenty-ninth day of October, in the year of grace two thousand and twenty-one, and of independence of the United States of America on the two hundred and forty-six .

JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.