One-Term Wonder Congressman Will Hurd is spending this week trying to make his constituents believe he has a record on small businesses: “I’m working in Congress to do what small business owners in the 23rd Congressional District of Texas really want Washington to do – get out of their way,” said Congresswoman Hurd on his online Congressional blog.
No amount of rhetoric will distract from the fact that he had a chance to sit on the very committee intended to help small businesses, but he quit. After just two months on the job, Congressman Hurd sent a letter to Speaker John Boehner resigning his post on the House Small Business Committee claiming that he needed to focus his attention elsewhere.
“Congresswoman Hurd wants Washington so far out of the way of small businesses that he removed himself from the very committee with jurisdiction over them,” said DCCC spokesperson Matt Thornton. “The easiest way for Congressman Hurd to help small businesses is to make sure he has a say in the policies affecting them, yet his decision to resign shows just how low small businesses rank on his priority list.”
BACKGROUND
Hurd Resigned From House Small Business Committee Just Two Months Into Serving. In March 2015, Hurd resigned from the House Small Business Committee. “I write today to resign from the House Small Business Committee. While I appreciate the honor of being appointed, in order to best serve the constituents of Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, I believe I must focus on my existing committee assignments. With my background in the intelligence community, cybersecurity and representing the district with the largest length of U.S.-Mexico border, my ability to focus on my information technology subcommittee chairmanship and border and maritime subcommittee vice chairmanship is where I believe I can be most valuable to the constituents and colleagues in the House. I appreciate your timely consideration of this request. Signed, sincerely, Will Hurd, member of Congress.” [CSPAN, 3/16/15]
Texas Has More Than 4 Million Workers Employed By More Than 2.3 Million Small Businesses. According to the Small Business Administration, Texas has 2,366,053 small businesses employing 4,119,801 workers. [SBA, 2014]