This week, in communities across the country – and here at home – we are celebrating the hard work, determination, and persistence of small business owners and local entrepreneurs by taking part in National Small Business Week. First established in 1963 by Presidential proclamation, National Small Business Week celebrates and recognizes the critical contributions of America's small business owners and entrepreneurs.

My top priority continues to be promoting job creation and economic growth here in Southwest Michigan. Small businesses are truly the backbone of our local economies; they help drive local economic growth, engage folks in a wide variety of commerce, and help develop local leaders for the challenges of the future. They also provide good-paying local jobs. Michigan small businesses alone employ 1.8 million workers, more than half of the state's private workforce in 2012.

In Southwest Michigan, we have small businesses and innovative entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes. I had the pleasure of taking part in a "Small Business Crawl" in Kalamazoo last summer. I ate breakfast at a food truck, bought a small work at an art gallery and studio, toured an hourly studio rental business, and sampled food and drink at a craft brewery. What I learned was that while all small businesses are unique, they all work to bring our communities closer together, drive innovation, create good-paying local jobs, and increase America's global competitiveness.

Here in Congress it's our job to work toward facilitating a positive economic environment so that small businesses and entrepreneurs can thrive. Unfortunately, sometimes unnecessary regulations unilaterally imposed by Washington bureaucrats cut into the bottom line of Michigan entrepreneurs and small business owners making it more costly for them to do business and harder for them to create jobs. We need to work in a bipartisan fashion to cut red tape, create a fairer tax code, and rein in overzealous regulations so that small business owners and entrepreneurs can ply their trade, not push paper.