WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) today appeared before the U.S. Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee (SBC) to share Hurricane Sandy's devastating impact on New Jersey's small businesses. Citing the unique challenges small businesses face when rebuilding, Menendez called for direct assistance to help assist small businesses which currently only have loans to turn to.

This week, Senator Menendez led a delegation of his U.S. Senate colleagues on a tour of storm-affected areas in New Jersey, including SBC Chair Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

CLICK HERE for video of Senator Menendez's remarks.

Text of the Senator's remarks as prepared for delivery follow:

Chair Landrieu, Ranking Member Snowe - I'm pleased to have the opportunity today to talk about the challenges facing small businesses in my home state of New Jersey in the aftermath of Sandy.

I had the pleasure of touring my state with Senator Landrieu on Monday, battling the weather, but pleased that she saw the extent of the damage first hand.

Chair Landrieu certainly is no stranger to natural disasters and she has been an incredible ally and friend throughout this process. From working with us on language and helping us understand the lessons of the Katrina Recovery to helping us make our case for emergency funding -- you have been there every step of the way and I thank you.

When all is said and done, Hurricane Sandy will go down in history as the most costly natural disaster to ever hit the state of New Jersey.

The surge came quickly, destroying whole communities, taking houses from their foundations, changing the topography of the coastline, devastating some of the most densely populated communities in the country, taking lives and property.

More than two thirds of our residents and businesses lost power.

40 percent of the nation's transit riders from Boston to Washington had their commutes disrupted.

And a countless number of small businesses are now faced with the overwhelming job of cleaning up and trying to get back up and running.

In New Jersey alone, more than 34,000 applications for SBA disaster loans have been submitted.

These small businesses simply do not have the resources or capital that larger companies do to quickly rebuild.

It can often take weeks if not months to get back up and running, valuable time and revenue lost at the worst possible moment.

As we saw on Monday on Long Beach Island, power still has not been restored and small businesses are still closed as a result.

While SBA loans are helpful, many small businesses simply don't have the capacity to add more debt to their books.

Small business owners around the state have told me they already took out significant debt to either start up their business, survive the Great Recession, or even make repairs after Hurricane Irene struck in the summer of 2011.

Chair Landrieu, I'm here today for those small business owners.

For the shopkeepers in Little Ferry and Moonachie.

For Pam Bond and Jeff Spinardi who own a store called Greetings From Hoboken - The Candle shop with 3 full time and 4 part time employees.

They lost power for a week along with everyone else on Washington Street and couldn't pay their employees.

This is usually Pam and Jeff's busiest time of year, but when Sandy struck -- despite their own struggles - they knew the Hoboken Homeless Shelter had no power and was down to one candle, so Pam and Jeff not only donated hundreds of dollars worth of their own candles to the Shelter, but they convinced Yankee Candle Company to donate hundreds of dollars more -- because someone needed candles more than they did.

That's why we are here today: for people like Pam and Jeff.

We're here for people like Anna Paxton who - with her family - has owned a marina in Little Egg Harbor all of their lives that was left in ruin by the devastating surge and destruction of Super-Storm Sandy.

For Blanca Cabrera who owns a small beauty salon in Jersey City that suffered damage that has left her wondering how she is going to recover.

And for Aldo Bazzarelli - owner of a restaurant in Moonachie, New Jersey for 41 years - who now has to dig into his hard earned savings and what he had put aside for his children to build the business up again.

Chair Landrieu, members of the Committee, for many of these businesses, more loans simply aren't an option.

They need direct assistance to make the necessary repairs and start hiring and operating again.

That's why I was encouraged to see the White House's supplemental request of $60 billion in aid to help affected states rebuild and recover, and help families restore their lives to something approaching normal.

Frankly, it may not be enough, but it's a start. A good start.

And I was very pleased to see that it included Community Development Block Grants and made small business grants an eligible use of these funds.

Everyone on the Committee - and all of us here - are well aware that small businesses aren't just critical to the men and women that own them, they're vital to our job market and are the backbone of our economy.

But Sandy threw a wrench into this engine of job growth in November, and workers suffered as a result. It's now up to us to get that engine working again.

According to the ADP report, businesses with fewer than 50 employees added only 19,000 jobs in November, the lowest number in nearly two years.

And the share of jobs added by small businesses, which typically account for up to a half of all private-sector jobs created, fell to a low of 16.2 percent.

Not only are small businesses owners like Pam and Jeff Spinardi and small businesses like the Candle Shop critical to our economy, they are also the heart and soul of the local communities they serve.

They represent the best of who we are, and they deserve our support.

Indeed, no rebuilding process is complete without helping to rebuild these small businesses.

I look forward to working with this Committee and my colleagues in the Senate to ensure that local heroes like Pam and Jeff -- and all those small businesses who were affected by the devastation of Sandy have all of the help they need to rebuild.

I want to thank the Committee, and thank you, Chair Landrieu, for taking the time to come to New Jersey to see exactly what our small business owners are facing.

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