{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://davids.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-sharice-davids-introduces-bill-support-women-s-business-centers-help-female", "Rep. Sharice Davids Introduces Bill to Support Womens Business Centers; Help Female Entrepreneurs Start and Grow Businesses", "2019-09-20", "2019", "2019-09", "Democrat", "House", "KS", "Sharice Davids", "D000629", "davids.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Representative Sharice Davids today introduced the Women's Business Centers Improvements Act to help enhance resources and opportunities for female entrepreneurs in Kansas. The bipartisan bill strengthens the Women's Business Centers (WBC) program, which provides a full range of counseling and training services for small businesses primarily owned by women.\n\nWomen are the fastest growing sector of entrepreneurs, but many unique challenges still exist for women, particularly women of color, to start and grow a business. By strengthening Women's Business Centers, we can increase access to vital counseling and technical training services for female entrepreneurs so they can succeed right here in Kansas, said Rep. Sharice Davids.\n\nThe Kansas City Women's Business Center is located in Fairway, KS and serves over 600 clients annually in the Kansas City Metro and across the state of Kansas through business trainings, workshops, counseling, and access to capital programs.\n\nNot only will women entrepreneurs in Kansas City and our surrounding region benefit from this legislation, but women all over the country will have the opportunity to access more of the resources they need to start and grow their businesses. Women are exploring entrepreneurship as a pathway to financial self-sufficiency. Reauthorizing WBC funding is imperative to our consulting and training programs for women entrepreneurs serving more than 145,000 women entrepreneurs each year, said Sherry Turner, Executive Director of the Kansas City Women's Business Center.\n\nThe Women's Business Center program was established 30 years ago to help women entrepreneurs succeed, and now there are 150 locations throughout the U.S. which serve over 150,000 entrepreneurs annually.\n\nThe legislation introduced by Davids reauthorizes WBCs for four years, increasing the authorization level to $31.5 million, and increases the cap on individual center grants for the first time since the program began. The bill also establishes an accreditation program run by the Association of Small Business Development Centers to ensure all WBCs provide excellent service and counseling.\n\nTo view the bill, click HERE.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://davids.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-sharice-davids-introduces-bill-support-women-s-business-centers-help-female"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7123351097106934, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}