Americans are frustrated, and rightly so, that until now the public funds made available to save Wall Street have not yet created jobs on America’s proverbial Main Streets. In Pierce County, the unemployment rate stands at 9 percent, and statewide unemployment stands at 9.3 percent.

Through major federal efforts over the past year, our largest banks have been pulled back from the brink of collapse and our overall economy appears to be on the mend, but there is more work to be done. While the stock market continues to show new signs of life, the unemployed in Washington state and around the country continue to search for work.

If we are to help hardworking Americans get back to work, we must rely on – and support – the backbone of our economy: small businesses and the community banks that provide them capital.

The role of our small businesses cannot be overstated. U.S. small businesses create more than half of the private gross domestic product (GDP), employ just over half of all private-sector employees, pay 44 percent of private-sector payroll, and have generated 64 percent of the new jobs over the past fifteen years.

Small businesses are the anchor of our communities and the foundation of our nation’s economy. Through increased lending by our community banks – which call the same towns and cities home as our small businesses – we can spur job growth on Main Street.

However, much of the money used to revive our economy has not directly gone to enabling small businesses to increase hiring. Additionally, these businesses are reliant upon accessible lines of credit for operating capital from our community banks.

It is essential that we support the businesses and banks in our home towns as much as we support the larger Wall Street banks. If big banks are considered “too big to fail,” our community banks must be regarded as “too indispensable to fail.”

For example, a current concern at many independently owned auto dealers throughout the South Sound is whether they will have access to lines of credit to bring cars to the showroom floor, prepare and market the cars for sale, and make payroll and expenses. Once a customer enters the showroom floor and makes a purchase, they will then need to draw upon local banks for credit to complete the sale. If neither the car dealer nor the consumer can access credit, these businesses cannot prosper.

With these concerns in mind, the president has asked Congress to increase the maximum size of the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) flagship 7(a) loans from $2 million to $5 million.

Additionally, he requested an increase in the size limit of the SBA’s 504 loans, which primarily are used for real estate, from $2 million to $5 million for standard borrowers, and from $4 million to $5.5 million for manufacturers. There is a demonstrated need for these increases, and Congress must respond to assist our local economies recover.

To help make additional lending more feasible for our community banks – which provide most loans to our small businesses – the administration’s plan will also help local banks reasonably access more capital through the already authorized TARP funding. This funding will be available at a lower interest rate for banks with less than $1 billion in assets, from 5 percent to 3 percent.

These are important steps to increase community banks’ ability to lend and small businesses’ ability to get the capital they need to thrive and grow, but we cannot stop there.

Our tax structure must provide incentives to encourage job creation and sustain economic growth. We must look at the competitiveness of our tax system and consider ways to advantage business being conducted in the United States. There is a clear need to retrain our work force so that when jobs become available, workers have the skill sets necessary to compete for those jobs.

In a changing, global economy, it is essential that we adjust our policies to provide Americans and our businesses the equipment and tools to not only compete, but to excel.

Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, represents the 9th Congressional District in Congress.