Closing the gap for women entrepreneurs should be a priority for the federal government - and yet the Small Business Administration has failed in their promise to women business owners.

The people of South and Central Texas and the Coastal Bend need jobs, they need health care, they need water infrastructure improvements, they need a quality education, and they need the resources to keep our borders safe and secure.

We need to work together, on a bipartisan basis, to create new jobs, increase job training, enact real and substantive middle class tax relief, and reward companies that create jobs at home.

High bankruptcy rates, increased credit card debt, and identity theft make it imperative that all of us take an active role in providing financial and economic education during all stages of one's life.

There has been a growing consensus across the country - from statehouses to the White House and the halls of Congress - that we need to take dramatic steps to improve our secondary schools.

America cannot turn its back on the economic future and women-owned businesses are part of that future.

It is incumbent upon all of us to build communities with the educational opportunities and support systems in place to help our youth become successful adults.