• NASE President Discusses Capital on Capitol Hill

• House Passes SBA Advocacy Bill

NASE President Discusses Capital on Capitol Hill

NASE President Robert Hughes is in Washington, D.C. this week to explain why access to capital is necessary for the continued growth of your micro-businesses and the nation’s economy. Hughes will be representing your views about this important issue at the Senate Small Business Committee roundtable.

Access to capital is an important issue for NASE Members. In the recent NASE micro-business poll, 54 percent of Members ranked access to capital as one of their top two business challenges for the upcoming year. This is not a surprising statistic. Surveys from the Federal Reserve Board indicate that banks have been tightening lending standards, and bank rates have been increasing more rapidly than their costs. Banks are also less likely to offer loans to small businesses, forcing micro-businesses to use their own capital and revenues to fund, maintain and grow their businesses.

Hughes brought this important issue to Congress in March when he met with the House Small Business Committee. This week Hughes will tell senators about the difficulties that the self-employed and micro-businesses have accessing loans and investments. Hughes will focus on ways to alleviate these difficulties such as encouraging lending to small businesses by non-bank financial institutions and expanding and increasing the Small Business Administration’s small-business loans and venture capital equity investments.

 

House Passes SBA Advocacy Bill

On Tuesday, the House passed the Small Business Advocacy Improvement Act (H.R. 4231). This legislation would strengthen the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, allowing it to more effectively and independently protect small businesses from unnecessary federal regulations.

H.R. 4231 was pulled from the House floor two weeks ago because of Bush administration concerns. Bush administration officials asked that some of the language in the bill be reworked, specifically a provision that would permit the chief counsel to continue to serve for a year after the end of the appointing president’s term. Traditionally, presidential appointees resign at the end of the president’s term. While the provision was meant to foster continuity within the office, administration officials believe it infringed on the power of the president. The provision will be addressed when the House votes on the measure.

“The Office of Advocacy serves an important role as watchdog for small businesses in the regulatory process, but it needs more authority and independence to be most effective,” House Small Business Committee Chairman Don Manzullo (R-IL) said. “This legislation gives the Office the tools it needs to be more effective.”

The bill would grant the Office of Advocacy a protected line item in the president’s budget and create two new deputy counsels for regulation and economic research. The legislation also authorizes a larger budget for the Office of Advocacy to hire more staff, thereby increasing its vigilance on excessive regulations. In addition, the bill encourages the SBA Ombudsman to work more closely with the Office of Advocacy in coordinating opinions on the impact of regulations on small businesses.

Minor differences with the Senate-passed version of the bill (S. 395) are likely to be resolved quickly in conference.
 

Do any of these issues affect you? Do you want to be proactive in helping the micro-business community? Visit the NASE Legislative Action Center and be a Small Business Crusader. Members of Congress appreciate hearing from their constituents. Letting your members know how you feel on an issue puts strength behind the NASE legislative agenda.


For more information, contact Maureen Petron, NASE public affairs manager, at (202) 466-2100 or mpetron@nase.org.