• NASE Members Meet President Bush at Women's Summit

• NASE a National Supporter of "Cover the Uninsured Week"

• Congress Again Temporarily Reauthorizes SBA

NASE Members Meet President Bush at Women's Summit

NASE Members joined hundreds of other women entrepreneurs in meeting President George W. Bush at the Women Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century Summit held in Cleveland, Ohio, last week. The summit offered an opportunity for micro-business owners to share their experiences as entrepreneurs, learn from industry experts, and network with each other and government representatives.

Hosted by the Department of Labor and the U.S. Small Business Administration, and sponsored by the NASE, the summit offered educational seminars, as well as mentoring and networking opportunities. President Bush headlined the event, speaking for almost an hour about the importance of the small-business owner to America’s economy.

Several of our Members stopped by the Association’s expo booth to introduce themselves to NASE staff. We always enjoy getting to know NASE Members on a personal level, and hearing about the issues and areas of concerns you have as a micro-business owner.

All of the discussions and breakout sessions from the conference are streamed online at www.women-21.gov.

NASE a National Supporter of "Cover the Uninsured Week"

With over 60 percent of the 44 million Americans without health insurance coming from a family where the head of household works for a small business, the NASE announces its support of Cover the Uninsured Week, May 10 – 16, 2004.

An unprecedented effort that raised awareness about the plight of uninsured Americans, last year’s inaugural Cover the Uninsured Week featured nearly 900 events across the country. This year, the NASE joins hundreds of other national organizations, honorary co-chairs former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and national spokesperson and television’s ER star Noah Wyle in supporting the campaign.

“The businesses that can least afford it are paying disproportionately more for access to quality health insurance,” said NASE President Robert Hughes. “Finding solutions that provide a fairer shake for these enterprises not only is in the best interests of small-business owners; it’s in the best interests of the nation as a whole.”

According to NASE original research, seventy percent of micro-businesses with fewer than ten employees do not have health coverage for themselves, or offer it to their employees, citing costs as the main reason. In addition, the self-employed currently pay on average 18 percent more for health insurance than those who work for larger companies; a situation rooted in federal tax codes that deal jolting penalties to micro-businesses. While corporations are able to deduct health insurance premiums as a business expense and forego FICA (Social Security and Medicare) taxes on these expenses, the self-employed are unable to deduct premiums as a business expense and are required to pay an additional 15.3 percent self-employment tax on these expenses. Micro-businesses also frequently miss out on the economies of scale available to bigger businesses when purchasing health insurance.

This year’s Cover the Uninsured Week will feature events across the country to inform Americans about the issue of the uninsured – who is affected, why they are uninsured, and the consequences of being uninsured.

In addition, the NASE supports several legislative changes to make health coverage more affordable and accessible to the self-employed and micro-business owners.

The Self-Employed Health Care Affordability Act, H.R. 1873, would eliminate the payment of self-employment tax on health insurance premiums for sole proprietors, allowing them to deduct this costs as an ordinary business expense like other business entities currently do. Association health plans, H.R. 660 and S. 545, would also lower costs by as much as 15 percent to 30 percent through consolidated buying power and administrative efficiencies.

Read more about Cover the Uninsured Week at www.covertheuninsured.org. Find out more about the NASE legislative proposals on health care at advocacy.nase.org.

Congress Again Temporarily Reauthorizes SBA

Congress passed another temporary reauthorization of the U.S. Small Business Administration last week, allowing the federal agency and its programs to run until April 2. Full reauthorization of the agency for this year has been held up by differences on loan caps, budget requests and other program details.

Included in H.R. 3915 was also a temporary extension of the SBA 504 loan program until May 21. The 504 Program provides long-term, fixed-rate financing to small businesses to acquire real estate, machinery or equipment for expansion or modernization. The program is designed to be a job creator – it exists to help small businesses expand and create full time, permanent jobs in their communities.

The legislation, however, does not address the continuing budget problems the SBA 7(a) loan program faces. Ranking Member of the House Small Business Committee Nydia Velázquez took issue with the legislation for this omission, releasing a statement that House Leadership had committed to deal with the issue by the April 2 reauthorization deadline. The 7(a) program was shut down temporarily in January, and a $750,000 limit was imposed on loans.

The NASE continues to follow the SBA reauthorization and budget debates. Your Association is working with the Small Business Access to Capital Coalition and SBA staff to find a solution.