Back in January I posted on the current plans of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee of the Senate. The committee actually ended up not working on that.
The committee last met on June 26 and voted on Senate Bills 1671 and 1662. If you listen to the broadcast, you should skip the first 19 minutes, which is simply a screen saying the commmittee is about to meet. The vote takes place at about 50 minutes into the video. Basically the meeting is waiting until the last 5 minutes for the vote, but while they were waiting the Senators took turns giving statements.
All 19 Senators voted 'yes', although many of them voted by proxy.
The full press announcement:
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
WASHINGTON – Today the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship passed two important pieces of legislation for small business owners across the country, with a focus on strengthening business ownership opportunities for minorities and women. The legislation reauthorizes and improves the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) and New Market Venture Capital (NMVC) programs through 2010, and boosts key small business counseling and assistance programs. The bills, sponsored by Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee, will ensure more small businesses have access to these key programs.
"Right now, the government isn’t reaching small businesses in the comprehensive way that is needed in our economy," said Kerry. "It’s our job to expand vital programs and create more economic opportunities in underserved communities by placing them within reach of minority and women entrepreneurs. By increasing venture capital investment in small businesses and ramping up our entrepreneurial development programs, which these two bills do, we are working in a bipartisan way to get all of America’s small businesses the resources they need to create jobs and succeed."
The Small Business Venture Capital Act (S. 1662) will ensure the continued availability of venture capital for small firms through the SBIC and NMVC programs, promote venture capital investment in rural, urban and low-income areas, simplify the programs’ regulations, increase the amount of funds that can be invested in one business, and encourage new and existing investors to increase their involvement. Kerry helped create the NMVC program in 1999.
Last year, SBIC financing totaling more than $21 billion supported over 2,000 small businesses which employed 286,000 people. Nearly one-third of these businesses were less than two years old. The bill will increase NMVC licenses, bring the program in line with the New Markets Tax Credit, and provide authority for the program to leverage a total of $250 million in low-income community investments.
S. 1671, the entrepreneurial development bill, expands Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), Women’s Business Centers (WBCs), and SCORE, among other programs. In particular, the bill creates the Minority Entrepreneurship Program, which Kerry championed last Congress, to target minority students in highly skilled fields such as engineering, manufacturing, science and technology, and guide them towards entrepreneurship as a career option.
The bill also promotes small business economic development in Indian Country by establishing new programs to support Native American entrepreneurship. In addition, the Kerry-Snowe bill will provide regulatory assistance and information about available health care options to small businesses.
I don't think either bill is actually scheduled for a vote yet. Thomas shows that they haven't been brought to the floor.
Senator Landrieu also includes $25M for small business to aid in Katrina relief:
Friday, June 29, 2007
WASHINGTON – United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., today announced that the Small Business Administration (SBA) will reopen the application period for SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loans for small businesses impacted by the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes. Sen. Landrieu, a member of the Senate Small Business Committee and the Senate Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds the SBA, included $25 million and the authorization to reopen the loans in the supplemental spending bill that passed last month.
In addition, Senators Kerry and Snowe added to HR 6 (the energy bill that passed recently):
The provisions added to the energy bill will:
- Require the Small Business Administration (SBA) to implement within 90 days an energy efficiency program that was mandated in the 2005 Energy Policy Act;
- Establish an audit program to increase energy efficiency using Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs);
- Promote financing agreements between small businesses and utility companies to increase energy efficiency;
- Create a telecommuting pilot program at the SBA responsible for educational materials and outreach to small businesses on the benefits of telecommuting;
- Allow small businesses conducting energy efficiency or renewable energy research and development to be given priority consideration in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs; and
- Establish loans for small firms to invest in use of renewable sources of energy in their business.
During the markup on the 26th, Senator Thune mentioned that the unemployment rate on Indian Reservations was 45%, with high levels of alcoholism, suicide and other problems. Numerous sources of the problems were mentioned, such as the high level of poverty, lack of resources and remoteness of locations.
Funding from the bills would target some money for relief of the problem. Now that the bills are out of committee, getting them voted on and passed in the Senate is the next step. If you can, contact your Senators and support these bills.
Also:
On Wednesday, July 18, 2007, at 2:00 p.m., the Committee will hold a hearing entitled, "Increasing Government Accountability and Ensuring Fairness in Small Business Contracting."
Currently most federal contracts (about 97%) are already sole-sourced or otherwise not available to small businesses. The meeting next Wednesday should discuss this:
Provisions for H.R. 1873 include:
Requires federal agencies to award 30 percent of their contracting dollars to small businesses;
Increases the contracting goals for women-owned businesses and minority-owned businesses to 8 percent each;
Requires contractors to report compliance with their subcontracting plans;
Strengthens requirements forcing procurement officers to justify the bundling of contracts into large packages;
Directs the government to limit the size of contracts that can be awarded without competition to Alaska Native Corporations.
Small businesses across the country should contact members of this committee and insist that the time has come to review H.R. 1873. Members of the Senate Small Business Committee are: Olympia J. Snowe • John Kerry, • Christopher Bond, • Carl Levin • Ben Cardin • Allen Harkin •! Elizabeth Dole • Joe Lieberman • Norm Coleman • Mary Landrieu • Bob Corker • John Thune • John Isakson • Maria Cantwell • Dave Vitter • Evan Bayh • Mike Enzi • Mark Pryor • Jon Tester