BEACON – During a small business walk down Main Street in Beacon today, U.S. Congresswoman Sue Kelly visited local small businesses to talk with owners and employees about the challenges facing their businesses.

 

Kelly, a senior member of the House Small Business Committee who is sponsoring several pro-small business bills in Congress, sought input from small business owners on various issues related to federal government.

 

“As a former small business owner and as a member of the House Small Business Committee, one of my top priorities in Washington is to protect our small businesses here in the Hudson Valley,” Kelly said. “It is very important that I speak directly to small business owners and their employees on a regular basis to confirm the most pressing problems facing small businesses today.”

 

Beacon Mayor Clara Lou Gould and Dutchess County legislator John Forman joined Kelly for the small business walk.

 

Overregulation and excessive taxes on small businesses were some of the primary topics discussed during the meetings.
 
Kelly is sponsoring legislation that would enable Congress to better scrutinize federal laws and regulations imposed on small businesses. The bill – called the Cut Unnecessary Regulatory Burden (CURB) for Small Business Act – would prevent federal agencies from implementing redundant or unnecessary regulations that force small business owners to spend extraneous time, money, and energy completing burdensome paperwork rather than hiring new workers and growing their businesses. 
 
Small business owners and Kelly also discussed the lack of health insurance options for small businesses.
 
The House last week passed legislation co-sponsored by Kelly that would help lower costs and increase access to health insurance for local small business owners, their workers, and their families. The Small Business Health Fairness Act would allow small businesses or self-employed individuals affiliated with a professional or trade association to band together as a group to purchase health insurance, saving them up to 30 percent on the cost of premiums that they currently face when trying to obtain health insurance on their own in the private market. That legislation will now be considered by the Senate.
 
Kelly also discussed two other bills she has authored that have passed the House and are pending in the Senate. Her Increased Capital Access for Growing Business Act would help small and medium-sized business owners in the Hudson Valley gain increased access to capital, enabling them to sustain or grow their businesses. Her Business Checking Freedom Act repeals an outdated financial law that bans small businesses from earning interest on their checking accounts.

Kelly's small business checking bill passed the House in May by a 424-1 vote.

 
"No Dutchess County resident should be losing the option of earning interest on their own money simply because they own a small business,” Kelly said. "No outdated ban should be keeping small business owners from collecting the same interest their money could earn if it were held by an individual. It's just unfair, and I hope the Senate recognizes this problem as the House did and passes this bill."
 

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