News From the
Committee on Small Business
Nydia M. Velázquez, Ranking Democratic Member

For Immediate Release
May 17, 2006

CONTACT: Kate Davis, Allyson Ivins, (202) 225-4038

Critical Small Business Bill Stalls in Committee Mark-Up
Republicans cancel mark-up; unprepared to address important small business issues

WASHINGTON - Today, Republicans hastily cancelled their mark-up of H.R. 5352, The Small Business Reauthorization Act. The bill had been introduced this past Thursday with no Democratic or Republican co-sponsors. Given its limited scope, H.R. 5352 failed to address the needs of small businesses.

"It is clear that the SBA is at a crossroads today - their budget has been cut in half, programs have been allowed to deteriorate and the agency has been mismanaged. As a result our nation's small businesses desperately need an advocate that will meet their needs," Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez, Ranking Democrat on the House Small Business Committee said. "Today would have been the first step toward accomplishing that goal. However, this bill simply did not meet the needs of small businesses."

H.R. 5352 - which was introduced late last Thursday and was to be marked-up without a legislative hearing - actually increased the cost of capital for entrepreneurs, reduced funding for Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) and Women's Business Centers (WBCs), and created bureaucracy for small business owners. Congresswoman Velázquez stated that, "I hope that this delay will allow us time to go back and proceed in a bipartisan fashion that has always been the history of this committee."

The bill also failed to address a number of critical small business issues today. While small businesses are facing skyrocketing energy and healthcare costs, the bill did not provide any provisions to help entrepreneurs cope with these price increases. As small businesses continue to be unfairly left out of the federal marketplace, H.R. 5352 lacks provisions to restore fairness to the procurement system. While thousands of small businesses in the Gulf Coast have been left without the assistance they needed following Hurricane Katrina, this bill does nothing to strengthen the disaster loan program so it can adequately respond to future disasters. Given the lack of focus on substantive small business issues in H.R. 5352, Republicans decided to postpone the mark-up until a later date.

"It is my hope that we will be able to work together on a bill that will truly meet the needs of small businesses," Congresswoman Velázquez said. "Small business owners saw H.R. 5352 and recognized that it did not address their concerns. It is important that any reauthorization bill that passes out of this committee be a strong, bipartisan, effort that most importantly meets the needs of this nation's entrepreneurs - we now have a another chance to make that happen."

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