Issues

  • Access to Capital

    Access to Capital

    For America’s Main Street businesses, having access to capital means the difference between stocking shelves or hanging for sale signs, creating jobs or contributing to layoffs, exploring new technologies and new markets or stunting their own growth and potential.
  • Broadband

    Broadband

    In today's competitive marketplace consumers are not limited to the shops down the corner. With the click of a mouse, they now have access to goods and services from Main Streets around the world. To remain competitive and bring the global market within their reach, high-speed internet is a vital tool for small businesses.
  • Business Development

    Business Development

    Small firms employ half the American workforce and have created two-thirds of all new jobs. Yet, when the economy takes a downturn, small businesses are the first to get hit. In the first four of the 2008-2009 recession, 80 percent of the jobs lost came from small firms.
  • Contracting

    Contracting

    Access to federal contracts often means the difference between surviving and thriving for our nation's small businesses. One of the principle oversight responsibilities of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship is to ensure that all small businesses have the opportunity to sell their goods and services to the federal government - this includes making sure women, minorities, veterans and other underserved groups have equal access to contracts.
  • Disaster Assistance Programs

    Disaster Assistance Programs

    Entrepreneurs recovering from a disaster can't wait for traditional sources of financing before rebuilding their businesses; neither can the American consumers who depend on their goods and services to get their lives back on track. The goal of the Small Business Administration (SBA) in times of disasters should be to facilitate a quick economic recovery through their disaster loan program.
  • Healthcare

    Healthcare

    One concern we hear over and over in the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee from our nation's 27 million small businesses - the businesses that employ more than half America's workforce - is healthcare. Seventy-eight percent of small businesses recently reported that having access to stable, affordable, quality health insurance is their number one concern.
  • Innovation & Research

    Innovation & Research

    The dreams of America's entrepreneurs today often become the nation's innovations tomorrow. Small businesses produce more than 14 times more patents than large businesses and universities and employ nearly 40 percent of America's scientists and engineers. That's why the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship has taken up the reauthorization and improvement of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs as a top priority.
  • Minority Entrepreneurs

    Minority Entrepreneurs

    The number of businesses in our minority communities continues to grow, adding to our competitive advantage. Over the last 10 years, minority business enterprises accounted for more than 50 percent of the two million new businesses started in the United States and created 4.7 million jobs. There are now more than four million minority-owned companies in the United States, with annual sales totaling close to $700 billion.
  • Veteran-owned Enterprises

    Veteran-owned Enterprises

    As brave American men and women continue to serve around the world, the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship recognizes the economic hardships that small businesses can suffer as owners and key employees are deployed. The Committee is also responsible for overseeing assistance for helping veterans start or expand a business once they return home.
  • Women Entrepreneurs

    Women Entrepreneurs

    Women business owners employ more than 4 million workers and contribute about $1 trillion to the economy. But while women-owned enterprises now comprise the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. business community, they continue to struggle to obtain equal access to capital and contracts. Women entrepreneurs receive more loan denials - the share of dollars of loans to women was about 22 percent, according to a 2005 report - and only 3.5 percent of all federal contracts, far short of the 5 percent goal.
  • Taxes

    Taxes

    The Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship recognizes the importance of a fair and simple federal tax code for small businesses to help keep them competitive. Targeted tax relief, passed as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aids entrepreneurs and allows small businesses to carry back their 2008 losses to offset their profits from the previous five years, providing them with quick access to needed funds. The Act also allows small businesses to immediately write off up to $250,000 of qualified investment in 2009, providing an immediate tax incentive to invest and create jobs.
  • Trade

    Trade

    In today's global and technological marketplace, a successful business has no boundaries. Yet, foreign markets remain an untapped resource for most small firms, with less than 1 percent of the nation's 27 million small businesses exporting. This number is drastically lower than in some other developed nations where as much as 15 percent of small businesses are exporters. While small businesses account for 97 percent of all exporters, their exports make up just more than a quarter of the country's export volume, a number lower today than it was ten years ago. This indicates that exporting among small businesses is growing at a much slower rate than among large firms.