WASHINGTON— The Republican Steering Committee recommendation to re-elect Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO) as Chairman of the Committee on Small Business for the upcoming 113th Congress was ratified today by the House Republican Conference.

“I deeply appreciate this opportunity to serve and the confidence my colleagues have placed in me,” said Graves. “I look forward to another productive two years as Chairman of the Small Business Committee. The Committee will keep fighting for small businesses and working to protect them from too much government interference. The Committee will continue to solicit input directly from small business owners and seek solutions to their concerns. Thriving small businesses are essential to the strong economic recovery this country so desperately needs.”

Under Chairman Graves’ direction in the 112th Congress, the Committee held 80 hearings, including 9 field hearings, and introduced 19 bills. In addition to hearings, the oversight activities of the Committee spanned more than 20 different departments and agencies in the federal government.  The Committee advocated for the repeal of the health care law's 1099 reporting requirement, the repeal of the 3% withholding requirement for contracting businesses, and launched a comprehensive effort to reform small business contracting policies to increase procurement opportunities for small firms. In addition, the Committee reauthorized two important R&D programs, the SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) and STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) programs, for their first full reauthorization in more than a decade. The Committee also launched an interactive web forum called“Small Biz Open Mic”,a platform to communicate with small businesses across America.

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