Working to Support Job Creation and Economic Growth

One of the key parts of supporting economic growth on the Olympic Peninsula is helping to support our small businesses, which have played a major role in helping to create jobs and further promote innovation. Congress should take additional steps to help support our small businesses.

• Government should ensure that we’re giving our job creators the tools that they need to be successful. That’s why when Representative Kilmer heard about the proposed closing of two Small Business Development Centers in our region, he worked with local stakeholders to identify how we could keep those facilities open and ensure that local businesses can take advantage of the vital assistance these Centers provide.
   
• Small business owners spend too much time and money just trying to comply with our complicated federal tax code. Since 1986, Congress and various Administrations have added layer upon layer of targeted – and often temporary – tax benefits to the code. While well-intentioned, our tax code is now mired with inefficiencies and instability, imposes burdensome compliance costs that impede economic growth and impairs the ability of businesses and individuals to plan ahead and compete.  Representative Kilmer supports tax reform that creates a pro-growth environment. An improved tax code will provide certainty for individuals and businesses and will make America more competitive.  We need tax policies that encourage investments here in the United States of America – not someplace else.
   
• Another major challenge facing small business owners is a regulatory environment that seems to be constantly shifting. Congress should make it easier for small businesses to comply with regulations. That’s why Representative Kilmer supports reasonable regulatory reform that helps target wasteful and costly regulations and ensures that our regulations are easy to understand and serve a legitimate purpose. Representative Kilmer cosponsored, H.R. 1321, the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act, a bill that ensures that small businesses are not nickel-and-dimed by fines and penalties for minor regulatory violations.  That bill would direct federal agencies not to fine small businesses for first-time paperwork violations unless there was a potential for serious harm to the public interest.
   
• The Export-Import Bank is another important resource for our small businesses. The Bank helps local businesses get the financing they need to export their products around the world. Unfortunately, Congress has recently only passed short-term reauthorizations of the Bank, which limit its ability to most effectively manage its lending and ensure a broader range of companies and industries are able to access the financing they need to be globally competitive. That is why Representative Kilmer is also calling on Congress to provide a long-term reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank.
   
• Many entrepreneurs trying to launch a new business or expand the one they have struggle to get access to capital. Business lending is essential for research and technological development, for helping businesses start-up, and for investments in critical equipment. For some young companies, resources like the Small Business Administration’s loan programs can provide much-needed capital that will spur job creation and growth. Congress can and should do more to help our small businesses get the resources they need to grow and compete.
   
• If America is going to remain competitive in a 21st-century economy, we need to raise our game. As a Member of the New Democrat Coalition, Representative Kilmer brought together fellow committee members to develop a set of Principles to guide a reauthorization of America COMPETES. Representative Kilmer held a series of roundtables with national organizations, industry leaders, the education community and technology experts in Washington D.C. and Washington State to get input on how to make the reauthorization bipartisan and effective in increasing U.S. competitiveness.
   
• A member of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Representative Kilmer has been fighting to strengthen federally funded research and development at our universities. The University of Washington alone received nearly $1.1 billion in federal research funds in 2011, supporting more than 270 new start-up companies.