FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 17, 2014
Contact: (202) 224-8277

Resolution recognizes importance of buying local during upcoming holiday season  

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Senate this week passed Senate Resolution 548 (S.Res.548) to designate November 29, 2014 as “Small Business Saturday.” Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Jim Risch (R-ID), the chairwoman and ranking member on the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, introduced the resolution to encourage consumers during the holiday season to support local businesses that create jobs, boost the economy, and preserve neighborhoods. 

Forty-four Senators cosponsored the resolution. 

“Small businesses drive job creation on Main Streets across the United States, creating two-thirds of all new private sector jobs,” Cantwell said. “I encourage Americans to buy local and support small, independent businesses on Small Business Saturday.” 

“In Idaho and across the United States, small businesses are the backbone of local economies,” Risch said. “I am proud to partner with Chairwoman Cantwell in designating Small Business Saturday 2014 to distinguish the independently owned and operated businesses in these local communities. I encourage consumers to support their neighborhood small businesses, the engine that keeps America’s economy running, by shopping local on Saturday, November 29th”. 

Now in its fifth year, Small Business Saturday falls between Black Friday and Cyber Monday and encourages consumers to shop local and support small businesses during one of the heaviest shopping periods of the year. According to the National Retail Federation, an estimated 141 million shoppers spent $57.4 billion on consumer purchases during Thanksgiving weekend last year. Shopping at independent, locally-owned businesses puts 52 cents of every dollar spent back into the local community. 

The full text of the Senate Resolution follows:
 
Whereas there are 28,200,000 small businesses in the United States;
 
Whereas small businesses represent 99.7 percent of all businesses with employees in the United States;
 
Whereas small businesses employ over 48 percent of the employees in the private sector in the United States;
 
Whereas small businesses pay over 42 percent of the total payroll of the employees in the private sector in the United States;
 
Whereas small businesses constitute 98 percent of firms exporting goods;
 
Whereas small businesses are responsible for more than 46 percent of private sector output;
 
Whereas small businesses generated 63 percent of net new jobs created from 1993 through 2013;
 
Whereas 87 percent of consumers in the United States agree that the success of small businesses is critical to the overall economic health of the United States;
 
Whereas 89 percent of consumers in the United States agree that small businesses contribute positively to local communities by supplying jobs and generating tax revenue;
 
Whereas 93 percent of consumers in the United States agree that it is important to support the small businesses in their communities; and 

Whereas November 29, 2014 would be an appropriate date to designate as `Small Business Saturday': Now, therefore, be it
 
Resolved, That the Senate—
 
(1) designates November 29, 2014 as `Small Business Saturday'; and
 
(2) supports efforts—
 
(A) to encourage consumers to shop locally; and
 
(B) to increase awareness of the value of locally owned small businesses and the impact of locally owned small businesses on the economy of the United States.  

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 20, 2014
Contact: (202) 224-8277

Women represent 29 percent of business owners, but just 11 percent of SBA loans in Washington state

SEATTLE, WA – Women-owned businesses are a growing economic force in Washington state, generating $26 billion and employing 153,000 people. But women entrepreneurs in Washington still face significant challenges in getting fair access to capital when starting their own business, according to a report released today by U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

In Washington state, women comprise 29 percent of business owners but receive only 11 percent of the total value of all business loans issued by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), according to the report, 21^st Century Barriers to Women’s Entrepreneurship: State of Washington Edition. Nationwide, women receive only 4 percent of all small business loans. In many cases, conventional business loans aren’t tailored to fit the needs of women business owners, according to the report.

“Today, we are releasing a report that shows Washington’s 21^st Century barriers to women entrepreneurs,” Cantwell said. “In Washington state, we do have a great number of women entrepreneurs. But just think, how many more great services and great products could be created – and more importantly, how many more jobs – if they had the support and access to capital. We want an economy that has full economic participation. To get that, you need to empower women, and that’s why we are here."

“We are making progress, but we know that many women businesses still do not have equal access to economic opportunity,” said U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA-01), a former businesswoman and entrepreneur who joined Cantwell in a press conference about the report. “We need to do more in the other Washington to advance an economic agenda that supports women, both as business owners and as workers.  I look forward to continuing to work with Senator Cantwell and my colleagues in the House to fight for policies that make sure we build an economy that works for everyone.”

The report follows a Small Business Committee report issued last month that showed women-owned businesses nationally face significant barriers in gaining access to lending that their male counterparts do not. Among the findings in the Washington state report:

• Growth in Washington state: From 1987 to 2013, the number of women-owned firms increased by 90 percent, compared to the national growth rate of 59 percent. Since 2007, women-owned firms in Washington state have added 5,000 new jobs.

• Access to lending: Nationwide, just $1 in every $23 of conventional small business loans go to women. The SBA often is a good option for women who are unable to obtain a conventional loan. But in Washington state, women received 11 percent of the value of SBA loans. Nationally, women received 13 percent of the total dollar value. Women also receive just 7 percent of venture funds.

• Getting relevant business training and counseling: The SBA-operated Women Business Center program was created to help support women-owned businesses get off the ground and has successfully provided training to thousands of women entrepreneurs each year. Washington state has three SBA-operated Women’s Business Centers in Seattle, Lacey, and Spokane. These centers successfully provide business training and counseling to women business owners and have helped start 116 new businesses in 2014. But they continue to operate on funding levels set 15 years ago, despite increasing needs. 

• Equal access to federal contracts: The federal government has never met its goal of awarding 5 percent of contracts to women-owned businesses – a goal enacted by legislation 20 years ago. In Washington state, the percentage is lower. Women-owned businesses received just 1.6 percent of all federal contracts awarded in Washington state. That translates to $313 million in lost contracting opportunities.

“The state of women’s business ownership today may be best characterized as ‘everywhere and nowhere’,” the report said. “While women entrepreneurs have achieved modest gains in our economy, major gaps and inequalities persist that threaten those gains.”

A copy of the report is available here.

In July, Cantwell introduced legislation – the “Women’s Small Business Ownership Act of 2014” – that would address the gender gap in lending by expanding or improving SBA programs to reach more women seeking business loans. The legislation would:

• Expand and improve the SBA Microloan program to reach more women borrowers who need loans of up to $50,000. The legislation would allow Microloan lenders to increase lending capacity from $5 million to $7 million and improve the program to better meet borrowers’ needs through more flexible terms and expanded technical assistance. 

• Reauthorize the SBA Intermediary Lending program – now a pilot program – to provide more women access to loans between $50,000 and $200,000.

• Increase funding for the Women’s Business Center program to expand and improve counseling and training services to reach more women entrepreneurs, especially in low-income areas.

• Allow sole-source contracting for federal contracts awarded through the Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract program, which would put women-owned businesses on equal footing with other disadvantaged groups in the contracting process.

The report was released during a press conference and tour of Glassybaby, a successful woman-owned business in Madrona that produces popular handmade glass votives. Founder Lee Rhodes started the company in 2001 after recovering from lung cancer. Rhodes was unable to obtain conventional small business loans even when her business was profitable and ready for growth.  She now has three Seattle stores and one in San Francisco, and has expanded from four to 152 employees. The company donates a portion of its revenue to charities that support those recovering from cancer.

Cantwell and DelBene were joined by Rhodes; Karyn Schwartz, Proprietor of SugarPill apothecary on Capitol Hill – who started her business with an SBA microloan; and Barbara Kasoff, President of Women Impacting Public Policy.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jennifer Cooper, (202) 406-4425 or Jennifer.Cooper@NFIB.org

Senate Legislation Protects Small Business from Job-Crushing Health Insurance Tax
Senators Barrasso, Hatch, Snowe Introduce Bill to Repeal HIT 

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 16, 2011 — United States Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) today introduced legislation, The Jobs and Premium Protection Act, to repeal the onerous Health Insurance Tax (HIT) which takes $87 billion away from small business by the end of the decade, resulting in a job-loss of 125,000 to 249,000 jobs in the private sector in 2021, according to a study released by the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation; small business will shoulder 59 percent of this job-loss burden. 

“The Health Insurance Tax is a Washington policy that will have a devastating impact on our nation’s job creators,” said Susan Eckerly, Senior Vice President of Public Policy. “The stark reality is that the country’s economy is still reeling, and every single job matters; the last thing people in the unemployment line want to hear is that one less job will be created and even more will be shed as a result of the HIT.  Because of the leadership of Senators Barrasso, Hatch and Snowe, small-business owners now have bipartisan and bicameral legislation that will repeal this tax and protect their ability to continue to create vital jobs.”

“Our legislation repeals this unfair, hidden tax on America’s job creators, and will save thousands of jobs across the country,” said United States Senator John Barrasso.  “This tax is just another example of how the President’s trillion dollar health spending law is only making things worse for small businesses and their workers. With 9 percent unemployment, hardworking Americans cannot afford to be hit hard by even higher premiums.  We need to stop the HIT on our economy now – before it starts.”

“Chock full of tax hikes, mandates and government overreach, the President’s $2.6 trillion health spending law is an anchor around our economy’s neck,” said United States Senator Orrin Hatch.  “The health law’s insurance tax is especially damaging, undercutting our economic recovery by increasing the cost of health coverage.  Money that could go to higher wages, new workers, or investment will instead go to pay this new tax.  With insurance premiums already skyrocketing and unemployment hovering at 9 percent, this tax makes no sense.  The President is demanding jobs legislation; he should start by supporting the repeal of this tax.”

“Preventing the new health insurance tax is critical, especially in the current economic environment,” said United States Senator Olympia J. Snowe.  “As the cost of health insurance continues to rise unabated – another 9 percent on average this year – individuals and small businesses are struggling to afford coverage.  Meanwhile, the Democrats’ health care law is set to impose this $60 billion tax and the Director of the Congressional Budget Office has confirmed this tax will be paid by the individuals and small businesses who buy health insurance.  This tax could increase the cost of health insurance by 15 percent for small businesses, and kill hundreds of thousands of jobs.  I am proud to be a sponsor of the Jobs and Premium Protection Act, and remain committed to repealing the job-killing health care law, as well as to repealing its worst pieces.”

The Health Insurance Tax, which goes into effect in 2014, will cost small-business owners, their employees and the self-employed, $87 billion in the first ten years and $208 billion in the following ten years; the tax impacts 2 million small businesses, 12 million employees and the self-employed who purchase in the individual market and 26 million employees who are covered by their employer, resulting in a cost of nearly $5,000 per family over a decade.

The NFIB Research Foundation’s BSIM (Business Size Impact Module) model suggests that such a price increase will reduce private sector employment by 125,000 to 249,000 jobs in 2021, with 59 percent of those losses falling on small business. The BSIM is a dynamic, multi-region forecasting model that analyzes the impact of policy “shocks” on the economy.  The BSIM is unique in ability among models to forecast the economic impact of policy on U.S. businesses differentiated by the size of the firm; in this case, small business is defined as those firms with less than 500 employees (Small Business Association definition).

Representative Charles Boustany (R-LA) has introduced legislation in the House, HR 1370, to repeal the Health Insurance Tax and his legislation currently has 78 bipartisan cosponsors, leading the way for a bicameral and bipartisan repeal of the Health Insurance Tax. 

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NFIB is the nation’s leading small business association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals. Founded in 1943 as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, NFIB gives small and independent business owners a voice in shaping the public policy issues that affect their business. NFIB’s powerful network of grassroots activists send their views directly to state and federal lawmakers through our unique member-only ballot, thus playing a critical role in supporting America’s free enterprise system. NFIB’s mission is to promote and protect the right of our members to own, operate and grow their businesses. More information is available online at www.NFIB.com/newsroom.

by Kent Hoover
Portfolio.com

Most folks consider the Small Business Lending Fund a disappointment.

Designed to provide up to $30 billion in cheap capital to community banks for use in making small business loans, the program only provided $4 billion. Most of the banks that applied for this capital were rejected.

So given this record, what does Senator Mary Landrieu want to do? She wants to give the program another shot.

Landrieu, the Louisiana Democrat who chairs the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, announced today that she wants to develop a Small Business Lending Fund II.

“Until this recession is at a distance in the rear-view mirror, I believe that this committee has an obligation to turn out time-tested as well as new and innovative programs to get capital into the hands of small businesses throughout our country,” Landrieu said.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, whose department handled the SBLF, told Landrieu that he’d be happy to work with her on this.

Geithner was the only witness at the committee’s hearing today, which focused on the Small Business Lending Fund and the State Small Business Credit Initiative. That program provided $1.2 billion in federal funds to state efforts to boost lending to small businesses.

Both Geithner and Landrieu, who sponsored the bill that created the Small Business Lending Fund, defended the program against Republican attacks.

Geithner said the 332 banks that received SBLF capital will leverage that money into $9 billion of additional lending to small businesses by the end of 2014. The State Business Credit Initiative will produce an additional $15 billion in lending, he said.

Landrieu said the amount of capital delivered to banks through the Small Business Lending Fund was not “as much as we had hoped,” but called it a “welcome start to getting capital to small businesses.”

Republicans, however, noted that community banks used all but $1.8 billion of the $4 billion in SBLF capital they received to pay off their Troubled Asset Relief Program obligations. These banks essentially paid off one taxpayer-provided credit card with another taxpayer-provided credit card that had lower interest rates, said Republican Senator Olympia Snowe.

“There’s no surprise in these numbers,” Geithner replied.

Banks that used SBLF capital to pay off TARP will still have an incentive to increase their small business lending because they’ll have to pay back the federal government more for this money if their loan volume doesn’t increase, he said.

“Despite the TARP repayments, we will see more lending to small business,” Landrieu said.

But Snowe, who is the ranking Republican on the small business committee, said more than half of the banks that got SBLF capital had already increased small business lending before getting this money. There is no evidence, she said, that the program was going to have any impact on job creation.

Snowe told Geithner it’s time to stop President Barack Obama’s “trial and error era” of trying one program after another to jump-start the economy.

“It’s not working, and people are hurting,” she said.

What’s needed, Snowe said, was fundamental tax reform and a reduction in the regulatory burden on business.

Geithner said he agreed that tax reform is needed, but contended the cumulative regulatory burden under Obama is no greater than it was under President George W. Bush.

“The most important thing we can do today is to help small businesses thrive and hire is pursue policies that result in a sustained period of stronger economic growth,” Geithner said.

What are those policies? No surprise here—Geithner said they’re the combination of tax breaks, infrastructure investments and aid to states included in the president’s proposed jobs plan.

Snowe wasn’t buying it. Your primary job, she told Geithner, is to craft economic policy.

“At this point, it simply isn’t working,” she said.


Source: http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/capital/2011/10/18/landrieu-seeks-second-chance-for-small-business-lending-fund#ixzz1bAXxFeR9