Congressional Quarterly: Graves: SBA Rule Change Would Hurt Small Businesses November 19, 2014 By Shawn Zeller House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves and the Small Business Administration are quarreling again over a new administration move to increase the size of firms eligible for government contracts set aside for small companies.   Graves, R-Mo., wrote this month… Read more »

Congressional Quarterly: Small Business Exchanges Find Few Customers So Far, Study Shows November 13, 2014 By John Reichard Only 76,000 people working for 12,000 small employers were covered through plans offered by the health law’s small business exchanges as of June, the Government Accountability Office reported Thursday. That figure – reflecting 18 state-based small business… Read more »

Bloomberg BNA: House Republican Challenges IRS on Complicated ACA Forms By Brett Fergusen October 8, 2014  Oct. 8 (BNA) - Draft forms and instructions for compliance with the Affordable Care Act are long and confusing, presenting tax preparers for small businesses with daunting new tasks, the chairman of the House Small Business Committee told IRS Commissioner John… Read more »

Bloomberg BNA: House Republican Challenges IRS on Complicated ACA Forms October 8, 2014  Small businesses and their tax preparers face the daunting tasks of understanding and completing new tax forms to comply with provisions of the Affordable Care Act, the chairman of the House Small Business Committee said. “Most small businesses do not have tax advisors, attorneys or… Read more »

CQ Roll Call: CMS: SBA Calls for Withdrawal of Water Rule October 1, 2014 By Philip Brasher The Small Business Administration said Wednesday that it is “extremely concerned” about the potential economic impact of a proposed Clean Water Act rule and called on the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw it. In a letter to those agencies, the SBA’s Office of Advocacy says they… Read more »

Bloomberg BNA: Lawmaker Wants E-Signatures for SBA Loans; Says Proposal Would Cut Application Time September 18, 2014 Sept. 18 (BNA) -- The Small Business Administration would have to accept electronic signatures in its financing programs under a proposal that the sponsor says would cut the loan application process an average of two to three days.   A 2000 law, the… Read more »

POLITICO Pro: CMS: No enrollment numbers for SHOP September 18, 2014 By Brett Norman A CMS official told a House panel this afternoon that she could not provide enrollment numbers in Obmacare’s small business exchanges.   Mayra Alvarez, director of the state exchange group at CCIIO, said that the agency “is not the source of SHOP enrollment," because businesses did not have… Read more »

Bloomberg BNA: CMS Needs to Provide Congress SHOP Data On Enrollments, Rep. Collins Says at Hearing By Sean Forbes  September 18, 2014   Republican members of a subcommittee of the House Committee on Small Business insisted at a hearing on Affordable Care Act small business exchanges that the administration must provide hard data to Congress in order to have an unbiased… Read more »

House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) released the following statement in support of the House vote on the Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Protection Act (HR 5078), which would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers from finalizing their proposed rule that would redefine “waters of the United States” under… Read more »

By Deborah Billings, Bloomberg BNA Aug. 1 (BNA) -- The federal government awarded $83.1 billion in prime contracts to small businesses in fiscal year 2013, exceeding its 23-percent goal for the first time in eight years, according to official statistics released Aug. 1. However, the government fell 2 percent short of expectations that small firms receive 36 percent of subcontracted… Read more »