Washington, D.C., July 30th -

Dear Friends:
 
Entrepreneurs can’t catch a break these days.  Every month, it seems like Washington threatens a new deluge of taxes, regulations and mandates that will make doing business in America more difficult.  At a time when small business owners are already struggling to understand the new health care and financial regulatory reform laws, Majority Leaders are now pushing a $3.8 trillion tax hike that will mean higher taxes for 50 percent of small business income.

Scheduled to go into effect January 1, 2011, these tax hikes will freeze investment, kill jobs and wreck what little progress we’ve made in our economic recovery.  Several prominent economists have publicly opposed this tax increase, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Dr. Christina Romer, chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Small businesses can lead us in our recovery, but they cannot do so if Washington continues to stack the deck against them.  We have to bring certainty back into our economy and stop leveraging new threats on businesses. Only then can entrepreneurs feel confident enough to reinvest in their businesses, employees, and our country.

Sam Graves

News from the Small Business Committee:
(Please send any Member media activity to Alexandra.Haynes@mail.house.gov)

• Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO) had an op-ed published in the Ripon Forum. In the op-ed, Ranking Member Graves discussed how President Obama's health care reform legislation will devastate small business owners and lead to further job loss.

• Ranking Member Graves issued a statement on President Obama’s visit to a small business in New Jersey.

• Ranking Member Graves was quoted in a Federal News Radio article about lack of change and reform at the SBA.

• Ranking Member Graves was also quoted in a St. Joe News article entitled, “Remember the Alamo, then fund it.”

• Ranking Member Graves’ comments on repealing the 1099 reporting mandate were included in an article in The Hill.

• Rep. Lynn A. Westmoreland (R-GA) spoke on the House floor in favor of H.R. 5849, a bill to temporarily extend programs under the Small Business Act and the Small Business Investment Act of 1958.

• Rep. Steve King’s (R-IA) efforts to force a 100% repeal of “Obamacare” continue to gain momentum.

• Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) detailed his concerns about the rising national debt and the need for Congress to enact a Balanced Budget Amendment on the House Floor.

• Rep. Vern Buchanan was quoted in the Bradenton Herald.

• Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) voted to support a bipartisan proposal to eliminate the Advanced Earned Income Tax Credit, which would save taxpayers $1.1 billion over ten years.

House Small Business Committee Action:

• On Wednesday, the House Small Business Committee held a hearing entitled, “Oversight of the Small Business Administration and its Programs.” The hearing was held to examine potential waste, fraud, and abuse within the SBA.  SBA Administrator Karen Mills and Gregory Kutz, Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) Managing Director of Forensic Audits and Special Investigations, testified.

Wednesday’s hearing marked the fourth time that SBA and GAO have appeared jointly before the Small Business Committee to discuss oversight during the 111th Congress.  While SBA has implemented some of the GAO’s previous recommendations, Mr. Kutz cited glaring examples that fraud and abuse still run rampant within a range of SBA programs.

You can read more about the hearing here.  For video footage, click here. 

• The August District Work Period begins on Monday, August 2nd and continues through September 13th.  Although Straight Talk will not resume regular Friday publication until September 17th, you can expect periodic Straight Talk updates with the latest small business news throughout the break.


Updates from Washington:
(Please send any Member initiatives related to small business and job creation to Paul.Sass@mail.house.gov)

• On Thursday, the House began consideration of the Investing in Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act (H.R. 5893).  However, the Majority Leader pulled the bill from the floor prior to final passage due to the Motion to Recommit noticed by Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI).  Mr. Camp’s motion would have repealed a section of the new health care law that requires all small businesses to file a 1099 form to the IRS for payments of more than $600 to any vendor for goods or services during a tax year.

• Today, House Democrat leaders brought the Small Business Tax Relief Act (H.R. 5982) to the floor.  H.R. 5982 would repeal the same section of the health care law that was part the Motion to Recommit that Mr. Camp noticed on Thursday, but the Democrats’ legislation pays for the repeal of the 1099 reporting mandate with tax increases. House Republicans fully support the repeal of the 1099 reporting mandate, but were furious at the process invoked by the Majority and disapproved of using a massive, job-killing tax increase to pay for the repeal.  Worse, the text of H.R. 5982 was not available until immediately before the House began consideration of the legislation.  

• The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released a mid-session review of the federal budget that predicts a $1.47 trillion deficit for this year – the largest ever.  The OMB also reports that in ten years, taxpayers will be paying back $26.2 trillion in debt, which experts say will cripple our economy.  The OMB report confirms that the Majority’s bad habit of skyrocketing spending, borrowing and debt is taking our economy in a very dangerous direction. 

• This week, both the House and Senate passed legislation that will extend the Small Business Administration's core programs for two months through September 30, 2010.  Republicans on the House Small Business Committee support the temporary extension of SBA programs, but believe we must now craft and implement a more thoughtful and complete reauthorization of these critical programs.   The President is expected to sign the bill into law shortly.  You can watch Lynn A. Westmoreland’s (R-GA)  floor remarks on the extension here.

• President Obama and Senate Majority Leaders continue to push for passage of legislation to create a $30 billion lending fund for small businesses. However, the future of the bill remains in question.  Republicans have raised concerns that the legislation would create another bailout fund and authorize the Treasury Secretary to make capital investments in banks with less than $10 billion in assets.  The bailout fund would be supported by the taxpayers to the tune of $32 billion, with $2 billion appropriated to assist states with funding their small business lending and guarantee programs. 

• House Majority Leaders are expected to bring a new energy bill to the House floor today. The Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources (CLEAR) Act (H.R. 3534) would force a moratorium on offshore oil and gas production through increased taxes and regulation.  It also includes a new $2 billion tax on oil and natural gas produced on all existing and new federal onshore and offshore leases.  By raising the price of energy and restricting development, the provisions in this legislation will undoubtedly kill American jobs and raise costs for families and small businesses. Read more about the CLEAR Act here.

• Additionally, the House is expected to consider the Offshore Oil and Gas Worker Whistleblower Protection Act of 2010 (H.R. 5851) today, which was offered in response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  The legislation would prohibit employers, including contractors and subcontractors, from discriminating against any individual who performs services for an employer engaged in offshore energy operations if that individual reports suspected safety violations to federal or state officials, testifies before Congress, or refuses to perform their jobs because of safety violations.   Some Republicans have expressed concerns that the provisions in the legislation are overly broad and could lead to government overreach.  More information on H.R. 5851 is available here.


News and Resources for Small Business Owners:

• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched a new website on the impact of the health care law on small businesses. The site contains information and analyses, as well as stories from small businesses on how they could be affected by the law.

• The SBA Office of Advocacy has released the July 2010 issue of “The Small Business Advocate.”