| Weekly Update from Sam |
| Dear Friends,
Did you know that only one percent of current small businesses export? Now that the free trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama have been passed into law and are close to all being implemented, Washington needs to encourage more small businesses to participate in the global marketplace. However, if a company doesn’t know how to export, or is intimidated by the complexity, they can’t take advantage of the lower tariffs provided by these agreements to increase their sales and hopefully hire new employees.
Many of the federal assistance trade programs overlap and offer duplicative services, including mirroring the same efforts as many state-run trade offices. To address this problem, Small Business Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy and Trade Chairman Scott Tipton and I introduced legislation that will help small firms enter the trade marketplace by simplifying the maze of federal export promotion agencies. The Export Coordination Act of 2012 will increase coordination between state and federal agencies to make the export process more efficient, while Rep. Tipton’s TRADE for Small Businesses and Jobs Act will help companies better understand foreign regulations. Both pieces of legislation have been estimated by the CBO to have no cost.
And to update you on our Committee’s contracting reform initiative, the House Armed Services Committee passed our bipartisan legislation in their markup of the National Defense Authorization Act early Thursday morning. Given that about 70% of government contracts are awarded by the Department of Defense, it is appropriate for us to work together on improving small business procurement policies. This contracting legislation will help create jobs by providing more opportunities for small business, and I’m pleased that this is now on its way to the full House for a vote.
Sam Graves
Chairman
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Latest Committee Action
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| On Wednesday, the Committee held a hearing to examine the effect of high fuel costs on small businesses. Persistently high gasoline prices and the volatility of the oil market are putting increased stress on small businesses. While it is good to see the price of gasoline falling in recent weeks, $3.75 per gallon gas is nothing to celebrate, especially considering it was under $2 per gallon a few years ago. Oil is a volatile commodity and gas prices will go back up, it’s just a matter of time. The hearing provided a valuable dialogue on what Washington should know about the volatile energy market and its relationship to small companies. |
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Notable Op-Ed
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The Washington Examiner
Red Tape Is Strangling America's Energy Supply
By Chairmen Graves & Tipton
Monday, May 8, 2012
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News From Washington
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On Wednesday, the House passed the annual appropriations bill for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (H.R. 5326) by a 247-163 vote. The legislation funds the Department of Commerce, the Department of Justice, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and other related agencies for the next fiscal year ending September 30, 2013. The legislation contains $51.1 billion in funding for these agencies, which is $1.6 billion below last year’s levels and $731 million below the President’s request for these programs.
Also on Wednesday, the House approved legislation to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank by an overwhelming vote of 330-93. The Securing American Jobs Through Exports Act (H.R. 2072) extends the bank’s charter through fiscal year 2014 and will help support U.S. exports and spark job creation.
Yesterday, the House passed the Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act (H.R. 5652), which combines the work of six committees (Agriculture, Energy & Commerce, Financial Services, Judiciary, Oversight & Government Reform, and Ways & Means) to address scheduled sequestration cuts aimed at the Department of Defense. The committees produced deficit reduction plans in their respective areas pursuant to the reconciliation instructions of the House-approved budget. In addition to replacing the Department of Defense sequestration cuts, the bill will produce savings of $242 billion over ten years. The bill passed by a vote of 218-199.
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| May 11, 2012 |
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