News From Congresswoman
Nydia M. Velázquez
Representing New York's 12th Congressional District - Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens
Ranking Democratic Member, House Small Business Committee

For Immediate Release
November 13, 2003

CONTACT: Wendy Belzer, Kate Davis, 202-225-4038

Velázquez: What Hasn't Been Done for Small Business
Issues affecting small firms have been left unresolved by Congress, Bush administration

WASHINGTON - Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez, Ranking Democratic Member of the House Small Business Committee, highlighted the lack of movement in the first session of the 108th Congress - and pressure from the White House - to resolve the issues that matter the most to small businesses in America.

Question: Out of these five critical issues - health care, federal contracting, tax relief, federal regulatory burden and the Small Business Administration (SBA) reauthorization - all key to small business survival and growth - how many were addressed by Congress and the White House so far this year?

Answer: None of them.

The health care crisis has hit the small business community especially hard. Small business owners, their families and their employees make up approximately 60% of the uninsured in this country. Congress has failed to provide any relief to these struggling firms, even though in recent years there have been double-digit spikes in health care premiums.

One way for a small business to grow is to have the federal government as a customer. In 2002, the U.S. government failed to meet any of its small business goals, costing these firms almost $14 billion in lost contracting opportunities. Ensuring that small businesses had a role to play in federal contracting was on Bush's small business agenda, but there has been no action by Congress - or the Bush administration - to open up the $235 billion federal marketplace.

A top priority for the Bush administration has been tax relief - but for Wall Street - not Main Street. Just 3% of the president's most recent $350 billion jobs and growth package went to targeted small business tax relief, while the majority of the proposal focused on the dividend tax cut, which helped corporate America.

President Bush often talks about relieving small businesses of the heavy federal regulatory burden that weighs them down. Yet, ironically, it is the Bush administration that holds the all-time record for the number of federal regulations submitted and issued under any president.

The reauthorization of the Small Business Administration (SBA), which as the largest overhaul of the agency in more than two decades, helps to update many of the SBA contracting, loan, and technical assistance programs. But it has failed to move forward in Congress and will wait now until 2004, largely due to stalling by the Bush administration.

With 2003 drawing to a close and Congress wrapping up, it seems that big business was the winner this year and small business was the loser, as the Republican-controlled Congress and White House failed to make their issues - and the issues of the American economy - a national priority.

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