Early Innings in Expected Funding Fight
Jan 14th, 2008 | By Dawn R. Rivers | Category: Politics & PolicyThe SBA budget has been a bone of contention between Congress and the White House for the entire eight years of the Bush presidency. After all, this has been a period during which the SBA attained the dubious distinction of having the highest percentage of its budget cut of any federal agency. The top two lawmakers on the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship appear to be anticipating more of the same; Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) and Ranking Member Olympia Snowe (R-ME) recently sent a joint letter to John Nussle, Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), asking for more reasonable funding for the SBA. Of course, it seems unlikely that the intervention will be especially effective, given the way White House-Congressional relations have been going for years. If nothing else, this letter will give the Bush Administration advance warning that Congress will, as usual, provide the SBA with more money than the White House requested.
