Landrieu’s First Hearing Shows Promise
Feb 2nd, 2009 | By Dawn Rivers Baker | Category: Politics & PolicyThe Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship kicked off the 111th Congress under its new Chair with a roundtable discussion about how the federal government can best help small businesses to pull the country out of its current recession. The discussion was fairly wide-ranging, with topics including access to capital, government contracting and the Small Business Administration. The panel of participants included a mix of small business owners and business organization representatives. Conspicuous by their absence was a representative of the National Association for the Self-Employed.
On the other hand, it was extremely heartening to see that microbusinesses came up several times during the conversation, even if nobody was there to speak on their behalf. The conversation aired small business concerns about access to capital, fairness in federal procurement, size standards, and the need to reform and rebuild the Small Business Administration. The good news for microbusinesses is that the new Committee Chair, Senator Mary Landrieu, seems to be more aware of them than her predecessor and more prepared to include them in her efforts. It is too early to say, of course, but Chairwoman Landrieu may turn out to be the best friend microbusiness has had in Congress in a very long time.
