SBA No Longer A Rudderless Ship
Apr 7th, 2009 | By Dawn Rivers Baker | Category: Politics & PolicyLast week, the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship held its long-awaited confirmation hearing for Karen Gordon Mills. Within six hours after the hearing was over, the Committee had unanimously approved the nomination. Late in the evening of the next day, the nomination was brought before the full Senate where, without a single chirp of protest, it was once again unanimously approved. Given how long it all seemed to take — long enough, I remind you, for President Obama to run through four nominees for Commerce Secretary — Mills’ confirmation was so easy that it was a bit of an anti-climax.
There is still quite a lot that we don’t yet know about Mills’ SBA but her confirmation hearing testimony gave a few hints. Like everybody else in Washington, Mills is very focused on lending and she seems very friendly to microlending, which is a good sign. Besides lending, there were several questions from lawmakers about the Small Business Innovation Research grant program — which, evidently, everyone loves this week — and about what the SBA can do to ensure that small contractors get a piece of the stimulus pie. To all of which, Ms. Mills responded cheerfully and gently, while saying very little.
