There’s still a certain amount of office shuffling and furniture moving going on at this point on Capitol Hill, which surprised me when I talked to House Small Business Committee staff last week.

I guess I figured the newly elected and re-elected Republican majority was so very gung-ho to get going that they would have gotten all that stuff done in record time. I guess some things never change.

I have to tell you, though, that while I was agreeably surprised by Chairman Sam Graves’ Web 2.0 savvy (although I expect I should really just be impressed by his staff’s Web 2.0 savvy), I am still longing for somebody in his position to really surprise me.

For all the partisan Capitol Hill scuffling and sniping that I’ve been listening to over the past seven years, policy makers on both sides of the aisle are very, very close in their views on what makes for good small business policy, what small businesses need and how best to meet those needs.

I haven’t heard anybody volunteer the information that they’ve learned enough about microbusinesses to warrant a bit of investigation, perhaps a hearing or two that will create the beginnings of a record to document the unique needs of microbusinesses.

I also haven’t heard anybody say that maybe we need a better understanding of how microbusinesses and nonemployers fit into the overall economy.

For that matter, nobody on Capitol Hill has even noticed the changing nature of the labor force.

Any of that stuff would be truly, eye-sparklingly exciting! Ah well …

I also wanted to once again draw your attention to the heads-up in this week’s news about the FTC being poised to formulate some industry self-regulation (that may turn into actual legislation down the road) on consumer privacy and behavioral advertising.

The FTC needs to hear from microbusinesses and their advocates on this one. There are links below (in the For more information section below) that will get you to the preliminary report and the page to submit comments. I doubt this is going to be one of those sets of regulations that won’t apply to microbusinesses, so let them hear from you!

Also on this week’s agenda: regulatory reform from the right and the left, and this week’s Policy Matters.

For more information:

• House Small Business Committee
• Executive Order: Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review
• Presidential Memorandum: Regulatory Flexibility, Small Business, and Job Creation
• Federal Trade Commission preliminary report on consumer privacy (PDF)
• Federal Trade Commission questions for comment (PDF)
• Federal Trade Commission comment submission page