Last month, during Small Business Week, the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship used the occasion to hold an oversight hearing on implementation of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2009. According to the opening statement of Committee Chairwoman Mary Landrieu (D-LA), the Small Business Jobs Act included tax breaks, increased loan limits and [...]

The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) hosted two teleconferences last week to instruct reporters on what the self-employed can expect in a post health-care reform world and the picture was not necessarily pretty. According to the NASE’s Kristie Arslan, executive director of the organization’s legislative office, there are several matters in the health care [...]

Last week, the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship held yet another hearing on the subject of small businesses and health care reform. This latest in the multi-year series is perhaps most readily distinguished by the determination of both Congressional Democrats and the Obama Administration to get this done, as close to right now [...]

As lawmakers debate various elements of a health care reform bill, two thirds of microbusiness owners say they are watching closely, with about 60% feeling they have, minimally, a moderate understanding of the issues, according to a survey released last week by the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE). The survey was conducted among microbusiness [...]

In another episode of Great Reruns from Congresses Past, a new bill to create a simplified standard home office deduction was introduced in the House last week. This time, the bipartisan legislation, astonishingly entitled the “Home Office Deduction Simplification Act of 2009″ (H.R. 1509), was sponsored by John McHugh (R-NY) and Kurt Schrader (D-OR). As [...]

Another item from previous sessions of Congress that has returned for an encore is the Equity for Our Nation’s Self-Employed Act of 2009 (H.R. 1470), introduced by Congressmen Ron Kind (D-WI), Wally Herger (R-CA), Suzanne M. Kosmas (D-Fla.) and David G. Reichert (R-WA). The bill is another gem of bipartisan legislative simplicity, the bulk of [...]

Speaking of the SBA’s entrepreneurial development programs and federal performance measures, there are clearly two problems where one intersects the other. The first and most obvious problem is that “bodies through the door” — that is, the number of users of the program — tells you nothing about whether the program successfully does what it [...]

While there is a certain amount of hyperventilating among microbusiness advocates because millions of them may be subject to ruinous mortgage payment resets in the near future, most microbusiness owners have other problems in connection with the current state of the economy. That was the principle finding of yet another member survey, entitled “Housing and [...]

New research released by the National Association for the Self-Employed last week found that approximately 3.8 million microbusiness owners hold an estimated 93% of so-called “toxic mortgages” that put them in immediate danger of foreclosure and homeless in the near future. Not only that, but mortgage brokers evidently deliberately targeted prime or near-prime microbusiness borrowers [...]

There was a certain amount of public celebration and a huge sigh of relief among small business groups when the House approved the Senate-backed version of a Wall Street bailout plan last week, especially after its own initial attempt to pass similar legislation failed last month. Even as outfits like the National Federation of Independent [...]