Groups Call on Congress to Pass Small Business Jobs Bill

The Small Business Majority [1] (SBM) and the National Small Business Association [2] (NSBA) want the Senate to pass the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act (H.R. 5297), a bill the groups believe will address crucial problems facing small businesses during the current recession. The bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in mid-June, has been stalled in the Senate.

With Congress set to come back from its recess on Monday, September 13, NSBA is urging all small-business owners to reach-out to their elected officials and urge them to pass H.R. 5297 in its entirety.

SBM, which issued a press release at the end of July expressing its disappointment with the Senate’s inability to pass the bill, noted that the Small Business Jobs Act “would do more to support them than any bill has in years.”

SBM noted that the bill “addresses several fundamental problems facing small businesses – a lack of access to loans and a heavy tax burden. Big banks are still not lending to small businesses, which is one of the main reasons small businesses have been unable to put some of the 15 million unemployed Americans back to work.”

SBM noted several of the bill’s provisions that would help small businesses, including expanded and enhanced SBA loan programs; an expansion of community bank lending for small businesses; $12 billion in tax cuts; tax equity for the 22 million self-employed to help them afford health insurance; export promotion support for small businesses; and business expansion incentives.