Advocacy Updates

MAY ADVOCACY UPDATE

Less than three weeks until 2022 Advocacy Days!!! House Small Business Committee Ranking Member Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) will be joining us Wednesday morning. We’ve got two great days planned. Register for Advocacy Days on June 7-8^th! We have our next training on Tuesday at noon ET. You need to register ASAP so you won’t miss out on the training in advance!! If you’ve already registered but need to book your hotel click here.

Hill Updates:

The Senate passed a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine, and it heads to the President. Its passage came just in time to keep the Pentagon from exhausting its power to send weapons to Ukraine from U.S. stockpiles. The House passed the bill last week.
This week the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee reported out of committee several bills, including:
- S. 1687 Small Business Cyber Training Act of 2021
- S. 3564 Veteran Entrepreneurship Training Act of 2022
- S. 3595 One Stop Shop for Small Business Compliance Act of 2022
- S. 3906 Small Business Broadband and Emerging Information Technology Enhancement Act of 2022
Senate Small Business Committee Chairman Ben Cardin (D-MD) expressed his discontent when the U.S. Senate failed to meet the 60-vote threshold needed to debate S.4008. The bipartisan legislation was introduced by Cardin and U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) to replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) and provide relief to small businesses in other hard-hit industries, including gyms, minor league sports, buses, and ferries, etc. The vote count on the Motion to Proceed to debate was 52-43.
- “There are about 177,000 restaurants and bars that have been waiting desperately since last August for us to replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. The Senate’s failure to move this critical bill forward today will mean that far too many of these small businesses will be forced to close their doors,” Cardin said. “Allowing restaurants, bars, and other hard-hit small businesses to disappear through inaction will leave holes in our communities that will not be easily filled.”
This week, the Small Business Administration Office of Capital Access testified before the House Small Business Committee. The hearing discussed current Office and program operations and assessed the agency’s efforts to increase access to affordable capital for all and promote a more equitable economy. View a recording of the hearing here.

House Hearings

Senate Hearings

Biden Administration Updates:

This week, the Biden Administration’s Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu held a call to discuss the Bipartisan Infrastructure Implementation. He outlined all their work, including the launch of www.build.gov. This is the one-stop-shop website to find out about infrastructure projects in your area.
New data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that the tightening labor market disproportionately impacts smaller businesses. 23.4 percent of small businesses cited labor needs in August 2020, which increased to over 40 percent at the end of March 2022. At the end of 2021, small businesses with 10-49 employees had over 3 million job openings, more than any other size group. For more, read Small Business Facts: Small Business Hiring Needs.
Join SBA and Public Private Strategies Institute on Wednesday, May 25, 2022, for a webinar in celebration of Small Business Month. Connect with resources on several topics, including access to capital, contracting and procurement, community navigators, and more. The webinar will feature SBA Associate Administrator for the Office of Entrepreneurial Development, Mark Madrid, and other key stakeholders.

Archived Updates

2022

2021