Recent Press Releases

  • Oct 18 2012

    Senator Landrieu Co-Hosts Small Business Event in Opelousas, LA

    U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, today joined the Louisiana Municipal Association (LMA) and the Louisiana Business Incubation Association (LBIA) in co-hosting a business incubators and accelerators programs conference in Opelousas, La. Incubators and accelerators assist start-up businesses and entrepreneurs with administrative support and mentorship as well as intensive management consulting respectively. The conference brought together federal and local officials to learn about these programs and their best practices in hopes of spurring more incubators and accelerators being developed.
  • Oct 15 2012

    Senator Landrieu Applauds Anniversary of Small Business Jobs Act

    Following the second anniversary of the Small Business Jobs Act (SBJA) becoming law, Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, applauded its continued success of making small businesses more competitive through increased access to capital, global markets, and contracting.

Recent Articles

  • Nov 16 2011

    Senate Legislation Protects Small Business from Job-Crushing Health Insurance Tax

    Senators Barrasso, Hatch, Snowe Introduce Bill to Repeal HIT

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    Contact: Jennifer Cooper, (202) 406-4425 or Jennifer.Cooper@NFIB.org

    Senate Legislation Protects Small Business from Job-Crushing Health Insurance Tax
    Senators Barrasso, Hatch, Snowe Introduce Bill to Repeal HIT 

    WASHINGTON, D.C., November 16, 2011 — United States Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) today introduced legislation, The Jobs and Premium Protection Act, to repeal the onerous Health Insurance Tax (HIT) which takes $87 billion away from small business by the end of the decade, resulting in a job-loss of 125,000 to 249,000 jobs in the private sector in 2021, according to a study released by the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation; small business will shoulder 59 percent of this job-loss burden. 

    “The Health Insurance Tax is a Washington policy that will have a devastating impact on our nation’s job creators,” said Susan Eckerly, Senior Vice President of Public Policy. “The stark reality is that the country’s economy is still reeling, and every single job matters; the last thing people in the unemployment line want to hear is that one less job will be created and even more will be shed as a result of the HIT.  Because of the leadership of Senators Barrasso, Hatch and Snowe, small-business owners now have bipartisan and bicameral legislation that will repeal this tax and protect their ability to continue to create vital jobs.”

    “Our legislation repeals this unfair, hidden tax on America’s job creators, and will save thousands of jobs across the country,” said United States Senator John Barrasso.  “This tax is just another example of how the President’s trillion dollar health spending law is only making things worse for small businesses and their workers. With 9 percent unemployment, hardworking Americans cannot afford to be hit hard by even higher premiums.  We need to stop the HIT on our economy now – before it starts.”

    “Chock full of tax hikes, mandates and government overreach, the President’s $2.6 trillion health spending law is an anchor around our economy’s neck,” said United States Senator Orrin Hatch.  “The health law’s insurance tax is especially damaging, undercutting our economic recovery by increasing the cost of health coverage.  Money that could go to higher wages, new workers, or investment will instead go to pay this new tax.  With insurance premiums already skyrocketing and unemployment hovering at 9 percent, this tax makes no sense.  The President is demanding jobs legislation; he should start by supporting the repeal of this tax.”

    “Preventing the new health insurance tax is critical, especially in the current economic environment,” said United States Senator Olympia J. Snowe.  “As the cost of health insurance continues to rise unabated – another 9 percent on average this year – individuals and small businesses are struggling to afford coverage.  Meanwhile, the Democrats’ health care law is set to impose this $60 billion tax and the Director of the Congressional Budget Office has confirmed this tax will be paid by the individuals and small businesses who buy health insurance.  This tax could increase the cost of health insurance by 15 percent for small businesses, and kill hundreds of thousands of jobs.  I am proud to be a sponsor of the Jobs and Premium Protection Act, and remain committed to repealing the job-killing health care law, as well as to repealing its worst pieces.”

    The Health Insurance Tax, which goes into effect in 2014, will cost small-business owners, their employees and the self-employed, $87 billion in the first ten years and $208 billion in the following ten years; the tax impacts 2 million small businesses, 12 million employees and the self-employed who purchase in the individual market and 26 million employees who are covered by their employer, resulting in a cost of nearly $5,000 per family over a decade.

    The NFIB Research Foundation’s BSIM (Business Size Impact Module) model suggests that such a price increase will reduce private sector employment by 125,000 to 249,000 jobs in 2021, with 59 percent of those losses falling on small business. The BSIM is a dynamic, multi-region forecasting model that analyzes the impact of policy “shocks” on the economy.  The BSIM is unique in ability among models to forecast the economic impact of policy on U.S. businesses differentiated by the size of the firm; in this case, small business is defined as those firms with less than 500 employees (Small Business Association definition).

    Representative Charles Boustany (R-LA) has introduced legislation in the House, HR 1370, to repeal the Health Insurance Tax and his legislation currently has 78 bipartisan cosponsors, leading the way for a bicameral and bipartisan repeal of the Health Insurance Tax. 

    ###

    NFIB is the nation’s leading small business association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals. Founded in 1943 as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, NFIB gives small and independent business owners a voice in shaping the public policy issues that affect their business. NFIB’s powerful network of grassroots activists send their views directly to state and federal lawmakers through our unique member-only ballot, thus playing a critical role in supporting America’s free enterprise system. NFIB’s mission is to promote and protect the right of our members to own, operate and grow their businesses. More information is available online at www.NFIB.com/newsroom.

  • Oct 18 2011

    Small Business Lending Fund, Part Two?

    by Kent Hoover
    Portfolio.com

     

    Most folks consider the Small Business Lending Fund a disappointment.

    Designed to provide up to $30 billion in cheap capital to community banks for use in making small business loans, the program only provided $4 billion. Most of the banks that applied for this capital were rejected.

    So given this record, what does Senator Mary Landrieu want to do? She wants to give the program another shot.

    Landrieu, the Louisiana Democrat who chairs the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, announced today that she wants to develop a Small Business Lending Fund II.

    “Until this recession is at a distance in the rear-view mirror, I believe that this committee has an obligation to turn out time-tested as well as new and innovative programs to get capital into the hands of small businesses throughout our country,” Landrieu said.

    Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, whose department handled the SBLF, told Landrieu that he’d be happy to work with her on this.

    Geithner was the only witness at the committee’s hearing today, which focused on the Small Business Lending Fund and the State Small Business Credit Initiative. That program provided $1.2 billion in federal funds to state efforts to boost lending to small businesses.

    Both Geithner and Landrieu, who sponsored the bill that created the Small Business Lending Fund, defended the program against Republican attacks.

    Geithner said the 332 banks that received SBLF capital will leverage that money into $9 billion of additional lending to small businesses by the end of 2014. The State Business Credit Initiative will produce an additional $15 billion in lending, he said.

    Landrieu said the amount of capital delivered to banks through the Small Business Lending Fund was not “as much as we had hoped,” but called it a “welcome start to getting capital to small businesses.”

    Republicans, however, noted that community banks used all but $1.8 billion of the $4 billion in SBLF capital they received to pay off their Troubled Asset Relief Program obligations. These banks essentially paid off one taxpayer-provided credit card with another taxpayer-provided credit card that had lower interest rates, said Republican Senator Olympia Snowe.

    “There’s no surprise in these numbers,” Geithner replied.

    Banks that used SBLF capital to pay off TARP will still have an incentive to increase their small business lending because they’ll have to pay back the federal government more for this money if their loan volume doesn’t increase, he said.

    “Despite the TARP repayments, we will see more lending to small business,” Landrieu said.

    But Snowe, who is the ranking Republican on the small business committee, said more than half of the banks that got SBLF capital had already increased small business lending before getting this money. There is no evidence, she said, that the program was going to have any impact on job creation.

    Snowe told Geithner it’s time to stop President Barack Obama’s “trial and error era” of trying one program after another to jump-start the economy.

    “It’s not working, and people are hurting,” she said.

    What’s needed, Snowe said, was fundamental tax reform and a reduction in the regulatory burden on business.

    Geithner said he agreed that tax reform is needed, but contended the cumulative regulatory burden under Obama is no greater than it was under President George W. Bush.

    “The most important thing we can do today is to help small businesses thrive and hire is pursue policies that result in a sustained period of stronger economic growth,” Geithner said.

    What are those policies? No surprise here—Geithner said they’re the combination of tax breaks, infrastructure investments and aid to states included in the president’s proposed jobs plan.

    Snowe wasn’t buying it. Your primary job, she told Geithner, is to craft economic policy.

    “At this point, it simply isn’t working,” she said.


    Source: http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/capital/2011/10/18/landrieu-seeks-second-chance-for-small-business-lending-fund#ixzz1bAXxFeR9