The Small Business Watchdog

            The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) issued a Discussion Paper (DP) entitled, “Leases: Preliminary Views.”  The DP invited public comments.  The comment period is open until July 17, 2009.
 
            The DP proposed capitalizing all leases, including “operating leases.”  The proposed capitalization of all leases would affect all [...]

[Read more →]

The Capitol Hill Connection will resume when Congress returns from recess.

addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fweblog.sba.gov%2Fblog-advo%2F%3Fp%3D248′;
addthis_title = ‘Capitol+Hill+Connection+Week+of+June+29′;
addthis_pub = ”;

[Read more →]

            “Health Reform in the 21st Century: Proposals to Reform the Health System” was the title of a hearing held yesterday by the House Committee on Ways and Means.  The hearing opened with statements from Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) who clearly drew the battle lines around which the two [...]

[Read more →]

            On Friday, June 19, I attended a healthcare roundtable at F3 Engineering, a small, women-owned manufacturing facility in Paterson, NJ, to discuss with women-owned firms the state of health insurance in the small business world. 
 
            The roundtable featured SBA Administrator Karen Mills and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, and [...]

[Read more →]

            Each week while Congress is in session the Office of Advocacy will post a highlights schedule of congressional hearings and committee markups that we think will be of interest to stakeholders in the small business community.  For further information on the hearings in question please contact the relevant congressional committee.
 
3:00 pm    Markup
Senate Health, Education, [...]

[Read more →]

            Last Wednesday, Advocacy attorneys attended the American Bar Association’s 5th Annual Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice Institute meeting.  All of the panels over the course of the daylong event focused on new directions in agency rulemaking following the transition into a new administration. 
 
            Topics included the role that technology is playing in increasing [...]

[Read more →]

DHS Delays Implementation of E-Verify Employment Eligibility System
 
            The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agreed to delay until September 8, 2009 implementation of a new rule that would require federal contractors to use the federal government’s E-Verify employment eligibility system.  This rule applies to employers with federal contracts worth more than $100,000 and a performance [...]

[Read more →]

            Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, has become one of the most famous men in America over the last year.  Rising from relative obscurity as the Princeton professor who became Alan Greenspan’s successor, he has appeared to handle both the financial crisis and oversight from Congress with the equanimity of a seasoned pro. [...]

[Read more →]

 
One of the most technically complex issue-areas in the Office of Advocacy’s workload is telecommunications. We regularly advocate on behalf of small telecom companies before the Federal Communications Commission and Congress. Understanding the different needs of small telecom providers in the U.S. market has always been a challenge, given their diversity and the highly technical [...]

[Read more →]

 
 
Nothing seems more important to Congress right now than healthcare reform. Who better qualified to debate the issue than the previous administration’s Health and Human Services Secretary, Michael Leavitt, and the former Senate Minority Leader, Tom Daschle? At a National Press Club Newsmaker Program this week, the debate was suspiciously polite, bordering on outright cuddly, [...]

[Read more →]