US House Calls For Small Business Bill Of Rights

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

29 April 2005

In recognition of National Small Business Week, the U.S. House on Wednesday approved legislation calling for a Small Business Bill of Rights that gives America’s small employers the tools they need to grow their businesses and create jobs.

House Small Business Committee Chairman Don Manzullo (R-IL) noted that:

“Our small businesses provide work for the majority of Americans and create 70 percent of all new jobs each year."

He went to add that:

“They need freedom from excessive taxation, surging health care costs, burdensome regulations, abusive lawsuits and skyrocketing energy costs to continue to provide opportunities for working Americans.”

H. Res. 22, authored by Rep. Ric Keller (R-FL), states that America’s small employers should have:

• The right to join together to purchase affordable health insurance for small business employees, who make up a large portion of the millions of Americans without health care coverage;
• The right to simplified tax laws that allow family-owned small businesses to survive over several generations and offer them incentives to grow;
• The right to be free from frivolous lawsuits that harm law-abiding small businesses and prevent them from creating new jobs;
• The right to be free of unnecessary, restrictive regulations and paperwork that waste the time and energy of small businesses while hurting production and preventing job creation;
• The right to relief from high energy costs by reducing the reliance of the United States on imported sources of energy and encouraging environmentally sound domestic production and conservation of energy;
• The right to equal treatment with large businesses when seeking access to start-up and expansion capital and credit; and
• The right to open access to government procurement through the breaking up of bundled contracts to give small businesses the ability to compete for federal government business.

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