Registration is now open for the National Women’s Business Council’s June 5th Town Hall Meeting in Portland, Oregon. This free half-day event will allow members of the Council to hear directly from women business owners about their priorities, challenges and concerns and the event’s outcomes will help the Council formulate future policy recommendations.

Council member Kathy Eshelman of the Women Presidents’ Organization and Columbus, OH-based Grade A Notes, Inc. will moderate the program. Other Council members and business leaders from the Portland area will also take part in the event, during which attendees will have opportunities to participate in in-depth discussions on public policy issues such as affordable health care, access to capital, procurement, taxes, and education and workforce development. The Town Hall Meeting will also include a panel of successful women business owners who will address concerns from the breakout sessions by providing insights from their own experiences as business owners.

Women business owners and entrepreneurs from all industries, ethnicities, and experience and revenue levels are encouraged to lend their voice to the discussion of policies affecting women business owners. The event is free, but space is limited, so advance registration is required. For more information, visit www.nwbc.gov or contact the Council at 202-205-3850. Click here to register.

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Beverly Inman-Ebel, CEO of Chattanooga, TN-based TLC, Talk Listen Communicate, LLC, and Carole Jean Jordan, founder and owner of Vero Beach, FL-based Jordan Sprinkler Systems, Inc., have been appointed to three-year terms on the National Women’s Business Council.

Inman-Ebel will represent the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), an organization for which she formerly served as president. In addition to her contributions to NAWBO, Inman-Ebel is the author of three books and has been a keynote speaker helping women business owners to reach their potential worldwide. She is currently Vice President of NEWWW (Network of Entrepreneurial Women World Wide) in Paris, France and she was previously honored as International Woman Entrepreneur of the Year 2004-2006 by FCEM, an international organization with members from 61 countries.

Jordan is the owner of Jordan Sprinkler Systems, a multimillion dollar family business she founded over thirty years ago. For many years, Jordan was responsible for day to day business operations, including managing all areas of customer service, bookkeeping and employee relations. Most recently, Jordan served as Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida from 2003 until 2007.

Click here to learn more about Beverly Inman-Ebel and Carole Jean Jordan.

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The National Women’s Business Council recently sent a letter to SBA Administrator Steven Preston, urging the SBA to implement the government-wide contracting program for women-owned small businesses as quickly as possible. The Council’s letter came in response to the release of an SBA commissioned study by RAND Corporation on the state of women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) in federal contracting.

The RAND study computed disparity ratios for WOSBs based on both the dollar value and the number of contracts awarded to WOSBs. RAND found under-representation of WOSBs in federal contracting in as many as 87 percent of industries, depending on the measures used to calculate the disparity ratios. The study indicates that WOSBs will be found to be underrepresented in many more industries when disparity is measured using number of contracts awarded rather than contract dollars awarded.

In its letter, the Council encouraged the SBA to move swiftly in implementing the contracting program in order to provide women-owned businesses the opportunity to compete for their fair share of federal contracts. In addition, the Council recommended including adequate guidance and training for procurement officers government-wide when implementing the program to ensure the set-aside is applied promptly and correctly. The Council also suggested making procurement officers accountable for reaching the goal in their performance reviews.

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The National Women’s Business Council recently responded to the Federal Reserve’s plan to replace the Survey of Small Business Finances (SSBF) with an expanded version of the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), urging the Federal Reserve not to eliminate this valuable research. In its response, the Council outlined why the SSBF is crucial to understanding the remaining barriers to capital faced by women and minority entrepreneurs and essential to fact-based policymaking.

Rather than rolling some of the components of the original research into the SCF, the Council urged the Federal Reserve to streamline the SSBF in order to obtain important and constructive data at a lower cost. In its response, the Council also outlined its concern that the SCF might not actually reach as many business owners, particularly women business owners, as the Federal Reserve anticipates.

For more information about the SSBF or to contribute to the discussion, contact NWBC at 202-205-3850 or info@nwbc.gov.

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On May 10, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Fairness in Contracting Act (H.R. 1873), a bill which would raise the government-wide small business contracting goal to 30 percent from its current 23 percent. In addition, the legislation would increase the government-wide contracting goal for women-owned small businesses from 5 to 8 percent.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA), would also make it more difficult for federal agencies to bundle small contracts into a larger bid by requiring agencies to justify in writing why they approved any bundled contracts and encouraging agencies to use small businesses to fulfill contracts. The legislation, which is part of a series of procurement bills that will be included in a final SBA Reauthorization bill, is now up for consideration in the Senate.

On May 9, the House Small Business Committee held a hearing to review legislation affecting the future funding of the SBA's Entrepreneurial Development Programs, including the Small Business Development Center and Women's Business Center programs. As a follow-up to this hearing, on May 23 the Committee held a mark-up hearing for legislation relating to SBA Entrepreneurial Development programs, programs for veterans and women, as well as legislation to expand assistance for Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians.

All four bills were approved by the Committee and are now headed to the House.

On May 16, the Senate Small Business Committee unanimously approved the Small Business Lending Reauthorization and Improvements Act (S. 1256) that included a provision making the SBA International Trade Loan (ITL) program more user-friendly for exporters, reducing paperwork and minimizing bureaucracy for lenders and borrowers. The legislation is now headed to the Senate for consideration and, if passed, will have to be reconciled with the House's version of the legislation, The Small Business Lending Improvements Act (H.R. 1332), which passed on April 25.

The Senate and House soon will be voting on the government's federal spending legislation, which provides an additional $97 million to the SBA's budget for next year – a 21 percent increase above the $464 million President Bush requested. Of particular note is a provision requesting $16.5 million for Women's Business Centers, which is $4.5 million above current spending levels.

The Council will continue to provide updates on these and other policy issues in the future.

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Council members and staff are participating in several upcoming national and international events. Council Chair Tami Longaberger will represent the Council at the 2007 Global Summit of Women in Berlin, Germany in June. For seventeen years, the Summit has celebrated women’s leadership worldwide by bringing together women business, professional and government leaders from around the world. During the summit, Longaberger, along with Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, will contribute to discussions of best practices and solutions enabling women to accelerate their economic growth.

Council staff will also be participating in two events later this month in Atlanta, Georgia. Following up on its first successful event in Philadelphia, the Center for Women's Business Research will hold a second forum in Atlanta on May 30 as part of a multi-year research project to uncover the challenges and barriers that women-of-color entrepreneurs are facing in their attempts to grow their businesses. African-American, Latinas, Asian and multicultural women business owners who have business revenues of $250,000+ are invited to apply to participate in this groundbreaking study. Future forums will be held in San Francisco, Dallas and Chicago. Click here for more information or to apply to participate.

The NAWBO 2007 Women’s Business Conference, taking place May 31 – June 2 in Atlanta, brings together women entrepreneurs from across the country to participate in education sessions, share their ideas, and network. Council staff will be exhibiting during the conference trade show. Click here for more information or to register.

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Women’s Business Enterprise National Council will host its 8th annual national conference and business fair June 25-28 in Los Angeles, California. The event, “Women in Business: Launching a New Decade”, is expected to attract over 2,500 attendees and more than 400 exhibitors. Council staff will participate in the four-day event, which will offer networking opportunities, workshops, general sessions, and special events. Click here to learn more or register.

The Office of Small and Disadvantage Business Utilization of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will host its 8th Annual Small Business Conference, Exposition & Matchmaking Forum, June 26-28, 2007 in Washington, DC. The Conference will provide insight and programs available to assist small businesses, small and disadvantaged businesses, women-owned, 8(A), HUBZone, veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses, to engage in DOE contracting opportunities, including a Matchmaking Forum with one-on-one meetings with procurement representatives from DOE’s prime contracting. NWBC will exhibit at the event. To register for the conference, visit the event web site or call (888) 246-2460. For more information on contracting with DOE visit http://energy.gov.

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