The National Women’s Business Council will hold a semi-annual Council meeting on September 19 in Washington, DC. At the meeting, Council Chair Tami Longaberger will swear in new members named to the Council over the past 6 months. The meeting’s agenda also includes a discussion of 2007-08 projects, a congressional briefing, and new business. Anyone wishing to attend the Council meeting should contact Emily Reynolds no later than Monday, September 17 at emily.reynolds@nwbc.gov or fax to 202-205-6825.

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Legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last month has jeopardized data critical to research on women’s business ownership. The FY2008 Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations bill (H.R. 3093), which was passed by the House in July, cuts $10 million from the budget of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Economic Statistics Group, the office responsible for producing the Survey of Business Owners and Self-Employed Persons (SBO).

The SBO offers valuable data on the economic and geographic characteristics of business and their owners and is a frequent source of data for researchers investigating the small business community. The National Women’s Business Council, along with organizations like the Center for Women’s Business Research and the SBA Office of Advocacy, uses SBO data on women-owned businesses to inform many of its research initiatives and policy recommendations, including recently-updated fact sheets and forthcoming research reports on the impact of Women-Led businesses.

The SBO is the only regularly collected federal survey of the nation’s businesses and their owners, and includes information on business age, industry, employment, owner demographics and firm financing. The loss of this valuable data would seriously impede analysis and monitoring of women business owners and their contributions to the U.S. economy.

NWBC will continue to track H.R. 3093 and its Senate counterpart (S. 1745),which currently does not include the same funding cuts. For more information on the value of the SBO to the understanding of trends and issues among the nation’s small businesses, visit the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy or The Kauffman Foundation.

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The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) released its first-ever Small Business Procurement Scorecard this month, revealing that only seven federal agencies had met their small business contracting goals in FY 2006. Government-wide, the share of contracts awarded to small businesses in 2006 was 22.8 percent, just short of the government’s goal of 23 percent.

According to the SBA’s scorecard, contracts to women-owned businesses increased by more than a billion dollars between 2005 and 2006. The SBA’s scorecard is available on www.sba.gov and will be updated every six months.

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Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE) will host their 2007 Policy & Politics Conference September 17-19 in Washington, DC. The conference will include sessions on the economy, health care, and other issues affecting women-owned businesses. Participants will also learn from briefings on current legislation and the 2008 elections, prior to visiting Members of Congress on Capitol Hill.

For additional information on the upcoming conference, click here.

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The Center for Women’s Business Research, in collaboration with Babson College, will host its fourth Accelerating the Growth of Businesses Owned by Women of Color research forum in Dallas, TX on September 20, 2007. This multi-year research effort engages women of color entrepreneurs in a dialogue about the factors that are preventing them from growing their businesses, and the actions that are necessary to meet and overcome those barriers. Previous forums have been held in Philadelphia, Atlanta, and San Francisco.

Information gained from this series of forums will help lead to action plans for overcoming barriers to business growth for women of color entrepreneurs on the individual, community and national levels, as well as help formulate public- and private-sector policy recommendations.

Asian, Latina, African-American & other multi-ethnic women who meet established criteria are encouraged to apply online.

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The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) will build on its series of successful workshops in 2006 and early 2007 with three new conferences for minority and women-owned small businesses this fall. The Expanding Horizons conferences, being held in cooperation with NWBC and the Minority Business Development Agency, will take place in Newark, NJ (September 27), Houston, TX (October 18), and San Francisco, CA (November 15).

The workshops are designed to address the unique challenges that minority- and women-owned businesses face in their efforts to gain entry to the global marketplace. Participants will learn about challenges and opportunities of overseas and cross-border investment, assistance programs offered by the U.S. government, and accessing capital for overseas projects, among other topics. Speakers will include senior government officials from OPIC and other agencies, international bankers, and representatives from businesses investing overseas who will share their insights and experiences.

For more information on these workshops or to register, visit www.trademeetings.com.

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Before leaving for the August recess, the Senate and House of Representatives both passed a bill containing small business tax provisions. The Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2007 (H.R. 976), was passed by both houses as a part of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill. The two versions of the bill must be reconciled in conference when Congress returns in September.

Included in the bill are: provisions to extend through 2008 the work opportunity tax credit; an increase to $125,000 of the amount eligible for expensing by small businesses through 2010; a full credit against alternative minimum tax liability for the work opportunity tax credit and the employer credit for social security taxes paid with respect to employee cash tips; a provision to allow employers to claim a business tax credit for social security taxes paid with respect to employee cash tips; the redefinition of “qualified joint venture” to treat certain businesses jointly owned by married couples as sole proprietorships for tax purposes; and a provision granting the IRS additional time to notify taxpayers of tax deficiencies before the suspension period for interest and penalties on underpayments.

The Senate also offered a bipartisan “Sense of the Senate” resolution addressing small business health care reform during review of the SCHIP legislation. The resolution, offered by Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), communicated the Senate’s support for legislation that seeks to improve access to affordable and meaningful insurance coverage for small group and individual health insurance markets. The resolution also specified the Senate’s intent to enact small business health care legislation this year. A “Sense of the Senate” resolution is legislative language which offers the opinion of the Senate, but does not make law.

The National Women’s Business Council will continue to monitor legislation relating to small business tax relief and health care reform in the coming months.

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