Online registration is now available for NWBC’s upcoming Town Hall Meetings for Women Entrepreneurs in Columbus, Ohio on March 12 and Houston, Texas on April 3. The Council will hold a third Town Hall on May 14 in Boca Raton, Florida.
These half-day events will allow members of the Council to hear directly from women business owners about their priorities, challenges and concerns, informing the Council’s future policy recommendations to the President, Congress and the Small Business Administration.
Breakout sessions will allow participants to voice their thoughts and experiences regarding critical policy issues, such as access to affordable health care, access to capital, procurement, taxes, education and workforce development, and civic engagement. In addition, each event will include an interactive panel discussion with Council members and leaders in the women’s business community.
The Town Hall Meetings are free, but space is limited, so advance registration is required. Visit www.nwbc.gov for more information or to register.
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Earlier this month, the National Women’s Business Council responded to the SBA’s recently-announced proposed rule regarding women-owned small business federal contract assistance procedures in a letter to SBA Administrator Steven Preston. In the letter, the Council recommended discarding the current proposed rule and convening a blue ribbon panel to draft an alternative rule within a six-month time period.
Interested parties wishing to comment on the proposed rule have until February 25 to submit their remarks. All comments should be submitted online at the Federal eRulemaking Portal: www.regulations.gov, or by mail to: Robert C. Taylor, Office of Contract Assistance, Office of Government Contracting, U.S. Small Business Administration, 409 3rd Street, SW, Washington, DC 20416. If you feel strongly about this ruling and the impact on the future of procurement opportunities for women-owned businesses, please file your comment before the deadline.
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Council member Rebecca Herwick, President and CEO of St. Louis-based Global Products, Inc., was named a recipient of the 2008 Enterprising Women of the Year Award. The award, given every year by Enterprising Women, The Magazine for Women Business Owners, honors the country’s finest women entrepreneurs and their remarkable success. Award recipients, who are also recognized for the impact they have on their communities and other women in business, will be honored at a gala dinner on Feb. 29 in Florida. Council members Rebecca Boenigk and Leslie Saunders are previous winners of the award.
In addition to this award, Herwick recently was appointed to the Missouri Head Injury Advisory Council.
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Council member Rebecca Herwick and NWBC Executive Director Margaret Barton both participated in panels this month celebrating the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988. This seminal piece of legislation, often known by its bill number HR 5050, improved women business owners’ access to credit, expanded data collection on women-owned businesses by the Census Bureau, gave birth to the Women’s Business Center program, and created the National Women’s Business Council.
Barton and Herwick’s remarks were the start of a year-long awareness building campaign and celebration for the Council. Barton participated in a panel at the National Association of Women Business Owners’ annual Public Policy Days event on February 4 in Arlington, Virginia. Other panelists included former NWBC Executive Director Julie Weeks and Madison Services Group’s Ann Sullivan. On February 13, Herwick participated in a panel hosted by the local Kansas City NAWBO chapter which targeted local women business leaders interested in becoming active in the public policy process. Themes from these panels involved honoring the past achievements of women business leaders and advocates, acknowledging the present state of women’s enterprise, and looking ahead to the future of women’s business ownership.
Throughout the remainder of 2008, Council members and staff will join sister organizations to take this celebratory message of progress and achievement to conferences and communities around the country. Please check www.nwbc.gov for updates.
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The National Women’s Business Council will participate in an event marking the celebration of Women’s History Month in March. The event, entitled Women Making History…Yesterday-Today and Tomorrow, is being organized by the National Women’s History Month Inter-agency Committee. The celebration will be held Thursday, March 27 in Washington, DC. The program will include workshops on finance and career development, agency displays, and keynote remarks from Ms. Shinae Chun, Director of the Women’s Bureau at the U.S. Department of Labor. Sharon G. Hadary, Executive Director of the Center for Women's Business Research, will moderate the day’s events.
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NWBC once again will be participating in the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization’s (OSDBU) 18th Annual Procurement Conference at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, Maryland on April 24, 2008. The national one-day conference is geared to fostering business partnerships between the Federal government, prime contractors, and small, minority, veteran-owned, HubZone, and women-owned businesses.
The event will feature seminars, procurement matchmaking, and exhibits. Former NWBC member, and current President and CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, Karen Kerrigan, will be moderating a conference seminar on small business financing, organized by the Council. For more information and to register for the conference, please visit www.osdbu.gov.
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Council Executive Director Margaret Barton spoke to women business leaders from seven European countries during a luncheon on February 4. The meeting, organized through the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program, was part of a three week professional exchange program entitled Business Development Issues for Women Business Leaders. Representatives from Women’s Business Enterprise National Council and the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce also participated in the discussion, which highlighted the role of advocacy and the importance of networking for professional development.
On February 6, Council staff member Allison Gilmore met with two women from Turkmenistan, also as part of the State Department’s International Visitors Program. The women, visiting as part of a program entitled Young Business and Economic Leaders, were interested in learning about promoting women in business, how to start businesses, as well as the kinds of assistance and advice that is available to entrepreneurs in the United States. During the meeting, Gilmore discussed the Council, its research and programs in support of women entrepreneurs, as well as the Women’s Business Center program.
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On January 30, the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship held a hearing to discuss the Small Business Administration’s proposed rule to implement a women’s contracting program. Joining other critics opposed to this proposed rule, Committee members strongly urged the SBA to scrap the current proposal and, instead, create a rule that better represents the spirit of the law which originally created the program.
Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA), Ranking Member Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Senator Carl Levin (D- MI) expressed strong concern over the justification for the SBA’s proposed rule and chided the SBA for choosing the narrowest statistical model possible to justify its findings. Administrator Preston, the hearing’s only witness, testified that the SBA “has been, and remains, committed to implementing the statutorily-authorized set-aside for women-owned small businesses and intends to do so in a constitutionally valid manner.” During his testimony, Preston also acknowledged his own surprise that the results yielded only 4 categories in which women-owned businesses were shown to be under-represented and stated that feedback on this proposed rule received during the 60 day public comment period would be taken under strong consideration by the SBA.
Following the hearing, members of the Committee further emphasized their dissatisfaction with this rule in a letter to Administrator Preston. In addition, Senators Snowe and Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) introduced new legislation on February 7 to overhaul the proposed rule on the set-aside program for women-owned small businesses. The Small-Business Women's Procurement Improvement Act (S. 2608) would reverse the SBA’s proposed rule and provide enhanced contracting opportunities to women-owned small businesses across the nation.
NWBC staff will monitor the situation closely and will post developments on www.nwbc.gov.
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On February 4, President Bush announced a proposed FY 2009 budget for the U.S. Small Business Administration. While this proposed budget increases small business lending capacity by 37 percent and increases funding for SBA’s ongoing operational reforms, it also includes cuts to other programs.
In particular, the proposed budget is being criticized by members of Congress and others for shifting costs for the Microloan program to lenders, discontinuing the program’s associated technical assistance, and reducing funding to Small Business Development Centers by $10 million and to Women’s Business Centers by $1 million. In addition, with the elimination of the Microloan Technical Assistance program, SBDCs and WBCs are expected to take on this role despite the budget’s proposed reduced funding. Finally, the budget also provides no new funding for Procurement Center Representatives, who are responsible for monitoring contract bundling and breaking out contracts for small firms.
For more details on the SBA’s proposed FY 2009 budget, click here.
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On February 13, President Bush signed into law HR 5140, The Recovery Rebates and Economic Stimulus for the American People Act of 2008. In addition to providing rebates to taxpayers, the economic stimulus package includes two provisions to assist small businesses: a 50 percent bonus deduction on new equipment that normally would be depreciated over the long term and an increase in the limit, from $128,000 to $250,000, on expenses that small businesses can deduct from annual income.
Click here for additional details on the stimulus package.
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