A press release from Joe Walsh:

Rep. Walsh Introduces Bill to Protect American Small Businesses

Rep. Walsh is Chairman of the Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access

WASHINGTON- Today Congressman Joe Walsh (IL-8) and Congressman Gerry Connolly (VA-11) introduced the Small Business Protection Act of 2012. The Small Business Administration (SBA) has recently proposed new group size standards that define what businesses qualify as “small” for taxing and contracting purposes. For the first time, these size standards lump different industries together under one size standard inevitably giving big corporations an unfair advantage over small businesses. Without this bill, small businesses will be driven out of competition for government contracts.

Walsh stated:

Joe Walsh

“Since coming to Congress over a year ago, I have fought tirelessly to protect and defend American small businesses.

“My bill ensures that small businesses do not have to compete with global corporations to create jobs in our local communities. Size standards assure the viability of Americas biggest job creators—small businesses.

“As Chairman of the Small Business Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access, I know small businesses are the backbone of this country, but right now they are struggling under too many burdensome regulations.

“This bipartisan bill brings Members from both sides of the aisle together to protect small businesses from unfair guidelines. Washington needs to stop penalizing small businesses and get out of the way so that America’s entrepreneurs can create jobs.”

Rep. Connolly said (D-VA), “This bill creates new opportunities for entrepreneurs including small business contractors.”

Highlights of Small Business Protection Act of 2012:

• The Small Business Administration (SBA) is creating new group size standards that will define what businesses qualify as “small.” By the SBA’s own analysis, these proposals that lump different industries together are excluding legitimate small businesses from the SBA contracting programs.
• The Small Business Protection Act protects legitimate small businesses by requiring that the size standard assigned to each common group is appropriate for each individual North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code that is put in the new group.
• For example, SBA’s analysis of the size standards for architectural firms indicated that it should be increased from $4.5 million to $7 million. However, because SBA chose to group architects with engineers for the purposes of the size standard definition, SBA proposed increasing the standard to $19 million – a number which would have included 97.8% of all architecture firms, thereby allowing large businesses to compete as if they were small businesses.