The Strange Case of S. 1671, Entrepreneurial Development Act of 2007

The Entrepreneurial Development Act of 2007 is typical of the pork-barrel spending and special interest pandering that passes for legislation in Congress. Don’t let the name fool you — if it helps small business, it does so only on the margins.  Furthermore, as it lies in wait — it’s 2008 after all — it suggests how useless it is to have a senator with 24 years seniority and be in the majority party. 

Last September, the bill was authorized for a vote to the full Senate by the Small Business Committee headed by Senator Kerry. It focuses on all those issues that are essential to successful small businesses such as the establishment of a 10 member National Small Business Development Center Advisory Board, and authorizes the National Women’s Business Council, the Interagency Committee on Women’s Business Enterprise, and the Native American Small Business Development Program.  (You get the idea?)

The committee, however, was aware that federal regulations hurt.  In 2004, the per employee cost for compliance for a business with less than 20 employees was $7,647.  (A company with 500 or more employees has a more most burden of $5,282.) So the answer would be to reduce the burden, right? 

Unfortunately that’s not the case.  In fact, the solution is to spend more money — up to $5 million a year in regulatory compliance counseling. 

More recently though, John Kerry highlighted the bill in a recent speech on the floor of the Senate.  He decried, “Unfortunately, these bills have been blocked for a full year by some in the Senate…” Last time, I checked, Senator Harry Reid was the Senate Majority Leader.  He’s also a Democrat, so I’m confident in assuming that it’s not the Republicans who are preventing it from coming up for a vote.  

Disregard the virtues (or lack thereof) of this legislation but don’t you think it’s odd that the Chair of the Senate Small Business Committee (who of course, has no experience running a small business) isn’t swinging away to get this legislation passed?  Does 24 years account for anything?  Apparently not.

In fact, if you go to his website, you’ll notice that John Kerry’s support for small business is typified by congratulatory notes written to those who won best small business competitions.  (Oh there is a bit about support for dought struck businesses that was snuck inside a Defense Appropriations bill — whether that proviso would have passed on its own merits is open for speculation.)

In short, there isn’t much to be lost if John Kerry isn’t re-elected as far as small businesses are concerned. Perhaps there is something to be said about voting for a small businessman, such as Jeff Beatty, who actually ran a business, met a payroll, and complied with burden of federal regulation.  He’s be more focused on his fellow small business owners and less on special interests and pork-barrel spending.