By Tom Sullivan, Chief Counsel for Advocacy,
U.S. Small Business Administration
I recently had the pleasure of addressing your annual convention and talking about what our office does. The Office of Advocacy is the independent voice for small business within the government. Like your association, we fight for small business issues such as lower taxes, less regulation and health care access.
How does it work? The old-fashioned way: We produce research about small business and roll up our sleeves to fight for regulatory changes.
We arm associations and Congress with data showing small businesses are the job creators and innovators - the engine of our economy. We give them so much data they are forced to understand.
Our tax studies show how quickly the economy would turn around if small firms had a level playing field. The information we produce leads policymakers who hear “unfair tax burden” to think “small business.”
But most people think of Advocacy in terms of regulatory intervention. The Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act requires the government to consider impacts on small business before they regulate. We're the cop that enforces that law. And it's a tough neighborhood: some agencies would rather not follow the law.
That's where we need help from our small business partners like you.
When we get involved - and when small businesses are at the table - you save money. We saved small businesses $4.4 billion last year by persuading agencies to treat small businesses better. People like you bring the issues to our attention and give us the tools we need to fight expensive regulations.
One thing that has made my job easier is having a big advocate on Pennsylvania Avenue. In March, President Bush flew out to a small manufacturing company in Albers, Mo., and talked to the entire world about small business.
When it comes to entrepreneurs, he said, the government's job is to get out of the way!
The president talked about access to health care. He said small businesses should be able to band together across state lines, through associations like the Automotive Service Association, to lower health care costs.
Then he flew back to Washington and continued to talk about small business. I was fortunate to be part of that audience.
The president said costs to comply with an out-of-control tax code - even to figure out taxes - are twice as high for small businesses as for their larger business counterparts.
The president said small businesses are being crushed under a mountain of paperwork and regulation, at a cost of $7,000 per employee - data from our research.
The president laid out his small business plan - just leaned over the podium and talked from the heart, without notes. His plan calls for:
- Simplifying the tax code
- Giving small businesses legitimate access to government contracts
- Providing access to health care
- Making permanent many tax cuts such as repeal of the death tax
- Getting information to small businesses through easy-to-use, government-supported Web portals
- Ending the endless black hole of government regulation.
When the president called on Advocacy to crack down on agencies that do not treat small businesses fairly, no one clapped louder than I did.
So we have strong advocates at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue - in the White House and Congress. Fittingly, my office is located right between the two.
I am honored to serve this president and you, our real bosses: the taxpayers - and small business, our country's economic engine.
 | Thomas M. Sullivan, appointed by President George W. Bush, is the fifth Senate-confirmed chief counsel for Advocacy in the office's 25-year history. The Office of Advocacy is charged with independently advancing the views, concerns and interests of small business. The chief counsel does so before Congress, the White House, federal agencies, federal courts, and state policy-makers. Sullivan formerly was executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business Legal Foundation, which provides small business owners guidance on legal issues and promotes a small business agenda in the nation's courts.
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