The Democratic Daily post, “Kerry’s Big Ideas for Small Business”, highlighted this Boston Globe article

When the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship convenes a public hearing this morning , it will address an issue its new chairman, Senator John F. Kerry , acknowledges is “a little off the beaten track.”

The topic: climate change. The Massachusetts Democrat wants to gauge its impact on small businesses and explore how they can help prevent it.

Spurring emerging companies to develop alternative energy technologies is only one of the senator’s priorities for the panel. Other priorities he cited during an interview in his Boston office this week include reducing the cost of healthcare and boosting research and development funding for small businesses, while looking for ways to make the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed in 2002 to counter a wave of corporate financial accounting abuses, less onerous.

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The senator already is using his perch on the small business committee as a bully pulpit to promote entrepreneurship and tackle the problems he believes are hindering it—even those, like global warming, that have an impact far beyond the small business arena.

Since he assumed the committee chairmanship when Democrats took control of the Senate chamber in January, Kerry has advocated for universal healthcare, pressed for a review of disaster recovery contracting practices, and grilled Steven Preston , new head of the Small Business Administration, on the agency’s priorities.

Kerry said budget cuts have left the SBA “hamstrung in its ability to serve small businesses.” Of Preston, he said, “He’s doing his best to try to turn things around. But it’s very hard for him because he doesn’t have the resources or the budget he would like to have.”

From EarthTimes, the Small Business Committee press release on the Climate Change hearing on 3-8-3007 also noted:

With small businesses responsible for 50 percent of all energy consumption, as well as half of the entire economy, Kerry stressed the importance of providing resources and tools to small businesses to help them develop cutting-edge technologies to address climate change and become more energy efficient.

“We have reached a critical moment in the fight to save this planet, and we can’t win the fight without the support of the private sector. Big Business can help and the government needs to get off the sidelines, but we need a concerted effort from America’s small businesses to bring us home,” said Kerry. “Many small businesses, from Massachusetts to California, are already playing a critical role in creating the technologies that are helping America to become energy independent. These companies aren’t only saving the planet—they are growing the economy and they are creating new jobs. We need an energy revolution as far-reaching as the industrial revolution. Small companies, which employ half of all private sector workers and produce half of our GDP, can help lead that revolution.”

JK was honored for his work on behalf of Veteran Small Business owners and 2 new initiatives were announced at an event sponsored by the American Legion.

Senator John Kerry today was honored by the American Legion for his work on behalf of veteran small business owners.

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Kerry has long been an advocate of providing opportunity and outreach to our returning veterans. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, he has made helping veteran and reservist entrepreneurs one of his top priorities.

Kerry believes the government can and must do more to ensure that veterans will have economic opportunities waiting for them at home. He has created Military Economic Injury Disaster Loans and has proposed a Small Business Military Reservist Tax Credit and the Military Family Bill of Rights legislation. He has pledged to continue to push for legislation to create grant funding to assist small businesses during an employee’s active duty assignment.

At a reception in Washington, D.C. today, two new initiatives between the Northeast Veterans Business Center (NEVBC) in Boston and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) were also announced. The initiatives will provide coaching and training to veterans who are recovering at VA facilities in Bedford and D.C. Bernie Cournoyer, LRC, the managing director of the Veterans Construction Team at Edith Nourse Rogers Veterans Hospital in Bedford, Mass. who started the first-in-the-nation Veterans Construction Team there in 1992 as part of the Compensated Work Therapy (CWT) Program will announce a new agreement with the NEVBC. The NEVBC will provide entrepreneurship training and help in placing veterans with service-disabled veteran owned businesses. In Bedford, 250 veterans participate in the CWT program each day, putting $3 million a year into veterans' hands -- 90 percent of whom were homeless when they started the program. The NEVBC will also partner with Walter Reed Military Hospital to provide business training and development to recovering injured service members.

<!-more-> Inc magazine noted the release of the GAO report on the Katrina recovery and impact on small business in an article titled, “Report: Gulf Coast Contracts Lack Transparency”

Federal Computer Week also commented on the GAO report in “Katrina subcontracting plans incomplete, GAO finds”.

Departments should keep better records of subcontracts going to small businesses during emergency situations, such as in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report. GAO also said inspectors general should review recordkeeping practices.

Required information on small business subcontracting is not consistently available in official procurement data systems of the Defense and Homeland Security departments, the General Services Administration, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, GAO found. Specifically, the systems had no information on whether DHS or GSA required subcontracting plans for 70 percent or more of their contracting funds. But when agencies decided the plans were unnecessary, they often gave no explanation, GAO found.

... Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, commissioned the report to learn whether subcontracting opportunities were readily available to small businesses during the initial phases of Gulf Coast reconstruction efforts after Hurricane Katrina, according to a letter sent March 1 to DOD, DHS, GSA and the engineer corps.

“Obviously, it’s very difficult to complete my oversight responsibilities in determining whether small businesses are receiving meaningful disaster-related subcontracting opportunities where data is incomplete,” Kerry wrote to executives of those departments and agencies.

In his letter, Kerry requests that agency executives send guidance to their procurement offices about better keeping data. He also wants IGs, not agency staff members, to review the offices’ performance.

  A CBS News/AP story on the progress of the recovery from Katrina quoted JK:

“Long-term recovery for the Gulf Coast requires a whole lot more than 18 months of empty promises,” said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. “Businesses that were once the heart of the Gulf Coast economy are now hanging on by a thread.”

Kerry said legislation offering tax breaks to encourage businesses to build or expand in areas hit by hurricane was a good first step. But, he said, the government’s disaster loan program needs to be overhauled, fixing problems that have prevented businesses from getting timely financial assistance.

The HispanicTips blog noted JK’s appearance at a conference sponsored by the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

“Senator John Kerry D-Mass. praised the energy and entrepreneurship of Hispanic business owners around the country today as he addressed the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerces 17th Annual Legislative Conference. Kerry, the chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, also outlined his priorities for advancing small business interests and Latino entrepreneurship.

“Hispanic businesses play a vital role in fueling our economy. With Hispanic firms growing three times faster than other businesses, advancing Latino entrepreneurship isnt a Latino issue, its an American issue,” said Kerry. “Average income for Latinos in Massachusetts is half of the average income for the entire state. The key to bridging this wealth gap is investing in entrepreneurial development and small business programs targeted to the Hispanic community. I am committed to pursuing an aggressive agenda to make sure these entrepreneurs have the tools and opportunities necessary to start, maintain, and grow their business and I thank the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for their leadership in this effort.””

MySuccessGateway blog pointed to JK’s op-ed in the Wooster Business Journal

From corner stores to internet startup companies, small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. And, while Massachusetts small business owners have what it takes to keep our economy strong, they could still use a strong advocate in the federal government to make their case.

That is why we have a Small Business Administration (SBA), a federal agency specifically tasked with championing small businesses. But this year, the President’s budget offers little help for the SBA. Overall, they have cut the agency’s budget by 45 percent since coming to power in 2001.

Here in Massachusetts, the Administration’s proposed cuts have a direct impact on the state’s 640,000 small business owners. For example, this budget proposal will reduce the services, counseling, and outreach programs provided by the state’s eight Small Business Development Centers, including the one in Worcester. Last year, these centers provided in-depth counseling to more than 4,000 clients, while more than 4,500 individuals attended training sessions which helped to create or retain nearly 1,000 Massachusetts jobs.

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Small businesses fuel our economy, and Washington has a responsibility to fund the federal programs that help entrepreneurs start, maintain, and grow their business. The bottom line is that the President’s budget doesn’t get the job done for Massachusetts. Instead, I will work for meaningful investment in the resources that will help Bay State small businesses remain innovative and competitive in a changing global marketplace.

Update: Here’s a link to the Small Business Committee website which includes transcripts of the remarks as well as a video of the Climate Change hearing.