FCW.com noted JK’s criticism of SBA and its policies related to minority-owned business in a hearing on May 22nd.

The Small Business Administration seems asleep when it comes to issues related to minority-owned small businesses, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said today.

For example, in a decade, SBA has not updated its net worth threshold for its small-business program that assists businesses with government contracts set-asides, said Kerry, chairman of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, at a committee hearing.

Things have changed considerably since 1997, he said, and SBA needs to review the dollar amounts.

“Frankly, it seems like it’s almost asleep,” Kerry said about the agency.

The threshold determines when a business is eligible to enter the small-business program and sets a ceiling for when the company outgrows it. An individual’s net worth must be at least $250,000 to enter the program, and once it hits $750,000, he or she becomes ineligible, according to testimony from SBA officials.

The key is the individual’s net worth, not the business’ net worth, said Calvin Jenkins, SBA’s deputy associate administrator for government contracting and business development, in his testimony. Things have not changed that much, which makes the levels still appropriate, he said.

Most individuals’ net worth is well below the program’s threshold, Jenkins said.

Kerry said those dollar figures are squeezing downward and narrowing the field of who can join the program. It takes a companies up to four years before getting a contract, and then “boom! they’re out of the program” because of their growth, he said.

PRNewswire has more detail about the hearing in “Kerry Focuses on Expanding Minority Entrepeneurship Opportunities”.

HispanicBusinessNews.com covered the preview of the hearing in the post, “Kerry Looks to Spur Small-Business Growth: Part One”. <!-more-> RTO Online noted the unanimous passage of the Small Business Lending Reauthorization and Improvements Act (S. 1256) by the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. They noted that the bill’s features included:

The Small Business Lending Reauthorization and Improvements Act:

-  Establishes an Intermediary Lending Pilot Program championed by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), to reach businesses that are not eligible for 7(a) and 504 loans but need capital to help finance their growth -  Increases loan assistance for businesses looking to trade with other countries, a provision championed by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) -  Expands lending in low-income communities by coordinating the 504 loan program with the New Markets Tax Credit program -  Encourages lending to Native Americans and to those with disabilities -  Strengthens the Microloan and Microloan Technical Assistance Programs and the Program for Investment in Microentrepreneurs -  Updates the 7(a) and 504 programs to address more expensive markets and rising interest rates, making it possible to refinance property with 504 loans and get larger 7(a) loans -  Allows small businesses to obtain both 7(a) and 504 loans, giving them the benefits of both programs when they need working capital and fixed-assets -  Allows non-profit child care centers to get 504 loans through a pilot program -  Creates an office at the SBA to increase business ownership by minorities -  Reduces red tape to make participation in loan programs easier and to encourage more lenders and non-profits to make small business loans

FCW.com reported that “Kerry queries DOD on missed vet set-aside goal”.

ORLANDO, Fla. —Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) wants to know why the Defense Department, of all agencies, is falling short when it comes to contracting with small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans.

Kerry, chairman of the Senate’s Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates May 15 asking for a clear statement on DOD’s commitment to meeting the governmentwide goal of setting aside 3 percent of contracting dollars for such businesses.

DOD has yet to meet that goal, which was written into law in 1999. In 2005, for example, the department set aside a little less than 0.5 percent, Kerry wrote.

PRNewswire has the text of the letter sent to Robert Gates in this post.

IT BusinessEdge reported on Senators Kerry and Snowe’s efforts to gain more time for small business in Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

In light of the fact that Congress denied small businesses a Sarbanes-Oxley section 404 exemption not long ago, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) are lobbying regulators to give SMBs more time to comply with the complicated internal controls requirements.

Kerry and Snowe serve, respectively, as chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. In those capacities, they recently penned a joint letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Mark Olson.

They asked both boards to consider giving small businesses an extra year to comply with Sarbox. In addition, they asked the PCAOB to keep an eye on how auditors deal with small businesses so that they are not unduly burdened. And of the SEC, the senators requested a published small business compliance guide, a full assessment of the “economic impact” of Sarbox on small business and regular reporting on that impact, as well as an upward adjustment to the number of shareholders needed for securities registration.

reinvention inc blog posted JK’s letter calling for investigation into Women Business Center Funding.

PRNewswire has the letter and more background on the impact of the failure to adequately implement the Women’s Procurement Program.

Inc.com made a quick passing note of the bill introduced by JK and Sen. Snowe whiich would boost SBA loans.

May 3, 2007—Senate lawmakers this week introduced legislation that would allow the federal government to back nearly $100 billion in loans to small-business owners over the next three years.

The bill, introduced Wednesday by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), provides $60 billion for the Small Business Administration’s 7(a) loan program, $27 billion to its 504 program, and $330 million for government-backed microloans.

A sidenote in a Washington Post article about the fire at the historic Eastern Market in Washington, DC highlighted JK’s recommendation:

The fire, which was caused by an electrical short, displaced 13 merchants of fresh produce, meats and poultry from the 134-year-old brick building on Capitol Hill.

Within hours, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty vowed it would be rebuilt. City and federal officials scrambled to find money. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, encouraged the city to seek loans from the Small Business Administration.

JK wrote an oped for the Wooster Business Journal

We Americans pride ourselves on having the fairest, most transparent and most efficient financial markets in the world. We got there by developing a regulatory approach that insures investors around the world have confidence in our markets.

However, over the last few years, the actions of companies like Enron, WorldCom and Arthur Andersen shook the American people’s faith in our financial markets.

In response, Congress took decisive steps to restore accountability to corporate governance, auditing, and financial reporting for public companies by passing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

But this success has come with a disproportionately heavy burden for our small businesses – the small companies that can’t afford an army of accountants to help them wade through endless red tape. A recent Government Accountability Office study found that firms with assets over $1 billion spend just 13 cents per $100 in revenue on audit fees, while small businesses spend more than a dollar.

We need to assist small businesses, the backbone of the American economy, in making the transition to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley regulations. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) are currently considering final rules and guidance on implementing the law. I am hopeful that their changes will make compliance easier for small businesses. But above all, small companies need additional time to understand and implement the changes to Sarbanes-Oxley.

You can read the rest of the oped here.

Wooster Business Journal had a news brief item highlighting the Massachusetts business owners honored by JK during the Small Business Week celebration.

Mass. Business Owners Awarded

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) recently honored four Massachusetts small business owners at the National Small Business Week in Washington, D.C. Craig A. Bovaird from Princeton, president of Built-Rite Tool and Die Inc. based in Lancaster received the Massachusetts Small Business Person of the Year award. His company specializes in developing and manufacturing thermoplastics for the aerospace, medical, defense and high-tech industries. Patrick Turley, president of Turley Publications Inc. in Palmer was honored with the Phoenix Award for Small Business Disaster Recovery. Anne Marie Cerami from Burlington received the 2007 National Financial Services Champion award. She is the senior vice president and manager of agency guaranty programs at TD Banknorth Inc. Vice president of Sovereign Bank in Boston, James M. Hanlon, received the Export Lender of the Year Award.

Goodbiz113 blog gives a kudos to JK in a post titled “Senators Kerry and Snowe Press SBA for Action on Energy Program”. The post includes the letter which JK and Sen. Snowe sent to the SBA administrator, Steven Preston, concerning the SBA’s energy conservation support efforts.

GoodBiz113’s take: As champions of small business and the environment, we again commend Sen. Kerry and Sen. Snowe on their collaborative and persistent efforts to promote entrepreneurship and energy efficiency. Keep fighting the good, bipartisan fight!

Then there’s these items in the better-late-than-never category.

This blog post at 0800handyman.co.uk blog caught my eye:

Yanks take small business seriously

Dan Matthews at Real Business points out that John Kerry chairs the (US) Senate Committee on Small Businesses. John Kerry! ... Americans really are so much better than us at this sort of thing.

Ok… of course I followed the breadcrumb trail to RealBusiness.co.uk and found this post which pointed to an interview that JK did with Inc magazine which I totally missed highlighting in a prior Small Business News Roundup.

And yes, JK does take Small Business and Entrepeneurship very seriously. Thanks for the smile

And now for the Inc magazine interview, “John Kerry: Back in Charge” with Angus Loten

Ruling out another presidential run, John Kerry has chosen to focus on his day job in the Senate—including chairmanship of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. So what’s on his agenda? He’s the guy who put the “entrepreneurship” in the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. As committee chairman in 2001, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) had the name extended to reflect its broader sense of mission. Now, with the Democratic takeover of Congress, he returns to the helm, pledging to strengthen capital programs and other opportunities for small-business owners, while fighting to give them a fair shot at federal contracts—largely by preventing Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Wal-Mart and other large corporations from scooping them up. Kerry, a former entrepreneur himself, surprised colleagues 22 years ago for seeking a post on the low-profile committee, yet was pilloried as anti-business during his 2004 presidential bid campaign, over his support of a minimum-wage increase and curbing tax incentives for corporations. Kerry recently spoke to Inc.com staff reporter Angus Loten about raising the federal minimum wage, taming employer health-care costs, and other key issues the committee expects to take up in the year ahead.

link to rest of interview