By U.S. Senator Jim Talent

Next week is Small Business Week, a time to honor America’s small business owners for their contributions to our economy and service to our local communities. Now more than ever we recognize that small businesses are the backbone of job creation in the country.

I’ve always promoted the idea that small business is the avenue of opportunity for people of all backgrounds and socio-economic status. As the lead job creators, small business people deserve access to quality, affordable health care, tax relief and freedom from burdensome regulations. We also need to help minority, veteran and women-owned small businesses get the capital they need to start their own small business or expand an existing one.

We have been pushing a pro-jobs, pro-growth agenda in the Senate to help small businesses grow so they can hire more people and keep our economy moving in the right direction.

The No. 1 problem facing small businesses is the rising cost of health insurance. I am sponsoring a bill to create national Association Health Plans (AHPs) to allow small business men and women to join together through their trade associations to sponsor health insurance for themselves, their employees and their families. AHPs would empower small business owners to offer “Fortune 500” company health insurance to their employees, and it wouldn’t cost the taxpayer a dime.

Under our bill, trade and professional associations, such as the National Federation of Independent Business or the American Farm Bureau Federation, could respond to the needs of their members and sponsor an AHP. Any small business owner who belongs to a group sponsoring the health insurance could buy into these plans. AHPs would reduce costs of health insurance by 10-20 percent on average, and costs for very small businesses would drop much more. As a result, millions of people would get health insurance that currently don’t have it, and millions of others would get better coverage at a lower cost.

Last Congress we made significant strides in leveling the playing field for small businesses to compete with larger companies. Last November, Congress reauthorized the Small Business Act which includes a provision I added to help minority owned Section 8(a) small businesses. It says that any small business certified as part of the Section 8(a) program will no longer be required by any State or local government or political subdivision to meet additional criteria or certification to compete for a project that is funded, in whole or in part, by the federal government.

This is going to save minority small businesses hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars and in many cases make it possible for them to participate in opportunities to do business with the government. This is legislation I worked on throughout the last Congress, and I am very pleased that we were able to pass it and get it signed into law.

Another reason why small businesses are unable to compete for more government contracts is due to the practice of contract bundling. Bundling is the consolidation of two or more contracts, which were individually performed, or could be individually performed, by a small business. A bundled contract is a contract that incorporates requirements formerly distributed across several separate contracts into one larger contract that is often too large in size or scope to be suitable for small business competition. Studies have shown that bundling contracts for large corporations saves neither time nor money for federal agencies. But it does harm America's job creators by shutting them out of government business.

I pushed legislation to restrict bundling of Department of Defense contract requirements that unreasonably disadvantage small businesses. This amendment passed the Senate last Congress. In the coming weeks I will be supporting legislation that will restrict contract bundling within all federal agencies, and I will continue to support measures that encourage government contracting to consider small businesses when it’s the best deal for the taxpayer.

While I was Chairman of the House Committee on Small Business, I wrote legislation creating the National Veterans Business Development Corporation which was chartered by Congress to actively promote veteran-owned small businesses, especially service-disabled veteran owned small businesses, to obtain contracts nation-wide.

The Veterans Corporation is establishing Veterans Business Resource Centers across the nation. The first such Center opened its doors in St. Louis last fall and it’s truly a model for future centers to be established all over the country. The Center was created to help provide opportunities to the half-million Missouri veterans so they can access small business loans, training and other assistance to help them realize their dream of owning and operating a small business.

In 1999, nearly 11.2 percent, or $1.4 billion, of all Small Business Administration loans were made to veteran-owned businesses. Approximately 72,000 veteran entrepreneurs received business counseling and training through SBA resource partners, including, Small Business Development Centers, Service Corps of Retired Executives, Business Information Centers, and Women’s Business Centers. Now with Veterans Business Resource Centers being established across the country, I’m optimistic that these numbers will significantly increase.

There are more than 25 million small businesses in America, including 447,800 in Missouri. Our economy will be even stronger if we can continue enacting a pro-jobs, pro-growth agenda for these entrepreneurs. Small Business Week is a good time to reflect on that agenda and more importantly to renew the call for the Congress to pass it.

Senator Jim Talent (R-Mo.) was elected to serve Missouri in the U.S. Senate in November 2002. Previously he served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1993-2001), chairing the House Committee on Small Business, and the Missouri House (1985-1992).