Small Biz Chair Rep. Sam Graves: fought to cut Obamacare, EPA, SBA

After four years as chairman of the House Small Business Committee, Rep. Sam Graves, R-MO, leaves behind a legacy of mostly hard knocks for small business federal contractors.

Small federal vendors are relatively few in number but nonetheless are a significant constituency of the committee. Graves proclaimed his support for the small contractors and sought for several years--albeit unsuccessfully--to increase the government’s goal for small business contracting to 25%, from the current 23%.

But by falling short on that goal and achieving limited gains on others, and by supporting policies and strategies that many federal contractors view as having had a sharply negative effect on them, Graves’ legacy with this constituency is likely to be mostly disappointing. Time will tell if his discouraging track record with small federal contractors will affect his reputation as committee chair as a whole.

Small business federal contractors have had a mostly rocky four years. Many experienced losses due to steep budget cuts, sequestration and the government shutdown, which they view at least partly as a result of policies and strategies of the GOP majority party in the House starting in 2010.

Vendors are likely to put some of the blame for those painful times on Graves, as a GOP leader and committee chair. Graves voted with his party on 95% of 1606 votes, according to the Washington Post.

Graves also cast a vote that might be an especially bitter pill for contractors.

On Oct. 16, 2013, at a moment when many small contractors were being devastated by the impact of the government shutdown and imminent threats of a default on the nation’s debt, Graves was one of the Republicans who voted to continue the shutdown.

On the 16th day of the shutdown, Graves and 143 other House Republicans voted against raising the nation’s debt ceiling and reopening the government. There were 87 House GOP members and 198 Democrats who supported the budget bill, which passed Congress and allowed the government to reopen.

That vote, among others, is part of Graves’ complicated legacy with federal contractors. The shutdown, in particular, was viewed as a “life-or-death” issue by many small vendors.

Committee activity

As chairman, Graves focused on several issues of particular interest to small business contractors, including trying to raise the government’s goal for small vendors to 25%.

Graves was successful in making several mostly incremental changes to federal acquisition regulations for small business contractors, such as, in 2014, adding a requirement for studies on bundling of contracts and tweaking the process for design-build contracts. In 2013 he was applauded for adding language so that small business goal attainment would be a factor in federal executive job performance.

However, the most high-profile gains in small business federal contracting from 2010 to 2014 were attributed mostly to efforts by the Obama administration, not the small business committee. That included the administration’s establishment of the Women-Owned Small Business Program in 2011 and the achievement of the 23% small business goal for the first time in eight years in fiscal 2013.

As committee chair, Graves aligned with his party’s agenda on issues such as opposing Obamacare and fighting environmental regulations. Both of those issues were among the top priorities for the House small business panel in 2014.

Graves produced more anti-Obamacare statements as committee chairman in 2014 than he did on any other topic. A full 20% of the press releases on current issues put out by the small business committee in 2014 were criticisms of Obamacare. Graves also convened three full-committee hearings on the health care program in 2013 and 2014.

Graves’ statements against the Environmental Protection Agency’s clean water regulation also were among his favorite topics in the committee’s press releases in 2014.

SBA programs

Graves was active on the committee in overseeing the Small Business Administration and in advising cuts for what he believed to be redundant or ineffective programs. In May 2014, Graves and the committee recommended $50 million in cuts to SBA programs, including Women’s Business Centers, HUBZone outreach, and Boots to Business for veterans. The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-NY, supported several of the proposed cuts.

During Graves’ tenure, the SBA’s budget rose from $978 million in fiscal 2012 to $1.2 billion in fiscal 2013, but has since dropped sharply, to $888 million in fiscal 2015. That’s an overall drop of 9% for those three years. If it were adjusted for inflation, the cut would be even deeper.

Graves in 2010 voted against the SBA’s Small Business Lending fund, which was approved by a large majority in the House.

Graves, in summing up his acomplishments during his term, told the Associated Press his greatest achievement was increasing the small business panel’s relevance.

“The biggest by far is making the committee relevant. We came in at the height of the recession, and the Small Business Committee was in many cases taking a back seat and I think there were some out there who didn’t think it was relevant,” Graves said. His office did not respond to a request for further comment.

Graves has given up his committee chairmanship due to voluntary term limits set by the party, his spokesman Darrell Jordan told Set-Aside Alert. The six-year term limit includes the four years as chairman and two years as ranking member, Jordan said

Graves is being replaced by Rep. Steve Chabot, R-OH, in the new Congress being seated this week.

More information: House Small Business Committee website: http://smallbusiness.house.gov/ .

Small Biz Chair Rep. Sam Graves: fought to cut Obamacare, EPA, SBA

US contracting with small firms jumps in FY2014

WOSBs to lose self-certification?

HUBZone change stalled

Column: Using USASpending.gov for market research

Washington Insider: