Small Business Legislation Will Wait 'til Next Year The House Government Reform Committee held the ball and ran out the clock on the Small Business Administration reauthorization bill, H.R. 2802, which includes new restrictions on contract bundling and would give 8(a) companies first priority in set-aside contracts. Congress adjourned its 2003 session, leaving small business legislation to be debated in the New Year. The bill was approved unanimously by the House Small Business Committee July 23. But the Government Reform Committee claimed jurisdiction because it is responsible for procurement policy. “They don’t like that we included procurement practices in the legislation,” said Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), the Small Business Committee’s ranking minority member. “We are asking for more teeth on bundling.” Government Reform never held hearings or took any action. Democratic members of the Small Business Committee accused the Bush administration and the Republican Leadership in Congress of blocking action on the bill. The Senate passed its version of the SBA reauthorization bill, S. 1375, by unanimous consent on Sept. 26. It is vastly different from the House bill; the differences will eventually have to be worked out in a conference committee. Congress voted to extend authorization of current SBA programs until March 15. In a news conference Dec. 8, House Democrats pointed to nearly three dozen pieces of legislation important to small business that did not make it through Congress this year, including tax and regulatory reform and association health plans. They also cited the Federal Prison Industries Competition in Contracting Act, H.R. 1829. That bill would end the prison labor corporation’s mandatory source preference in federal contracting and prohibit the corporation from bidding on small business set-aside contracts. The House passed it Nov. 6, but it never came up for a vote in the Senate. Rep. Velazquez said, “Instead of helping Main Street, President Bush and the congressional Republicans helped Wall Street instead. “They talk the good talk for small business, but when it comes to legislative action, there is not the will to provide the economic relief that small businesses require,” she added. Rep. Ed Case (D-HI) said, “The bottom line is that the federal policy today toward minority small businesses, as with all small businesses, is somewhere between benign neglect and outright opposition.”