Small Business Scorecard for the 111th Congress

Most members of Congress exclaim to support small business owners and entrepreneurs through their work on Capitol Hill. However, when it comes to how U.S. Senators and House members actually vote on legislation that impacts the profitability and survivability of small firms, their actions sometimes don’t match up to the rhetoric. The purpose of SBE Council’s Small Business Scorecard for the 111th Congress is to get beyond the politics and posturing, and gauge exactly how members of Congress voted on issues critical to entrepreneurs. SBE Council just released the scorecard this week. You can view the scorecard on the SBE Council website -- look for the Small Business Scorecard button to access the report.

Unfortunately, the legislative thrust of the 111th Congress has been decidedly anti-growth and anti-small business -- an endless wave of bills that increase costs, paperwork, red tape and taxes on the nation’s job creators. In addition, unhinged spending has created a precarious and unstable fiscal environment that threatens to undermine our nation’s competitiveness and ability to support robust job creation and investment.

Despite small business opposition, measures that hurt entrepreneurship steadily advanced in the 111th Congress, including: a massive health care bill that increases taxes, compliance burdens and the cost of insurance; tax hikes with the threat of more to come; new workplace mandates that bring uncertainty and the opportunity for increased legal action against small businesses; initiatives that will drive the cost of energy higher; and excessive spending that will drive the U.S. further into debt while increasing the likelihood that taxes will go higher for small business owners. SBE Council KEY VOTED pieces of legislation related to these issues, and more.

For the 111th Congress, SBE Council has scored members of the U.S. Senate on 27 key votes, and members of the U.S. House of Representatives on 22 votes.

The findings of SBE Council’s Small Business Scorecard for the 111th Congress can be found on our website. Or you can use our handy “quick finder” – a map of the U.S. that allows you to click on your state to see how your U.S. House and Senate Members cumulatively scored on the KEY VOTES we selected.

Karen Kerrigan, President & CEO
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