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$163 billion in federal procurement opportunities to small businesses is a new record. This week, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Isabella Guzman announced that the federal government exceeded its small-business contracting goal of 23 percent in FY 2022. A notable 26.5 percent of federal contract dollars went to small businesses, amounting to an estimated $162.9 billion investment in the small-business economy and representing an $8.7 billion increase from FY 2021. Officials from the Biden Administration estimate this new record in federal contract awards for small businesses supported over 1 million jobs in manufacturing, construction, and research and development. Breaking down the 26.5 percent, 4.6 percent of federal contracts awarded went to service-disabled Veteran-owned small businesses, and small businesses in historically underutilized business zones received $16.3 billion in federal contract awards – the highest amount ever awarded in this category. Additionally, women-owned small businesses received more than $26 billion in federal contracts, accounting for 4.6 percent of the FY 2022 total eligible dollars. Unfortunately, this category fell short of the SBA’s five percent target. It is also worth noting that $79.1 billion went to small businesses for subcontracting over the last year. NSBA supports SBA’s efforts to expand federal contracting awards for small businesses nationwide. Read the entire SBA report here.

Make a difference for small business in a big way – REGISTER FOR WP 2023 TODAY! On Sept. 13 and 14, NSBA will host its annual fly-in, where small-business owners from coast-to-coast will make their way to Capitol Hill to educate Congress on the realities of running a small business. Known as the Washington Presentation, this highly anticipated event convenes small-business leaders with lawmakers and facilitates high-powered networking with other small-business owners and policymakers, including a briefing from the White House. In addition to meeting with lawmakers and officials in the White House, NSBA will host several substantive sessions, including: a Breakfast, various high-level policy discussions with D.C. insiders, a Lobbying 101 primer, and the announcement of the winner of the 2023 Lew Shattuck Small Business Advocate of the Year Award. NSBA's stellar reputation on Capitol Hill is a testament to the engagement and activism of our members, and the Washington Presentation is a critical component of that. Wednesday, Sept. 13 The official kick-off to the event is our Lew Shattuck Small Business Advocate of the Year Award luncheon where attendees will hear from some amazing speakers and recognize the best-and-brightest small-business advocates. Following the luncheon, the NSBA delegation will talk policy in a briefing on our 2023 Priority Issues and get tips from lobbying experts to help prepare attendees and advocates for Hill visits. Also that afternoon, attendees will participate in a White House briefing, where attendees will hear from top administration experts on their key priorities for small business and engage with attendees on NSBA’s priorities. Finally, the Washington Presentation will close out day one with a relaxed reception, where attendees can network with other small-business leaders, as well as various D.C. insiders. Thursday, Sept. 14 Kicking off the day on Thursday will be NSBA’s Congressional Breakfast. Attendees will hear from leading Members of Congress on what small-business legislation is moving in Congress and what is likely ahead in the closing months of 2023 before the 2024 election season kicks into high-gear. From there, attendees will head to Capitol Hill to attend legislative meetings scheduled by NSBA staff if requested. NSBA will provide attendees with important leave-behinds, a detailed schedule, Capitol Complex protocol and directions for a day of lobbying on Capitol Hill. Register TODAY for the Washington Presentation – space is limited and the early-bird discount for hotel rooms ends on Aug. 22. Make a difference for small business in a big way – REGISTER TODAY!

Small businesses should not pay the price for the country's efforts to stem money laundering. #CTA #NotTheWay FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 18, 2023 Contact: Molly Day 202-552-2904 mday@nsba.biz NSBA Urges Lawmakers to Repeal the Corporate Transparency Act WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Small Business Association (NSBA) is urging lawmakers to do everything in their power to prevent the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) from going into effect. Today, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions is convening a hearing examining the CTA, “Potential Consequences of FinCEN’s Beneficial Ownership Rulemaking.” NSBA warns of the disastrous impact it will have on America’s smallest businesses. Below is a statement from NSBA President and CEO Todd McCracken “The CTA is a poorly thought out and heavy-handed federal mandate that will be a bureaucratic nightmare for small-business owners. If implemented, small businesses will be forced to spend millions of hours and billions of dollars on lawyers, record-keeping, tracking down information unrelated to the business instead of creating jobs and helping grow our economy. “For years, this information has already been collected by banks under the Customer Due Diligence framework. The CTA is simply passing the buck from big banks—which have legions of staff that are already handling this kind of reporting requirement—to small businesses, which have limited resources to fight this kind of unfair burden. “The law and subsequent regulations are painfully vague and ambiguous and could ensnare even the most benign of business advisors: a retired parent with expertise in accounting who counsels her son in opening a new business. Surely Congress didn’t intend this law to punish the smallest of businesses—however that’s exactly what this law will do. “NSBA absolutely supports efforts to curtail money laundering, however the CTA is not the way. While we have filed a lawsuit against Treasury over the CTA, there is no guarantee the suit will be successful. It is not too late for Congress to help our nation’s job creators – I urge you to repeal or reform the CTA and protect small businesses from its insidious burden.” Please visit www.NSBA.biz/CTA to learn more. Celebrating more than 85 years in operation, NSBA is a staunchly nonpartisan organization advocating on behalf of America’s entrepreneurs. NSBA's 65,000 members represent every state and every industry in the U.S., and we are proud to be the nation’s first small-business advocacy organization. Please visit www.nsba.biz or @NSBAAdvocate. ####

Small Businesses Can Go Farther With a Managed Travel Program American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) is a proud sponsor of the National Small Business Association (NSBA). Together, we stand united to help small businesses get to where they need to be. By working closely with this community, we can better support small businesses and help them thrive in today’s complex world. This blog focuses on ways a travel management company (TMC) can support your organization as you move your business forward through travel. Small businesses provide jobs to 61.7 million Americans – nearly half of the country’s economic output. The people within this community are hardworking, passionate individuals who pour their hearts and souls into the business. A testament to their tenacity, they were among the first to resume business travel during the pandemic, excited to get back on the road and in front of their customers again. Our earnings report shows that travel among small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is rebounding faster than any other customer segment. During the third quarter of 2022, SME booking activity hit 80% of 2019 levels – 19 percentage points above multinational corporations. It’s a remarkable achievement considering the barriers SMEs can encounter managing their travel programs. Terri Buscemi, vice president of business development at Amex GBT, is aware of the challenges small businesses face. She owned and operated a small business – a travel management company (TMC) catering to SMEs – for about 15 years. Terri says travel expenses are a constant source of stress for SMEs, who often face higher costs when compared to larger companies. This is because SMEs typically do not have the negotiating muscle their larger counterparts have, so they’re unable to meet the spend volumes required for preferred corporate discounts with travel suppliers. The complexities surrounding the return to travel only compound this issue. “SMEs are challenged with knowing how much they’re going to spend in the new environment, asking questions like: ‘Do we need to return to the same level we did before? Are there things we can do virtually instead? Maybe we can combine meetings so we can travel less frequently?’” said Terri. “This makes it difficult for them to say, ‘Yes, I will spend this much with this specific carrier or hotel.’ It’s a lot for them to absorb.” Providing duty of care and supporting their traveling employees is another challenge for SMEs, who typically don’t have entire risk management teams performing these services, explained Terri. Teaming up with a TMC – the simple solution Working with a TMC like Amex GBT that offers solutions built around smaller businesses’ travel and spend management needs can be a painless way for SMEs to fill these gaps. By taking advantage of the preferred rates TMCs can secure with suppliers, smaller businesses can save a substantial amount on travel costs – sometimes up to 25% to 50%, depending on what rates they book. In addition, re-shopping tools that automatically search for and rebook lower like for like hotel rates and airfares can cut trip expenses without travelers needing to take action. “Rather than trying to negotiate their own programs, it’s smart for SMEs to partner with a company like Amex GBT so they can take advantage of our preferred rates and solutions right from the start,” Terri said. She added that a TMC’s risk management solution is a vital asset for SMEs so they can fulfill their duty of care obligations, enabling them to quickly locate and communicate with traveling employees in the event of an emergency. And if a flight disruption occurs, a TMC can provide stranded travelers with quick rebooking support before they have time to stress. Terri noted that small businesses could overspend on travel if they lack policies and don’t set parameters around employees’ purchasing decisions. A TMC can help implement a travel policy based on best practices, giving employees clear guidance on what type of airfares and hotels they can and cannot book – this can translate into significant cost savings for SMEs. “We put all that at their fingertips,” Terri said. “We make the customer journey much easier and support the business’s initiatives to manage their spend around travel.” Small businesses may believe a large, global TMC doesn’t understand their world, but that is far from the truth. “We have one of the largest databases of customers to draw and learn from, so when we provide SMEs with best practices, it’s not just Amex GBT pushing what we think is right. It’s from clients like them, with the same needs,” Terri said. “I understand how attractive it might be to work with a local, regional agency where you’ve known the person working there forever,” Terri said. “But with a larger TMC, you have confidence that during a downturn, it has the stability to support you through those peaks and valleys.” As a company committed to the success of SMEs, we understand they aren’t merely looking for a scaled-down version of a big-company solution. They require a suite of tools and services that can cater to their specific needs, both now and as they evolve. Discover what Amex GBT can do for you.

Proposed Timelines For Upcoming Key Rulemakings Projected Throughout The Rest Of 2023. Late last month, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Unit (FinCEN) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury released its 2023 Spring Rulemaking Agenda. Outlining timelines for upcoming announcements slated for 2023, FinCEN continues to focus on issuing rulemakings related to the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Act of 2020 and the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). Scheduled to go into effect January 2024 for all new businesses and January 2025 for all existing businesses, the CTA will require small businesses with fewer than 20 employees to register and list the names of all the beneficial owners of their company in a database to be maintained by FinCEN, known as the Beneficial Ownership Secure System (BOSS). According to the FinCEN rulemaking schedule, in September, the agency is due to release its final rule regarding beneficial ownership information, including its plan for accessing and safeguarding the prospective BOSS database. In theory, the CTA is aimed at limiting money laundering. While the small-business community agrees money laundering is a problem that should be addressed, the CTA targets only small businesses requiring them to provide this information and be subject to scrutiny. Additionally, this information is already being collected by other agencies—they simply need to share that information. In addition to NSBA’s lawsuit against Treasury to stop implementation of the CTA, NSBA is working with various coalitions and Members of Congress to pass legislation repealing or, at a minimum, delaying the effective date. RELATED | CTA LAWSUIT STATUS REPORT Additionally, FinCEN is expected to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) this month, implementing section 6314 of the AML Act and the Anti-Money Laundering Whistleblower Improvement Act regarding whistleblower incentives and protections. Under the AML, qualifying whistleblowers are entitled to awards between 10 and 30 percent of the value of “monetary sanctions” above $1 million collected through an enforcement action. To read more about the upcoming NPRMs from FinCEN, visit the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs website here.

Meet Judy and AaDaya - NSBA's newest corporate partner and supporter of small business. Statistics don’t lie: Cyber criminals are shifting their focus to small businesses. As Security Magazine reports, 43 percent of cyber attacks target small businesses, and only 12 percent of small businesses rate their ability to mitigate cyber risks, vulnerabilities, and attacks as highly effective. Cyber criminals find the low-hanging fruit to be easy pickings and less work. It goes without saying that the risks for SMBs are too great not to pay attention to this issue. Have you thought about cybersecurity for your business lately? More to Lose Conventional wisdom might tell you that you have nothing to worry about—your little shop doesn’t have anything valuable to a hacker, right? You’d be surprised. With identity theft on the rise, and the sale of victims’ financial information on the dark web, small businesses are actually a prime target for hackers right now. The truth is that successful attacks on your IT systems, especially those where sensitive data is stored, can totally wipe out your business; the reputation hit and legal costs are often too much to weather. Along with increasing regulatory and compliance requirements being pushed down from the customers you serve, a good cybersecurity posture is now essential to the longevity of businesses of all sizes. Meet Judy. A proud NSBA sponsor, we designed Judy to solve the cybersecurity challenges faced by small and midsize businesses. Judy provides 24/7 protection for SMBs that lack the time, expertise, and capital to successfully implement cybersecurity solutions. Judy Essential is all-in-one cybersecurity software-as-a-service that’s easy for everyone in your organization to install and use, and provides threat protection from the inside out. Get Judy today and protect your employees, your customers and your business.

Meet Judy and AaDaya - NSBA's newest corporate partner and supporter of small business. New NSBA Discount: All-In-One Cybersecurity Built for Small and Midsize Businesses Statistics don’t lie: Cyber criminals are shifting their focus to small businesses. As Security Magazine reports, 43 percent of cyber attacks target small businesses, and only 12 percent of small businesses rate their ability to mitigate cyber risks, vulnerabilities, and attacks as highly effective. Cyber criminals find the low-hanging fruit to be easy pickings and less work. It goes without saying that the risks for SMBs are too great not to pay attention to this issue. Have you thought about cybersecurity for your business lately? More to Lose Conventional wisdom might tell you that you have nothing to worry about—your little shop doesn’t have anything valuable to a hacker, right? You’d be surprised. With identity theft on the rise, and the sale of victims’ financial information on the dark web, small businesses are actually a prime target for hackers right now. And these small cyber theft incidents may come well under the radar of government investigators. The truth is that successful attacks on your IT systems, especially those where sensitive data is stored, can totally wipe out your business; the reputation hit and legal costs are often too much to weather. Along with increasing regulatory and compliance requirements being pushed down from the customers you serve, a good cybersecurity posture is now essential to the longevity of businesses of all sizes. An Unsecured Environment In the 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report, Verizon found the most common threat to small business was ransomware and the second most common threat was stolen credentials. Cyber criminals have discovered how many small businesses are lacking in the cybersecurity protections that larger companies are able to implement. Basic security practices are often neglected by companies that are more focused on running their business than protecting it. None of that matters if a major breach destroys the business. Simple things like keeping software up-to-date, using a business password manager, and enforcing multi-factor authentication can make a huge difference. Meet Judy. A proud NSBA sponsor, we designed Judy to solve the cybersecurity challenges faced by small and midsize businesses. Judy provides 24/7 protection for SMBs that lack the time, expertise, and capital to successfully implement cybersecurity solutions. Judy Essential is all-in-one cybersecurity software-as-a-service that’s easy for everyone in your organization to install and use, and provides threat protection from the inside out. Get Judy today and protect your employees, your customers and your business.

Productive small-business policy wouldn’t be possible without input and action from SBA leadership. Last week, the House Committee on Small Business met to discuss the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy Report on the Regulatory Flexibility Act. The sole witness for this hearing was the Office of Advocacy Deputy Chief Counsel for Advocacy and current acting Chief Counsel Major L. Clark, answering Members’ questions on ways to increase and expand the work done by the office. One point repeatedly raised by several Members of Congress was how seriously regulatory agencies consider and adopt the comments made by the Office of Advocacy. Specific regulatory actions, like size standards for small businesses, Scope 3 emission guidelines, and the recent Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Supreme Court ruling were also discussed. NSBA has been an outspoken supporter of the SBA Office of Advocacy for its real work to support tangible action in the name of productive small-business policy. Watch the full hearing here.

SBA relief was vital to small business during the pandemic, but misuses pose a continuing threat to the small-business community. This week, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) released a report on anti-fraud control measures for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), as well as the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (COVID-EIDL) According to the report titled, “Protecting the Integrity1 of the Pandemic Relief Emergency Programs: SBA’s Actions to Prevent, Detect and Address Fraud,” 86 percent of fraud in these small-business pandemic relief programs occurred in the first nine months of the pandemic. The report highlights the actions the agency deployed to restore fraud measures in pre-existing relief programs, enhance fraud controls in new programs, as well as support cross-agency efforts to bring fraudsters to justice. It also provides an analysis estimating the total impact of fraud, including 13 million jobs eliminated by the theft and illegal misuse of these critical funds. By the SBA's estimation, the effectiveness of the fraud control measures blocked more than 21 million applications representing an estimated $511 million in illegitimate fund requests and reconciled approximately $30 billion of stolen funds by recovery efforts. Anti-fraud measures deployed in 2021 for the PPP and COVID-EIDL impeded further fraud attempts and helped identify fraud that had already occurred, including reinstatement of checking applications against Do Not Pay databases, the checking of tax transcripts to validate application information in the COVID-EIDL programs, and the establishment of a new Fraud Risk Management Board. Read the full report, including the full overview and statistics detailing the effectiveness of the SBA’s anti-fraud measures, here.

Earlier today, NSBA held a webinar for members to receive a status report on our lawsuit over the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). During the virtual meeting, participants heard from NSBA leadership, constitutional law experts and policy insiders who explained why the lawsuit is so important in protecting small businesses against the overreach of the CTA. RELATED | NSBA and the CTA Todd McCracken, NSBA President and CEO, kicked off the session discussing what the CTA does, when it goes into effect and how small businesses will be impacted. Thomas Lee, Special Counsel, Hughes Hubbard & Reed, LLP, dug into the details of the lawsuit, including the key constitutional issues as well as the timeline and what to expect in the coming months. Next we heard from Tim Terry, General Counsel, Hartz Capital, Inc., who provided a stark explanation of why the bills vagueness and lack of clarity will create a compliance nightmare. Finally, Brian Reardon, President, S Corporation Association, spoke to the group about what other organizations are supporting NSBA’s lawsuit and the various efforts on Capitol Hill to repeal the CTA. Watch the full video below.

An important tool for small-business owners already operating or looking to enter the international market. This week, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of International Affairs released its Annual Report to Congress, “Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States.”­ Published every year since 1988, this report reviews developments in international economic exchange rate policies, consulting with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and International Monetary Fund. Generally, the report showed positive movement in a number of key indicators such as a stabilization in the price of commodities like food and energy and an easing of supply chain pressures. Unfortunately, conflicts in Europe and the Pacific continue to cause global uncertainty, and inflation remains high. The report went on to say that, “On net, the dollar finished stronger against nearly all major trading partners,” despite legal actions by U.S. trading partners that sought to weaken the dollar and strengthen their currency. NSBA’s international trade arm, the  the Small Business Exporters Association (SBEA), is continuously engaged with policymakers to ensure small- and mid-sized exporters are a priority in any global trade policy.  SBEA and NSBA are proud to work with these regulatory officials and trade policy experts, and we look forward to supporting small-business owners looking to expand their goods and services internationally. Read the entire report here, and learn more about SBEA here.

“We’ve got some common ground we’d like to find. …We’re open to the R&D tax credit….” Yesterday, the House Ways and Means Committee marked up several bills, including H.R.3937, the Small Business Jobs Act. This bill, along with its counterparts, the Tax Cuts for Working Families Act (H.R.3936), and the Build It in America Act (H.R.3938), represent the latest step in House Republicans’ efforts to craft economic policy legislation this Congress. Included in the language are several provisions that would help small business: reinstate the ability to immediately deduct Research and Development (R&D) costs; increasing the reporting threshold for subcontract labor; expanding tax incentives to investors who invest in S-Corps; and full expensing for the cost of equipment, machinery, and vehicles, staving-off a planned reduction to just 80 percent. Specifically, the R&D provisions would reverse a provision in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which became effective in 2022, requiring small businesses to amortize R&D investment deductions over five years, rather than being able to deduct them as an expense in the year that they are made. The ability to immediately deduct R&D expenses is especially important for small firms, many of which are early-stage high-growth companies. RELATED PRESS | NSBA Applauds Inclusion of R&D Deduction in Ways & Means Bill After lengthy debate, the bills passed were passed by the committee and are likely to help form the base for negotiations over bipartisan economic priorities later in the year. Notably, while these bills were reported out on party lines, Ways and Means Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-Mass.) signaled that Democrats were open to consideration of some of these provisions, and specifically singled out the R&D language: “My friend I think sincerely said he’d like to find some common ground. We’ve got some common ground we’d like to find… We’re open to some suggestions. We’re open to the R&D tax credit…,” stated Rep. Neal. NSBA looks forward to working with lawmakers—Republicans and Democrats alike—to ensure that easing the small-business tax burden is a top priority, both when it comes to easing the financial tax burden as well as easing complexity. Check back here for the latest on these developments as NSBA continues tracking this important issue on the Hill. RELATED NEWS | NSBA, SBTC Tracking R&D Movement on Capitol Hill