Test Drive MBE Magazine May June 2013 | Page 44

Washington Update

(continued)

Herrera-Beutler supports efforts to make federal agency
directors more accountable for meeting that goal.
Two similar bills, S. 196 and S. 259, are currently in committee in the Senate, aiming to increase the targeted goal
for the percentage of government procurement contracts and
subcontracts awarded to “small
disadvantaged businesses” from
5 percent to 10 percent. And
Rep. Judy Chu (D-California),
who sits on the House Small
Business Committee and chairs
the Congressional Asian Pacific
American Caucus, introduced
the CREED Act to provide small
Chu
businesses with “vital investment
capital.” The bill seeks to extend the 504 loan-refinancing
program another five years for commercial real estate. The
program has already reportedly benefited 2,400 small businesses with more than $2.2 billion in refinancing funds.
The idea is that money saved in monthly mortgage payments helps small businesses hire more workers and pay for
expenses. “This is how our economy has come back from
the brink of Depression,” Rep. Chu says. Reps. Fudge and

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May/June 2013

MBE

Chu have been outspoken critics of the sequester, while
Rep. Herrera-Beutler says sequestration is “not the best
approach to control government spending” but believes the
federal government can absorb the 2.5 percent decrease in
order to control the budget.
Immigration and Small Business
Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) has the
potential to vastly affect MWBEs, and particularly those
owned by Hispanics. Even with reports that talks have hit
a snag over temporary work visas for immigrants, a spokeswoman from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC)
believes a CIR bill will reach the floor this summer.
While Democrats, led by the Obama White House
and the CHC, continue to mark up an immigration bill,
a bipartisan group of Senators known as the “Gang of
Eight” has emerged with its own plan. Both plans call for
a pathway to citizenship, widespread implementation of
the legal work-verification system known as E-Verify, and
the reduction of existing backlogs in the current immigration bureaucracy.
The goals may be similar, but there are notable technical
differences—the definition of exemptions and the terms of
implementation, for example—that will have to be hammered out for a single bill to pass. A big sticking point is
whether or not immigration policy will recognize samesex marriages—which Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona)
says could be a deal-breaker. The Gang of Eight plan also
provides for a guest-worker policy that will mainly affect
agriculture.
With current estimates for the number of undocumented persons living in the United States as high as
12 million, the outcome of CIR legislation likely will have
a profound impact on business policy. With respect to
CIR in general, the United States Hispanic Chamber
of Commerce “urges Congress to address immigration
reform, and we will look forward to consensus-building
efforts.”
Legislation and policy involving the federal budget and
immigration are two of the most important issues facing
the business community in the short and long terms. Until
Washington solves these issues, uncertainty will continue
to dominate.
◆
Cameron Asgarian is a writer
and journalist based in Las Vegas,
Nevada. He previously worked as
a District Representative to Rep.
Dina Titus during the 111th Congress, where he focused on of Housing
and Immigration.