Women in Business - Business Leader To Call for’Super SBA’

Business Leader To Call for’Super SBA’
A leading advocate for small businesses plans to detail for the nation’s mayors this morning a radical proposal intended to cultivate a better environment for the small business community. American Management Services Chairman and CEO George Cloutier in a speech accepting an award at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’winter meeting this week in Washington will call for a five-fold increase in the budget for the Small Business Administration, a consolidation of small business programs across some 40 agencies and the creation of something akin to a small business Peace Corps.

SBA’s Preston Fails to Sway Lawmakers
Lawmakers on Wednesday delved into whether the Small Business Administration is a beleaguered federal agency trying to put a quiet end to a festering seven-year issue governing how federal contacts are awarded to women-owned firms, or an entity that’s truly interested in helping women get ahead in business. That was just one of the controversial issues that arose in a hearing held by the House Small Business Committee to review the agency’s progress in implementing a program designed to help women get ahead in the federal contracting game. The SBA announced proposed rules in late December designed to ensure that a congressionally-mandated 5 percent of government contracts would go to female-owned businesses - a move that would seemingly head the issue in the right direction. But critics slammed the plan, because the agency said that women needed extra help in getting contracts in only four out of 140 industries: intelligence,