House Republicans are putting Main Street first

On April 4, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced some good economic news. The U.S. economy added 228,000 jobs in March, exceeding market expectations and nearly doubling the pace of January and February job market growth. This was a pleasant surprise for many as analysts predicted a gain of just 117,000. Most strikingly, the number was driven by private-sector job increases, as opposed to the fact that most jobs “created” during the Biden administration were rehires from the end of the COVID-19 crisis, when 25% of the created jobs were in government.

Under the Biden administration, small businesses faced an onslaught of costly regulations, uncertainty and inflationary pressures that made it harder to survive, let alone grow. With the imposition of more than $1.8 trillion in new regulatory costs and more than 350 million hours of added paperwork, entrepreneurs have been buried under a mountain of compliance burdens.

Biden-era rules, such as Section 1071 of Dodd-Frank, forced lenders to collect intrusive demographic data on small-business loan applicants, discouraging lending from community banks traditionally serving Main Street. At the same time, skyrocketing energy prices, supply chain disruptions, and a regulatory environment favoring large corporations squeezed small businesses from every direction. The result: Less credit, higher costs and a tougher climate for America’s job creators.

Not anymore. With Republicans now controlling Washington, the time has come to rebuild America’s small businesses, and Congress is taking positive steps to achieve this goal.

The chairman of the House Small Business Committee, Rep. Roger Williams, Texas Republican, is leading the way with an aggressive agenda focused on cutting unnecessary red tape, prioritizing American manufacturing and supporting a lower tax burden for America’s entrepreneurs.

To combat this tidal wave of overreaching government mandates, Mr. Williams is working with Rep. Beth Van Duyne, Texas Republican, to pass the Small Business Regulatory Reduction Act, a commonsense bill that aims to reverse the regulatory chokehold on Main Street. The legislation requires that any new federal regulation with a financial impact on small businesses be offset by eliminating existing regulations of equal or greater cost, effectively capping the regulatory burden at zero or less. In other words, agencies would no longer be able to pile on mandates without reducing outdated or redundant rules, bringing real accountability to the regulatory process.

Just as importantly, the bill mandates that the Small Business Administration produce an annual report detailing all federal regulations that negatively impact small businesses, giving Congress and the public greater visibility into each one’s cumulative financial toll. It’s a bold move toward restoring balance, transparency and fairness for the nation’s entrepreneurs.

Mr. Williams is also championing H.R. 976, legislation to repeal the costly and wasteful diversity, equity and inclusion-centered provision of the Dodd-Frank Act, Section 1071. As mentioned, it requires financial institutions to report information on loan applications submitted by women-owned, minority-owned and LGBTQ-owned small businesses. The goal was to ensure financial institutions were not discriminating in lending practices. The result made it significantly more expensive for community banks to lend, which they warned would reduce their available credit to small businesses.

As Mr. Williams aptly stated, his bill would “eliminate costly regulatory burdens on financial institutions, ensuring greater access to credit for small businesses.” The prospects for passage of his legislation are promising because 1071 was repealed in the previous Congress, but President Biden vetoed it. President Trump won’t make the same mistake.

Mr. Williams’ House Small Business Committee also focuses on the critical expiring provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which played a key role in fueling small-business growth. Among the provisions were a reduction in the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and a 20% deduction for pass-through businesses such as sole proprietorships, partnerships and S-corporations, which comprise most small businesses.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act also introduced accelerated depreciation, allowing businesses to immediately deduct the full costs of certain investments, incentivizing reinvestment in operations. These provisions are set to expire this year. Without congressional action, small businesses will face massive tax increases that cripple growth and stifle the economy.

After spending trillions of dollars on relief programs and expanding the size and scope of government at an unsustainable rate, the bill has come due. We cannot spend our way to prosperity, and we cannot rely on the government to create jobs. We must build wealth from Main Street, not K Street. Supporting America’s small businesses through sensible fiscal policy and regulatory reform is not only fair but also essential.

To accomplish that goal, we must reduce the costs of running a small business, reduce the tax burden on these businesses and end the never-ending mountain of paperwork the government foists on our small-business owners. Congress must act decisively by extending and expanding tax relief, reducing regulatory complexity and improving access to credit. With Mr. Williams at the helm of the Small Business Committee, America’s entrepreneurs can be assured they have a champion for their cause.

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