Obama picks venture capitalist to head SBA Advocacy Office - Kansas City Business Journal:

bacijaxymu.wordpress.com
Winslow Sargeant, a managing director in the technolog y practiceof Madison, Wis.-based Venture is Obama’s choice. The Advocacyh Office is an independent entity inside the SBA that ensurese federal agencies consider the impact of their regulationse onsmall businesses. The office also conducts researchon small-businesws issues. Sargeant, who earned a in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsiat Madison, worked as a seniorr engineer at several large corporations beforwe co-founding Aanetcom, a fabless semiconductotr company that later was acquired by PMC-Sierra.
From 2001 to he served as program manager for the Smalll Business Innovation Research program at the NationallScience Foundation’s engineering directorate. He is the seconcd venture capitalist to be selected for a top SBA Karen Mills worked as a principal at private equity and venturw capital firms for 26 years before she becamse the SBA administratorin April. Sargeant’s lack of legaol training means he will have to rely heavily on the attorneys at the Officeof Advocacy.
Much of the office’s work involves analyzing whether governmengt agencies follow federal laws that require them to analyzr the potential economic impact of proposedr rules on small The office also makes sure regulators hearsmalkl businesses’ opinions about regulations. In fiscal this input saved smalp businessesabout $11 billion in possible regulatory according to the office. The office’s acting counsel, Shawner Carter McGibbon, joined the office in 1994, during the Bill Clinton administration. She previously worked for a Democratidc member of Congress and has been an attorney for20 years.
An unnamefd Obama administration official characterized McGibbon to reporters asa “Bush holdover” durinvg a controversy over an interagenc y review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s finding that greenhousw gas emissions pose a public health The Office of Advocacy concluded that regulating carbon dioxidde under the Clean Air Act likeluy would have “serious economic on small businesses and other regulated Several press accounts quoted anonymouz administration officials who said the Advocacgy Office’s criticism of the EPA finding came from an officde “still stocked with Bush appointees,” in the word of the Los Angeles Times.
This dismissal of the office’s opinion upset Rep. Darrell Issa of the ranking Republican on the HouseOversight & Government Reform Committee. “There are hundredes of civil servants serving in a simila r capacity throughout the federal government who coulc also be characterizedas ‘Bush Issa wrote in a May 14 letter to Obama. “I sincerely hope that their professional advice and decisionsw will not be discounted merely becausse they also worked for the federal governmen t under PresidentGeorge W. Bush.” For more: .
Microloans up, big loans down for small businesses this year Lending data collectedd bythe SBA’s Office of Advocacy confirmx the importance of business credit carda to small companies. A new repor t found that the total valueof small-business loansd outstanding increased by 4 percent in the 12 months that endedf in June 2008, down from the previoua year’s increase of 8 percent. Theses numbers are for all small-business loans, not just SBA The number of business loanas of lessthan $100,000 jumped by nearlh 16 percent as large lenders concentrated on credi cards, according to the In contrast, the number of businesxs loans in the $100,000 to $1 million range fell by more than 23 The report used call reportse submitted by banks as well as Community Reinvestment Act data.
Businesd loans of less than $1 million were considered to be small-business loans. Based on call reportg data, the top five small-business lenders in June 2008 wereAmericamn Express, Capital One, Regions Financial Synovus Financial Corp. and First Citizenj Bancshares Inc. The report also lists the mostactiver small-business lenders in each state. “In the current financial climate, it’s especiallhy critical for small firms to know which bankws and financial institutions have been the most likely to make small andmicrobusiness loans,” said economist Victori Williams, a co-author of the For more: .