Capital Change

New House chair promises to attack small-business foes.

Small-business owners feel they're providing a vital service for their communities, and yet the government's policies seem to be actively hostile toward them. Not only does this impose costs and burdens, but it's demoralizing. The psychological effect of feeling your own government is out to get you is often as bad as the practical effect." Strange words to hear from a government official, but Rep. James Talent (R-MO), the new chair of the House Small Business Committee, claims, "This committee is going to be an advocate for small business, which in part means being an enemy of the regulatory state."

Though starting only his third term in Congress, Talent has garnered plenty of insight into the burden small-business owners bear, due to his stint as chair of the Subcommittee on Regulation and Paperwork. "So often the government's requirements are arbitrary and achieve nothing," he says. "And having to spend time doing paperwork you know nobody's ever going to read rather than focusing on marketing or customer service or business planning--that's just maddening."

Talent says he envisions hearings to expose "agencies that consistently hurt people and never even have to explain it. When they come before my committee, they're going to listen to witnesses talking about what their agency has done to them, and they're going to have to take responsibility."

As far as specifics, Talent hasn't yet pinpointed any priorities--in part, he says, "because we want to reach out and listen first." His informal plan of attack includes tax changes for small-business owners and the possible formation of a subcommittee on empowerment zones. And while his anti-regulation stance is purely Republican, Talent plans to make a departure from former chair Rep. Jan Meyers' (R-KS) approach. "Meyers held a number of hearings on different subjects," he explains. "I'll focus more narrowly on a few subjects."

One thing Talent is sure of: All attempts will be made to ensure small-business issues aren't shoved to the side. "We will constantly hammer home the importance of small business," says Talent. "If there is a sector of the economy whose interests most resemble the public interest, it's small business. And once you can show people what is happening to the small-business people in their communities, you create the basis for real change."

This article was originally published in the February 1997 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Capital Change.