NOTE: This blog is by Brian Castro, SBA National Ombudsman
In May, the Office of the National Ombudsman joined SBA’s District Offices in celebrating our nation’s small business owners through a series of outreach events in Regions III and VII.
In addition to honoring the Small Business Week Winners for Eastern Missouri at a ceremony and awards dinner in St. Louis, Region VII Regulatory Fairness Board Member Cynthia Brown and National Ombudsman Brian Castro hosted a roundtable discussion on the campus of Webster University to hear directly from local small businesses. Participants at the St. Louis forum included small business owners, local representatives of federal agency partners, and members of the academic community.
The National Ombudsman also visited the Veterans Business Resource Center in St. Louis and toured the Riverside Innovation Center in Pittsburgh, where he learned about some of the exciting work these resource partners are doing and explored barriers they and their clients face due to federal regulations.
In Pittsburgh, more than 70 members of the small business community participated in a regulatory fairness roundtable hosted by Region III Regulatory Fairness Board Member Marilyn Landis, the Office of the National Ombudsman, and the SMC Business Councils of Pennsylvania. Attendees identified a range of federal regulatory concerns impacting small businesses in the region, including:
Environmental regulations concerning water run-off
The GSA federal supply schedule
Proposed crowd funding regulations
IRS rules on independent contractors versus employees
New patent legislation
Dodd-Frank Act regulations relating to component parts containing “conflict minerals,” materials originating in a conflict region
Implementation of the Affordable Care Act
Government contracting with service-disabled, veteran owned small contractors
In partnership with other federal agencies, the ONO is assisting small business owners in obtaining expedited agency review of these regulatory compliance and enforcement matters.
Our federal agency partners also provide critical support to our work on behalf of small business owners through local agency representatives who participate in our outreach events around the country. The following agencies participated in these events:
Department of Commerce, U.S. Commercial Service
Department of Labor, Department of Wage & Hour
Department of Labor, Occupational Safety & Health Administration
Internal Revenue Service, Self-Employed and Small Business Division
Internal Revenue Service, Taxpayer Advocate Service
Department of Agriculture
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Army Corps of Engineers
Consumer Product Safety Commission
National Labor Relations Board
Providing the opportunity for establishing personal connections between small business owners and their local federal agency representatives is another important part of the outreach we do.
Regulations keep Americans safe and protect the public health, national security, and our environment. At the same time, we are focused on cultivating an environment for small business that promotes growth, innovation, and job creation.
That’s why the Office of the National Ombudsman works every day to support smart, effective, and innovative approaches to the regulation of small business and to assist small business owners facing regulatory enforcement actions and compliance issues.
If we can assist your small business with a regulatory fairness issue, please visit sba.gov/ombudsman, email us at *protected email*, or call 888-REG-FAIR.
Congratulations to all of our Small Business Week Award Recipients!
Note: The SBA’s Office of the National Ombudsman exists to help small business owners as they seek to understand the requirements of federal regulations, comply with those mandates, resolve disputed matters with federal regulators, and ultimately thrive. Ten Regional Regulatory Fairness Boards around the country work with the National Ombudsman to identify and address regulatory barriers for small businesses and to connect small business owners with SBA resources.
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