Punchbowl News Hosts “The Convening on Small Business: America’s Future” Event
Punchbowl News recently hosted The Convening on Small Business: America’s Future, an event attended by The New England Council, where Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.), and small business owners Daniella Senior and Khari Parker discussed some of the most pressing political challenges facing small businesses today.
Senator Shaheen emphasized the burden many small business owners face due to a lack of affordable childcare, a problem she is working to address as chair of the Senate Small Business Committee. “What we’ve looked at in the committee is how we can think about childcare,” Shaheen said. “For large businesses, they can often provide subsidies to their employees or support childcare in-house. Small businesses don’t have that opportunity.”
Daniella Senior, CEO of Colada Shop, expanded on Shaheen’s point, explaining how the lack of access to childcare impacts the small business workforce. “It’s really a crisis right now in this country, and it particularly affects small businesses because it affects our workforce significantly,” Senior said. “It limits the people we can attract.”
In addition to her work on childcare access, Shaheen also voiced her support for a bipartisan tax package passed by the House, which would expand the child tax credit and revive important business tax breaks. These measures aim to offer some relief for small businesses struggling with economic challenges.
Another significant issue discussed was the Basel III Endgame proposal, which could restrict small businesses’ access to capital by changing how they calculate risk-weighted assets (RWA). Khari Parker, co-founder of Connie’s Chicken and Waffles, explained that while Basel III’s regulations are designed to manage financial risk and protect banks, they also make it harder for small business owners to secure the loans they need to grow. “For folks who don’t know, Basel III is risk management financial regulation that helps protect banks, which sounds good,” Parker said. “But the flip side is that banks need to circulate money by lending it out to entrepreneurs and small business owners.”
Senator Tim Scott stressed the critical role that access to capital plays in the success of small businesses, adding that communities can’t grow or thrive without it. “For me, had it not been for someone in the community who knew me, believed in me, and decided to write a check, I wouldn’t be here today,” Scott said. “When capital’s elusive, communities do not grow and prosper.”