Planning For The Future

According to a survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank, three out of every 10 small businesses in the U.S. say they likely won’t survive 2021 without additional government assistance during the pandemic. And while the amount of COVID-19 relief for the roughly 30 million small businesses in the United States is being debated in Congress along the usual ideological lines, four members of the House are making an effort to pass bipartisan legislation that would provide small business owners the support needed to create a business succession plan.

The quartet is comprised of Republicans Andrew Garbarino (NY-02) and Tom Rice (SC-07) and Democratic Representatives Cheri Bustos (IL-17) and Jason Crow (CO-06). According to Rice, of the nation’s 30 million small businesses, less than 42 percent have succession plans. Bustos added that almost half of small business owners over the age of 55 have no plan of succession, which she pointed out, is an alarming statistic, as small businesses employ roughly 25 million Americans.

For Garbarino and Crow, who both come from families with small business backgrounds (both are attorneys from small law firms), this kind of legislation is crucial, given what small businesses represent to the communities they serve.

“Small business is the backbone of our economy,” Garbarino said. “My district alone consists of 80 percent of my constituents working for a small business. I have downtowns all over my district—restaurants, stores—so many employees. As an assemblyman and a private practice attorney, one thing I saw with government is that they usually don’t help small businesses. They usually get in the way, whether it’s through more regulation or more red tape. That’s why I was so excited to jump on this bill. This actually helps small business.”