On Wednesday, April 27, the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation that called for a "Small Business Bill of Rights," which would give America’s small employers the tools they need to grow their businesses and create jobs.

Small businesses employ more than 95 percent of all working Americans and create 70 percent of all new jobs each year. Currently they are provided very little protection against excessive taxation, surging health care costs, burdensome regulations, abusive lawsuits, and growing energy costs.

These threats have become particularly wearisome and costly as small businesses manage the current business and economic climate.

H.R. 22, authored by Rep. Ric Keller (R-Fla.), states that America’s small businesses should have:

* The right to join together to purchase affordable health insurance for small business employees, who make up a large portion of the millions of Americans without health care coverage.

* The right to simplified tax laws that allow family-owned small businesses to survive over several generations and offer them incentives to grow.

* The right to be free from frivolous lawsuits that harm law-abiding small businesses and prevent them from creating new jobs.

* The right to be free of unnecessary, restrictive regulations and paperwork that waste the time and energy of small businesses while hurting production and preventing job creation.

* The right to relief from high energy costs by reducing our nation’s reliance on imported sources of energy and encouraging environmentally sound domestic production and conservation of energy.

* The right to equal treatment with large businesses when seeking access to start-up and expansion capital and credit.

* The right to open access to government procurement through the breaking up of bundled contracts to give small businesses the ability to compete for federal government business.

NSBA President Todd McCracken presented testimony on March 8, 2005 that that helped mold key amendments to H.R. 22 and was influential in its final product. Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) especially remarked about the idea McCracken brought forth concerning affordable loans for small businesses.

You can read McCracken's testimony here.