NSBA Achievements in 2023

 

 

 

 

Thank you for your ongoing support of NSBA. 2023 was an incredibly busy year for us: we added NSBA staff, strengthened and built new relationships with key policymakers on Capitol Hill, expanded our membership, completed an in-depth strategic planning and so much more. Read below to see how your NSBA membership has impacted America’s small businesses.

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NSBA Advocacy Achievements 

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• In 2023, we hired Reed Westcott as our Director of Federal Policy, and NSBA submitted over a dozen letters and regulatory comments on major issues facing small business.
   

• NSBA has led the charge in support of the Credit Card Competition Act, which would inject transparency and fairness in credit card swipe fees.
   

• We were the only small-business group to stand up to Treasury over the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) through our lawsuit and have been instrumental in educating Congress about the failures of the CTA, urging delay and repeal at every turn.
   

• NSBA spoke out against a proposed ban on noncompete clauses and successfully got the Federal Trade Commission to stand down and provide more time to evaluate the implications of the rule.
   

• We continued our efforts to support the SBA Office of Advocacy and moved the ball forward in terms of Congressional support for filling the vacancy for Chief Counsel.
   

• NSBA played a pivotal role in keeping the federal government operational and finding a debt ceiling compromise rather than a government shutdown by highlighting the dire impact a shutdown would have on millions of hardworking small-business owners. We did this not just once, but twice.
   

• Our efforts resulted in a fix to a major tax headache—the requirement that R&D expenses be amortized over 5 years—being included in legislation from the House Ways and Means Committee.
   

• NSBA was able to ring the alarm bells over two proposed rules at the Department of Labor—the Independent Contractor Rule and the Overtime Pay Rule—resulting in a delay to both rules.
   

• Our persistent work in warning against overreaching rules from the National Labor Relations Board led to lawmakers stepping in to block the joint-employer rule.
   

• Through NSBA’s consistent rallying call for increased federal contracting with small business, in 2023, the feds exceeded the 23 percent goal and spent 26.5 percent of their federal dollars with small businesses. Our efforts also helped ensure the inclusion of several pro-small-business provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
   

• NSBA’s leadership on data privacy issues led to a broad coalition of small-business groups urging lawmakers to seek clear, uniform guidelines that will help, not hinder, small-business owners.

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NSBA Event Highlights

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In February, we hosted our biennial Small Business Congress—the first one we held in-person since 2019. We heard from an amazing group of policy experts, White House officials, Members of Congress and reporters from the Washington Post and Politico, and walked away with a meaningful list of priority issues that has, and will continue to, guide our policy efforts.
 
NSBA launched our Veterans’ Network that provides outstanding resources for Veteran-owned small businesses including our Service to Success webinar series.
 
In June, our Board of Trustees traveled to Chicago where we were invited to ring the bell at the Chicago Board of Options Exchange
 
In September, we held the most successful and widely attended Washington Presentation in decades. We had more than 200 small-business owners meet with their lawmakers, attend a White House briefing and recognize our 2023 Small Business Advocates of the Year.

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NSBA Resources for your Small Business

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NSBA put together a very comprehensive Small Business Toolbox that includes links to a plethora of useful resources for every stage of running a business – if you’ve got questions, we’ve got answers here.
 
We published a variety of surveys and reports on all kinds of topics, including the CTA, Noncompete and Nondisclousure agreements, a banking and lending security poll, and our 2023 economic report.
 
Our efforts were covered broadly by the media, including: write-ups on our CTA lawsuit in the Associated Press, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Business Journals, New York Times, U.S. News and World Report and the Washington Post. Our efforts on CTA were also highlighted in a stand-alone piece from the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board. NSBA leadership spoke to NBC News, CNBC, Fox Business News, NPR, and BBC several times about the U.S. economy and what a federal default would mean for small business and lending, and much more.
 
We also have continued to provide valuable resources to our members through our thriving Corporate Partner program: we’re offering great travel discounts through AMEX Global Business Travel; amazing deals on top-of-the-line Dell computers and accessories; valuable cybersecurity resources from CIS Controls; up to 45 percent off cybersecurity protection from Judy; critical lending solutions for you small business from Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions; and access to the best exporting advice and support from EXIM Bank.