White House Calls Today/President Obama's Speech

I just received this and it is very short notice but some of you may be interested in getting on this call. ------------------

Good morning, the White House will host a series of conference calls with senior Obama Administration officials to discuss key aspects of the State of Union Address. The White House is encouraging you to participate in these calls and will have a question and answer session at the end of each call. As a reminder, these calls are not intended for press purposes. Please dial in a few minutes early to ensure full participation. Please give the title of the call to the operator to enter the call.

11:30AM EST

Jobs Creation and Economic Growth

(877) 941-2936

Fred Baldassaro
Senior Advisor
Office of Business Affairs and Public Liaison
202-622-9245
202-294-3437
fred.baldassaro@do.treas.gov

What did you think about President Obama’s speech. Certainly he has changed his focus from Health legislation to Jobs. He also seemed to recognize the importance of small business and put forth some proposals that could be helpful to small business but I think the small business community wants to see action beyond speeches. Hopefully that will occur because the United States will not be successful in its efforts to create jobs without small business.

One important measure that must get passed is additional stimulus funding for SBA 7a and 504 loans. This money would be used to continue the 90% SBA guarantee on 7a and 504 loans and increase the ability of the SBA to make loans up to $5 million. As you know Small Business California is working hard on getting the passage of HR 4032. We have called every California member of House asking them to Cosign. To date Congresswoman Speier, Congresswoman Richardson, Congresswoman Woolsey, Congressman Costa and Congressman Cordoza have agreed to do so.

In San Francisco President of the Board of Supervisors David Chiu and Supervisors Avalos, Campos,Chu,Daly,Dufty and Elsbernd are all sending letters to Speaker Pelosi asking her to support HR 4302. We are hopeful Supervisors Alioto Pier,Mar, Maxwell and Mirkarimi will come on Board.

The stimulus funding that has been provided for the SBA will run out at the end of February. Small businesses around the country will be watching to see just how serious the President and the Legislators are in stimulating small business job creation and whether they can get past the partisan bickering to provide much needed capital to us


Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA 94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188