What is the outlook for addressing small-business issues in the next Congress?
If there is any committee in the Congress that should work in the bipartisan way, it is this one. Small-business issues are nonpartisan. I hope that we can work in a bipartisan way to be able to deal with issues that are important to small business. What will your priorities be? We need to improve the economic environment for small business. We need to address issues that will contain rising health-care and energy costs and that will reduce the regulatory and tax burden for small business. I hear concerns all the time about access to affordable capital. And we want an open and fair federal [contracting] marketplace. We also need to ensure that Small Business Administration programs are funded and operational. What is the outlook for health-care reform? We have a problem. It is a big issue for small business. The cost of health care is going up every year—it went up by nearly 80% since 2000. I can tell you that I will work in a bipartisan manner to develop a solution that will provide s
