ICYMI: St. Joseph News-Press: Graves reflects on tenure as committee chair

A fundamental problem exists for small businesses trying to abide by federal regulations, Congressman Sam Graves believes.

Because of their lack of personnel, the companies might not even realize they're out of compliance.

"They don't have the resources to have a division or department that's devoted to regulatory compliance," the North Missouri lawmaker said Tuesday. "They have to depend on themselves to figure out what has to be done."

Mr. Graves, a Tarkio Republican, made the remark while discussing his four-year tenure as chairman of the U.S. House Small Business Committee. Because of party rules, he has term-limited out of that leadership position.

But he looks back on the time as productive in terms of legislation passed and raising the level of awareness in Congress about issues dealing with small businesses.

"Even where it might not be a primary area of jurisdiction for the Small Business Committee, we pushed other committees of relevance into the argument," Mr. Graves told the News-Press in an interview.

Regulation by federal agencies proved a particular area of interest during his chairmanship, and Mr. Graves would describe many of the executive edicts as "onerous" and "over the top."

In January 2013, his committee launched a website called "Small Biz Reg Watch," where business owners could follow changes in federal regulations. This served as a complement to the committee's "Open Mic," through which people could share their experiences in dealing with the federal government.

"We hear about things that small businesses are facing that either don't make sense or rise to the level of ridiculous," the chairman said. "It's been eye-opening just to see what small businesses are going through, in some cases that we don't even know about."

Small businesses also feel the pinch of uncertain tax policy, Mr. Graves said. He noted that making permanent a reasonable threshold for Section 179 expensing and bonus depreciation provisions would allow companies to expand, improve their equipment and strengthen their inventory.

Instead, small businesses look from year to year without knowing about future levels in these tax areas, he said.

"With this short-term extension process we continue to go through, it makes it very tough for them to be able to plan," the lawmaker said.

Mr. Graves said his chairmanship also gave him a fresh perspective on the way legislation gets passed. The Republican worked closely with Democratic Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, his counterpart in the Senate, in guiding the reauthorization of the Small Business Innovation Research Program.

In addition, the representative from a largely rural area said he had a good working relationship with the committee's top Democrat, Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez, who represents a district in New York City.

"Nydia and I couldn't be farther apart in terms of demographics of our districts and, obviously, political philosophies," he said, "but I listened to what she had to say and she listened to me, and we were able to come up with good legislation."

Mr. Graves, going into his eighth House term, will serve on the House Armed Services Committee during the next session and awaits an official announcement on a chairmanship on a subcommittee on another panel.