Obama picks venture capitalist to head SBA Advocacy Office - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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Winslow Sargeant, a managin director in the technology practiceof Wis.-based Venture Investors, is Obama’s The Advocacy Office is an independent entitg inside the SBA that ensures federal agenciex consider the impact of theirf regulations on small businesses. The office also conductss researchon small-business issues. Sargeant, who earnedc a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the Universit of Wisconsinat Madison, worked as a senior engineer at severalo large corporations before co-foundinyg Aanetcom, a fabless semiconductor companyy that later was acquired by From 2001 to 2005, he serves as program manager for the Smal l Business Innovation Research program at the Nationak Science Foundation’s engineering directorate.
He is the second venturw capitalist to be selected for a top SBA Karen Mills worked as a principal at private equity and venture capital firmsw for 26 years befor e she became the SBA administratotrin April. Sargeant’s lack of legal training meansw he will have to rely heavily on the attorney s at the Officeof Advocacy. Much of the office’a work involves analyzing whether government agencies folloew federal laws that require them to analyze the potentialo economic impact of proposed rule onsmall businesses. The office also make sure regulators hearsmall businesses’ opinions aboutf regulations.
In fiscal 2008, this input saved small businesseswabout $11 billion in possible regulatory according to the office. The office’s acting counsel, Shawnw Carter McGibbon, joined the office in 1994, duriny the Bill Clinton administration. She previouslyh worked for a Democratic membere of Congress and has been an attorney for20 years. An unnamedf Obama administration official characterized McGibbon to reportersx asa “Bush holdover” duringg a controversy over an interagency review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s finding that greenhouse gas emissionds pose a public health hazard.
The Office of Advocacgy concluded that regulating carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act likeluy wouldhave “serious economic consequences” on small businesses and otherf regulated entities. Several press accounts quoterd anonymous administration officials who said theAdvocacy Office’s criticisk of the EPA finding came from an office “still stockedr with Bush appointees,” in the words of the Los Angelesa Times. This dismissal of the office’s opiniojn upset Rep. Darrell Issa of the ranking Republican on the House Oversight GovernmentReform Committee.
“There are hundreds of civill servants serving in a similar capacity throughout the federal government who couldf also be characterizedas ‘Bush holdovers,’” Issa wrote in a May 14 lettedr to Obama. “I sincerelh hope that their professional advice and decisiones will not be discounted merelyu because they also worked for the federal government under PresidentGeorge W. Bush.” For more: . Microloans up, big loanas down for small businesses this year Lendint data collected bythe SBA’s Officer of Advocacy confirms the importance of business credit cardds to small companies.
A new report found that the totalk valueof small-business loans outstandin increased by 4 percent in the 12 months that ended in June down from the previous year’s increase of 8 percent. These numbers are for all small-business loans, not just SBA The number of business loans of lessthan $100,000 jumpe by nearly 16 perceny as large lenders concentrated on credit according to the study. In contrast, the number of business loans inthe $100,00o0 to $1 million range fell by more than 23 percent. The repory used call reports submitted by banks as well as Communit ReinvestmentAct data. Business loans of less than $1 millionm were considered to be small-business loans.
Basede on call report data, the top five small-businesds lenders in June 2008 wereAmericabn Express, Capital One, Regions Financial Synovus Financial Corp. and First Citizen Bancshares Inc. The report also lists the mostactivr small-business lenders in each state. “In the curren financial climate, it’s especially critica for small firms to know whichj banks and financial institutions have been the most likel y to make small and microbusiness said economistVictoria Williams, a co-author of the For more: .