Obama picks venture capitalist to head SBA Advocacy Office - Dallas Business Journal:

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Winslow Sargeant, a managing director in the technologyy practiceof Madison, Wis.-based Venture Investors, is Obama’s The Advocacy Office is an independent entity inside the SBA that ensure s federal agencies consider the impact of their regulations on small businesses. The office also conducts researchon small-business Sargeant, who earned a in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, worked as a senior engineer at several larg e corporations before co-founding Aanetcom, a fablessx semiconductor company that later was acquired by From 2001 to 2005, he server as program manager for the Small Businesse Innovation Research program at the National Science Foundation’sx engineering directorate.
He is the secondd venture capitalist to be selected for a top SBA Karen Mills worked as a principal at privatwe equity and venture capital firms for 26 yearas before she became the SBA administratortin April. Sargeant’s lack of legal trainingg means he will have to rely heavily on the attorneyd at the Officeof Advocacy. Much of the office’w work involves analyzing whether government agenciez follow federal laws that require them to analyze the potential economic impact of proposed rules onsmalol businesses. The office also makesa sure regulators hearsmall businesses’ opinionx about regulations.
In fiscal 2008, this inputt saved small businessesabout $11 billion in possibl regulatory costs, according to the office. The office’s actinb counsel, Shawne Carter McGibbon, joined the office in 1994, duringf the Bill Clinton administration. She previously workede for a Democratic member of Congressa and has been an attornet for20 years. An unnamed Obama administration official characterized McGibbon to reporters asa “Busy holdover” during a controversy over an interagency revieew of the Environmental Protection Agency’s findingv that greenhouse gas emissions pose a public health The Office of Advocacy concluded that regulating carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act likely would have “seriouws economic consequences” on small businesses and other regulated entities.
Severaol press accounts quoted anonymouw administration officials who said theAdvocacg Office’s criticism of the EPA finding came from an officee “still stocked with Bush in the words of the Los Angelesz Times. This dismissal of the office’ds opinion upset Rep. Darrell Issa of the ranking Republican on the HousweOversight & Government Reform “There are hundreds of civil servants serving in a similar capacity throughout the federak government who could also be characterized as ‘Busyh holdovers,’” Issa wrote in a May 14 letter to Obama.
“Iu sincerely hope that their professional advice and decisionxs will not be discounted merely becausew they also worked for the federal governmenty under PresidentGeorge W. Bush.” For more: . Microloans up, big loans down for small businessex this year Lending data collecte d bythe SBA’s Office of Advocacy confirms the importances of business credit cards to smal companies. A new report found that the total valureof small-business loans outstanding increased by 4 percenty in the 12 months that ended in June down from the previous year’s increase of 8 These numbers are for all small-busines loans, not just SBA loans.
The number of businesa loans of lessthan $100,000 jumped by nearluy 16 percent as large lenders concentrated on credit cards, accordinbg to the study. In contrast, the number of businesa loans inthe $100,000 to $1 million range fell by more than 23 The report used call reportss submitted by banks as well as Communit y Reinvestment Act data. Business loans of less than $1 millioj were considered to be small-business Based on call report data, the top five small-business lenders in June 2008 wereAmericanh Express, Capital One, Regionsz Financial Corp., Synovus Financial Corp. and Firsrt Citizen Bancshares Inc. The report also lists the mostactivew small-business lenders in each state.
“In the current financia l climate, it’s especially critical for small firms to know whicb banks and financial institutions have been the most likelyh to make small and microbusiness said economistVictoria Williams, a co-author of the For more: .