If the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday is any indication, the broader business community was not well served by the failure of the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the $700 billion bailout plan (although this morning the Dow is up over 250). Still, this delay could and should provide an opportunity for small businesses to lobby and agitate for a bailout that helps them, too.

Mostly, the small business lobby has called for the plan to be passed. The thinking behind the National Federation of Independent Business's endorsement appears to be: small businesses need credit; the credit markets need the bailout; therefore, the bailout is good. (Click on the endorsement to get to a recording of a conference call hosted by NFIB at which Bush administration officials explained the bailout.)

The NFIB was not pleased with yesterday's events. "I've had the opportunity to hear from many small business owners over the past week," said NFIB President and CEO Todd Stottlemyer. "They are angry and upset, and they have a right to be. Small business men and women did not create the financial mess on Wall Street."

Nor was Sandy Baruah, the acting administrator of the Small Business Administration (appointed by President Bush), who told Sharon McLoone over at our brother site washingtonpost.com, "The House action today is disappointing -- clearly there is more work to be done."

McLoone quotes several other prominent members of the small business community, including officials from the International Franchise Association, the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, and the National Association for the Self-Employed also expressing their disappointment with Congress and general support for the bill.

Maybe most telling, though, was a poll conducted last week by the National Small Business Association finding that 44% of small business owners simply didn't know if the bailout, if passed, would affect them positively or negatively.

It's hard to blame them. The bailout has its eyes set on propping up big financial institutions, both to save that powerful sector and to enable it to keep credit flowing to other industries. (And incidentally, it is worth noting that though the bill would commit to using up to $700 billion, it would basically have to end up costing far, far less than that admittedly huge figure.) With the exception of the help to community banks--more on that in a future post--there is little in the bailout that even directly, or even indirectly but at a close remove, is targeted to help small businesses.

So what should small businesses want out of this? The NSBA has some ideas.
Help for community banks. These smaller institutions, which have been ravaged by the collapses of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, should be helped out so that they can lend to local small businesses.
The credit card reform bill. The House has actually passed a "credit card holders' bill of rights," and now the U.S. Senate can vote on it. Nearly half of small business owners have reported using credit cards as a financing source: a risky one, because the interest rates tend to be high, and a fickle one, with the credit card companies able to alter the rates on a whim. NSBA is touting passage of this bill as a good piece of companion legislation to the bailout.
Fully fund the SBA. The focus is specifically on the SBA's flagship program, the so-called 7(a) loan guarantee. The Small Business Technology Council has called for the fees on these loans to be waived due to these extraordinary times.
Deal with energy and health care costs. No one expects the government to get to these issues, say, this week. But it would be hard to think of something more important to small business' long-term health than bringing down these tremendous, and unpredictable, costs.

In one sense, the timing of all of these events is good: it's right before Election Day. This is when your representatives will listen to you most. Now is the time to talk to them and demand that your government--federal, state, and local--not forget about small businesses as they try to help the economy.