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Small Business Administrator: The BizBox Endorsement
By Marc Tracy
President Obama's nominee for head of the Small Business Administration, Karen G. Mills, will get her confirmation hearing tomorrow in front of the Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee (the agency is currently being run by an acting administrator). We wouldn't expect too much difficulty. For one thing, there is nothing glaringly/explosively controversial about her; for another, she seems to have been selected with the committee's ranking minority member, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Me.)--also a successful, moderate woman from Maine--in mind. Our guess is we will soon have, officially, a new Small Business Administrator. (For our brief rundown on Mills, see here.)
Which is not to suggest that Mills's appointment has been wholly uncontested. Some, including perennial gadfly (we don't mean that in a bad way) Lloyd Chapman of the American Small Business League and blogger Robb Mandelbaum have criticized her selection on the grounds that her experience comes from the world of venture capital rather than small business. Also brought up has been the apparently less-than-stellar performance of a private-equity fund she helped to run.
But our guess, as we say, is that these will turn out to be inconsequential quibbles as far as her confirmation is concerned. And we'll go a step further: she should be confirmed. She has struck as impressive, competent, and even visionary. And the SBA needs itself a permanent head and permanent direction. It has to deal with misallocated federal contracts; with the recent HUBZone scandal; with the changes to and expansion of its flagship 7(a) lending program that the stimulus package wrought. Now is the time--now is past time--for the SBA to have real leadership. Hopefully, it will very soon.
Comments (0)March 31, 2009 4:02 PM
