Jacqueline Vaught, ASIB Contributer

H.R. 22 which became a national statute in 2005 was authored by Rep. Ric Keller (R-Fla.), it states that America’s small businesses have:

* The right to join together to purchase affordable health insurance for small business employees, who make up a large portion of the millions of Americans without health care coverage.

* The right to simplified tax laws that allow family-owned small businesses to survive over several generations and offer them incentives to grow.

* The right to be free from frivolous lawsuits that harm law-abiding small businesses and prevent them from creating new jobs.

* The right to be free of unnecessary, restrictive regulations and paperwork that waste the time and energy of small businesses while hurting production and preventing job creation.

* The right to relief from high energy costs by reducing our nation’s reliance on imported sources of energy and encouraging environmentally sound domestic production and conservation of energy.

* The right to equal treatment with large businesses when seeking access to start-up and expansion capital and credit.

* The right to open access to government procurement through the breaking up of bundled contracts to give small businesses the ability to compete for federal government business.