Small-business voice must be heard on critical issues, Stottlemyer tells NFIB Summit delegates
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Addressing delegates at the National Small-Business Summit this morning, new NFIB President and CEO Todd Stottlemyer rallied a crowd of small-business owners with a challenge: Take your struggles, concerns and stories to lawmakers and demand that they listen to you.
"It's about going to Capitol Hill and telling your representative and senators—face-to-face—about the pressing issues that affect your business, and what you want them to do," Stottlemyer said. "Let them know where you stand, and that you will hold them accountable."
He also urged delegates to remember as they travel to Capitol Hill that "no conversation is complete without your voice."
"A lot of legislators like to talk, but you need to make sure that they hear your voice as well because your voice is important," Stottlemyer said.
Lawmakers need to know that small-business owners won't give up the fight for affordable health insurance, nor will they "stop pushing for Small-Business Health Plans." Though SBHP legislation garnered a majority of 55 votes in the Senate last month, the bill stalled under Senate rules. Stottlemyer thanked members for being key to that "moral victory," but stressed that there is more work to do.
"Your letters, e-mails and one-on-one meetings with your senators put us within five votes of moving the legislation forward," Stottlemyer told the crowd. "But NFIB is not about moral victories. Tell your senators we will not give up until every small business in America has access to affordable health insurance."
Small-business owners also have a chance this week to influence lawmakers on other critical small-business issues like stopping frivolous lawsuits, insuring a permanency of tax rates and repealing the death tax.
"Tell your lawmakers that any death tax compromise must include a significant exemption for small business," Stottlemyer said. "Our goal is to allow small-business owners to pass on their businesses without being subject to the death tax."
With a line-item veto provision to allow the president to cut government spending under consideration in Congress this week, small-business owners have the perfect opportunity to "demand fiscal discipline and responsibility" from lawmakers and remind them that "not everything is a priority."
"Runaway government spending is a threat to our economic freedom," Stottlemyer said. "It impacts interest rates and increases the cost of capital. It restricts the ability of small businesses to expand."
With small business being the biggest creator of jobs in the country, "we need to drive home the message on Capitol Hill and in state capitals that small business means jobs. And a vote against small business is a vote against the majority of American workers."
Stottlemyer also took time to reflect on NFIB's past accomplishments and lay out his vision for the future, which he described as "agile, innovative and entrepreneurial."
"One thing I know about successful entrepreneurs is that you are risk takers who constantly confront and embrace change. As we go forward, you will see your NFIB team embracing change with a strong entrepreneurial spirit and resolve."
He said he was humbled to be the fifth president to serve NFIB in 63 years.
"You make a difference every day in your businesses, your families, your communities and your country. I am proud to have the opportunity to lead this organization."
