Potential Leadership Changes for House and Senate Small Business Committees
Representative Steve Chabot (R-OH) has emerged as the most likely candidate to replace representative Sam Graves as Chairman of the House Small Business Committee at the end of the year according to insiders. Graves will be stepping down in accordance with a mandatory 6 year term limit agreed upon by all House Republicans. Other potential candidates include Republican representatives: Scott Tipton (Colo.), Chris Collins (N.Y.) and Richard Hanna (N.Y.). All three currently serve as chair of one of the Small Business subcommittees. Representative Chabot, an 18 year veteran on the Hill, holds seniority over other Republicans on the committee, though. Additionally, he served as the panel’s ranking member before losing a reelection bid for Congress in 2008, a seat he won back two years later.
Chabot has spent much of his tenure as a proponent for fiscal conservatism, looking for ways to cut wasteful spending and lower taxes. He argues that, “the federal government must not continue to stifle growth with the threat of new taxes, burdensome regulations and other policies counterproductive to job creation.” In a number of ways, the potential Chabot agenda will pick up where Representative Graves left off.
Should Republicans take back the Senate, Senator James Risch (R-Idaho), would be the most likely choice to take the seat at the head of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. Risch has backed legislation that would require regulators examine how new and existing federal rules affect small businesses, along with bills intended to expand access to capital for entrepreneurs. Last year, he introduced in the Senate the very same proposal to expand the Small Business Investment Companies program that Chabot proposed in the House.