So, yes, there are serious problems with the report. But what President is ever going to send up a small business repot that will satisfy all of us? I've heard President Reagan's effort called namby-pamby and meaningless stroking. That's nonsense. It's a praiseworthy document with much solid, helpful information. It reflects credit on the President and his people and is entirely appropriate as a first outing.
Still, why call it "historic"? It is historic because its existence opens the door a little wider to that branch of government where small business has traditionally fared worst. Each year, from now on, the President will present the "State of Small Business Report" right after the "State of the Union Message" (given since 1789), the Budget Message (given since 1921), and the Economic Report (given since 1946). Each year, through this document, the President will be directly accountable to the Congress, the small business community, and the people as a whole. And that means the institution of the Presidency for the first time must pay continuing attention to small business. Each day someone in the White House must examine the Administration's handling of small business issues and consider how Presidential action -- or inaction -- will look in the following year's report and to the judgment of history.
On the face of it, our Presidents, since FDR, have all paid attention to the concerns of small business. During World War II, President Roosevelt signed an Act of Congress giving us our first federal agency -- the Smaller War Plants Corp. When the war ended, President Truman terminated the SWPC, dividing its functions between the Reconstruction Finance Corp. and the Department of Commerce. With the outbreak of the Korean War, however, he reunited small business concerns under another special agency, the Small Defense Plants Administration, which lasted until the end of the Korean conflict.
Under President Eisenhower the Small Defense Plants Administration became a permanent part of the executive branch, the Small Business Administration. Eisenhower also set up a temporary Cabinet Committee on Small Business (with Arthur Burns as chairman) and signed the Small Business Investment Act. This act created a network of federally licensed companies to help smaller firms with long-term debt, equity, and management problems.
President Kennedy convened a White House Committee on Small Business headed by his SBA administrator, John Horne. President Johnson strengthened the Small Business Investment Act and, under President Nixon, a minority small business program was established in the Commerce Department. President Ford signed the bill creating the Office of Advocacy within the SBA.
With President Carter, small business moved center stage. His 1980 White House Conference was a nationally significant event. It led to several rapid congressional enactments, among them the one requiring the President to submit an annual report to Congress. And now President Reagan has followed through with the first report.
What's noteworthy about this Presidential small business record is that not one of these advances actually originated in the Executive Office of the President. Each proposal came directly from Congress or from segments of the small business community through congressional representatives. Almost always, the staff of the Executive Office acquiesced to the proposals only to keep Congress from going even further. Small business is largely a local and regional concern; every member of Congress is closer to the citizenry than the President can possibly be. Small business has never yet been able to look to the Presidency for initiation, only for follow-through.
The reasons are not hard to find. First is the Presidential bureaucracy. The Executive Office of the President is now staffed by over 1,500 employees; the ability of this bureaucracy to keep things from being done is formidable.Second, the President and the Vice-President are our only nationally elected representatives. That means public demands on their time and attention (and those of their staffs) are constant.
Finally, the President is pressured to focus on bigness. Through his Office of Management and Budget, he must look at the entire federal establishment. Through the National Security Council, the Pentagon, and the State Department, he must give priority to world affairs. It's no wonder that small business, at best, occupies a place at the periphery of Presidential attention.
The competition for White House attention is becoming increasingly fierce. Rarely does anyone have permanent priority status. What the new report means is that small business can no longer be easily shut off from Presidential view.
It does not really matter that the full text of the President's report may be read by only a few people. Nor does it matter that the volumes will finally gather dust on library shelves. What matters is that every day now, someone close to the President must have -- and keep -- the concerns of small business on a permanent agenda. As a result, all of the President's people will be more answerable to him, and through him to you and me, than they have ever been before.
An historic event? I think so.
