Steven Tanner

Latest Articles

• Obama's Budget: A Big Leg Up For Small Businesses?

  Not surprisingly, President Obama's recently released budget proposal for fiscal year 2011 has elicited polarized views from the business community. He's beginning to stand up to Wall Street and large corporations, at least rhetorically, while promising much-needed relief for small to mid-size businesses (US News).

• Members Leave As Chamber Rebukes EPA

  The US Chamber of Commerce-fueled controversy over greenhouse gas emissions, which the Environmental Protection Agency has indicated it plans to regulate, proves that there is room for divergent opinions on environmental issues among US businesses (The New York Times).

• Healthcare Mandate For Small Construction Firms

  Scott Brown's Senate win in Massachusetts has cast confusion onto the prospects of the health care legislation we've been hearing about for months. One question that will likely remain is whether any eventual legislation will include a construction employer mandate. It is widely known that the Senate version of the health care reform bill requires employers with 50 or more workers to provide them with coverage.

• New Funding Gives Labor Regulators More Bite

  Get ready for more workplace oversight with respect to federal labor laws, as a half-trillion-dollar spending bill making its way through Congress will give regulatory agencies more resources to follow up on complaints and pursue cases. It's important to remember that labor and employment laws mean very little in the absence of enforcement. The $447 billion Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R.

• Bill Would Give Small Businesses Bigger Loans

  Most small businesses, even those that have managed to do relatively well in these trying times, just can't get much respect from banks and other lenders. Although most US employers are considered small businesses, the small business loan is considered a very risky category from the lenders' perspective.

• Job Discrimination Claims On The Rise

  Claims for employment discrimination filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2009 declined slightly from the previous year, but still were at the second-highest level in the agency's nearly 45-year history, as reported by the AP. The year in which the most claims were filed was 2008. The total number of disability discrimination claims received by the EEOC last year was 93,000.