Who should business owners keep their eyes on in Washington, D.C., next year?
Start with President Barack Obama — for the first time in his presidency, Obama will be faced with a Congress where both the House and Senate are controlled by Republicans. How will he handle this situation? Will he seek bipartisan cooperation on issues where there is common ground, such as new trade agreements and tax reform? We’ll get a clue on Jan. 20, when the president delivers his State of the Union.
Then there’s Mitch McConnell, Senate majority leader in the new Congress. When Democrats controlled the Senate, McConnell’s main mission was to be a thorn in then-Majority Leader Harry Reid’s side. Now McConnell will have to work with Democrats in order to get 60 votes, the magic number needed to pass most legislation in the Senate. Will he able to do that? McConnell has been a deal-maker in the past — for example, the Kentucky Republican and Vice President Joe Biden negotiated the agreement that kept the federal government from falling off the fiscal cliff two years ago.
But beyond these obvious choices — and the host of 2016 presidential candidates that will launch campaigns next year — here are five other politicians and government officials that businesses should watch in 2015:
Orrin Hatch
As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, the Utah senator will lead the effort for comprehensive tax reform in that chamber.
Hatch has been in the Senate since 1977. He’s a conservative, but he’s a throwback to the days when Republicans and Democrats worked across the aisle on issues — Ted Kennedy, for example, was a close friend of his.
Hatch’s political skills will be put to the test on tax reform. Anytime you tinker with the tax code, there are winners and losers. What business wants from tax reform is a simpler tax code with lower rates. But to get there, some industries are going to lose tax breaks that are important to them. They will squeal loudly, as they did this year when Rep. Dave Camp, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, unveiled his tax reform proposal.
Plus, Hatch will need to negotiate with Camp’s successor, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. Ryan has his own ideas on what tax reform should look like — ideas in the past that have gotten no support from Democrats.
Steve Chabot
Chabot, an Ohio Republican, will chair the House Small Business Committee in the next Congress. He’s served on the committee a long time and has been a consistent supporter of most Small Business Administration programs, so he’s not likely to rock the boat where the SBA is concerned.
The biggest question concerning Chabot is whether he will continue the approach of Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., who has chaired the committee for the past four years. Graves held plenty of hearings, not only on the SBA, but also on a host of other issues of concern to small businesses, such as the Affordable Care Act’s impact on them, regulatory burdens and taxes.
It sounds like Chabot is going to continue this approach.
“The best thing the federal government can do to help small businesses is to get the heck off their backs and out of their way,” Chabot wrote on his blog after he was named chairman.
He pledged to hold hearings, not only in Washington, D.C., but also “across the country,” about “what government policies and programs need to be modified, or eliminated, in order to unburden small businesses.”
Gina McCarthy
McCarthy heads the Environmental Protection Agency, which is expected to issue final regulations next summer limiting carbon emissions from existing power plants.
Business groups have urged the EPA to withdraw the rule because of its potential cost to the economy. One industry-funded study concluded that complying with the rule would cost $366 billion and result in sizable increases in electricity rates in 43 states.
“We hope they slow down,” said Ross Eisenberg, vice president of energy and resources policy at the National Association of Manufacturers.
Many states have expressed concerns about the feasibility of the EPA’s regulatory scheme as well.
Even though the comment period for the rule has ended, the EPA should continue to talk with business groups and states about their concerns, said Dan Byers, senior director for policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy.
This regulation, however, is a key part of Obama’s climate change agenda, and McCarthy is under pressure from environmental groups to implement the rules.
Mary Jo White
Another year has passed without rules from the Securities and Exchange Commission that would implement a key part of the JOBS Act, a law enacted in 2012 to make it easier for small businesses to raise capital.
The SEC has implemented parts of the law, but a key provision — allowing businesses to use online crowdfunding portals to raise up to $1 million in equity capital from ordinary Americans, not just accredited investors — remains on hold.
Crowdfunding advocates will be watching SEC Chairman Mary Jo White’s words carefully to see if the agency will finally make equity crowdfunding for small businesses a nationwide reality this year. (A few states are moving ahead with their own equity crowdfunding rules.)
White doesn’t appear to be in any hurry. The SEC’s recently projected the agency would issue final crowdfunding rules in October 2015, but this timetable is not binding. White told Fortune this month that there is no “drop dead date” to complete its rule-making on crowdfunding.
“We’ve gotten a lot of comments, and our staff is actively working through them,” White said.
Gilberto de Jesus
Who? De Jesus is a forgotten man in Obama’s regulatory agenda. He’s the president’s nominee to replace Winslow Sargeant as chief counsel for the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy.
This office reviews proposed regulations to make sure federal agencies consider the impact they would have on small businesses. These reviews give small businesses a chance to provide regulators with insights on how to minimize the regulatory burden of proposed rules before they’re even published for public comment.
Sargeant, a former technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist, proved to be an aggressive watchdog for small businesses in the regulatory process.
Will de Jesus do the same? It’s hard to say at this point. Obama nominated de Jesus, a senior attorney at the Federal Communications Commission, for the post four months ago. But the 113th Congress ended before the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee even held a confirmation hearing for him.
Hearing from de Jesus should be the top priority for the committee when the 114th Congress begins in January. He’s got some business experience, but will he have the gumption to challenge federal regulators? That remains to be seen.
