June 9, 2006
For Immediate Release
Contact: Dina Fraioli
(202)-785-0238 SBE Council Scores Congress on Small Business Votes Washington, D.C. - Today, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) released its annual scorecard of congressional votes in order to show how each member of Congress voted on issues important to entrepreneurs and the small business community. "SBE Council's Congressional Voting Scorecard 2005" can be read and downloaded from SBE Council's website at www.sbecouncil.org. The scorecard provides the voting record for each member of Congress, as well as tallies for entire congressional delegations from each state (see below). SBE Council President & CEO Karen Kerrigan observed: "Small businesses, of course, are the backbone of the U.S. economy in terms of job creation, innovation, and pushing economic growth forward. While most politicians talk favorably about small businesses, SBE Council puts their actual voting records to the test. In 2005, 269 members of Congress earned SBE Council's appreciation and its ‘Small Business Champion Award.'" SBE Council chief economist Raymond J. Keating declared: "The best policy environment for entrepreneurship and small business is one where the tax burden is low and regulation is not burdensome. That agenda, which will help keep our small business and entrepreneurial sector strong and competitive, is reflected in the votes included in ‘SBE Council's Congressional Voting Scorecard.'" Members of the U.S. Senate were scored on 23 votes, as were members of the U.S. House of Representatives. SBE Council also tallied and averaged the votes of each state delegation to determine which delegations voted in the most small business friendly way - or not so, as the case may be. Rankings of Vote Scores for State Congressional Delegations
| Rank | State | Score | | 1 | Idaho | 95.7 | | 1 | Oklahoma | 95.7 | | 3 | Alaska | 94.3 | | 3 | Wyoming | 94.3 | | 5 | Utah | 92.4 | | 6 | Kentucky | 92.1 | | 7 | Alabama | 91.0 | | 8 | Nebraska | 90.6 | | 9 | Kansas | 88.6 | | 10 | New Hampshire | 87.0 | | 11 | Louisiana | 81.2 | | 12 | Mississippi | 80.0 | | 13 | Montana | 79.7 | | 14 | Texas | 79.6 | | 15 | Tennessee | 79.4 | | 16 | Virginia | 78.8 | | 17 | Arizona | 77.5 | | 18 | Florida | 76.7 | | 18 | South Carolina | 76.7 | | 20 | Georgia | 75.3 | | 21 | Iowa | 74.1 | | 22 | Indiana | 73.2 | | 23 | Missouri | 72.3 | | 24 | Ohio | 70.2 | | 25 | Pennsylvania | 69.5 | | 26 | Colorado | 68.1 | | 27 | Nevada | 67.2 | | 28 | New Mexico | 65.5 | | 29 | North Carolina | 63.7 | | 30 | Michigan | 60.3 | | 31 | Wisconsin | 55.8 | | 32 | South Dakota | 51.4 | | 33 | Illinois | 50.0 | | 34 | Arkansas | 47.9 | | 34 | Minnesota | 47.9 | | 36 | California | 47.4 | | 37 | Oregon | 46.3 | | 38 | West Virginia | 43.2 | | 39 | Delaware | 42.9 | | 40 | Washington | 42.8 | | 41 | New Jersey | 41.6 | | 42 | Connecticut | 41.2 | | 43 | New York | 38.9 | | 44 | Maryland | 35.2 | | 45 | North Dakota | 33.8 | | 46 | Maine | 30.9 | | 47 | Hawaii | 24.1 | | 48 | Rhode Island | 18.1 | | 49 | Vermont | 15.7 | | 50 | Massachusetts | 12.2 |
For more than ten years the SBE Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit small business advocacy group headquartered in Washington, D.C., has been working to protect small business and promote entrepreneurship. For more information, please visit: www.sbecouncil.org. ###
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