FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 3, 2009
Contact: Katie Laning Niebaum, Leah Vest
(202) 224-4843

Senate Budget Includes Lincoln Proposals for Arkansas’s Small Businesses,
National Guard and Reserve, and Families

Washington – U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln’s efforts on behalf of Arkansas’s service members, families, and small businesses have passed a significant legislative hurdle.  Lincoln’s amendments to improve National Guard and Reserve benefits; provide support to foster families; encourage more Arkansans to save; and give small businesses the tools they need to grow and create jobs were included in the Senate budget resolution, which passed the Senate late Thursday. 

“The Senate’s budget resolution provides tax cuts for Arkansas’s working families as well as critical investments in health care, education, and green energy that will create jobs and help our country get back on track.  Our proposal also will help us begin the process of putting our fiscal house back in order by cutting the deficit by more than half by 2012 and by two-thirds by 2014,” Lincoln said.  “In addition, I will continue my fight to provide Arkansas’s service members the benefits they have earned, foster families the support they need to care for our state’s growing number of foster children, and small businesses the tools to reinvest in themselves and afford health insurance for their employees.” 

The Senate and House of Representatives will now work to negotiate a final budget resolution that must be approved by both chambers.  Lincoln’s five amendments to the Senate budget resolution are:

Small Business Health Insurance: Lincoln’s amendment would place special emphasis in upcoming health reform legislation to help small businesses and self-employed individuals afford health insurance for their employees and themselves. Today, small businesses and the self-employed are disadvantaged when it comes to affording health insurance for their employees and themselves.  The smallest small businesses pay 18 percent more in health insurance premiums than the largest businesses do for the same benefits.  Approximately half of the nation’s 47 million uninsured people work for small businesses or are dependents of small business workers.

National Guard and Reserve Benefits: Lincoln’s amendment builds upon her “Total Force GI Bill,” which was enacted into law over the past two years.  The provision ensures that future GI Bill benefits for members of the National Guard and Reserve keep pace with the national average cost of tuition.
 
Foster Children and Families: Lincoln’s amendment creates room in the budget for making improvements to our child welfare system, specifically providing greater support to recruit and retain more foster families. 

Savings Tools for Arkansans: Lincoln’s budget amendment would allow for future paid-for legislation that promotes financial security through financial literacy, retirement planning, and savings incentives, such as Individual Development Accounts and Child Savings Accounts.
 
Small Business and Family-Owned Business Relief: Lincoln’s amendment to create paid-for estate tax relief would give small businesses and family-owned businesses the tools they need to reinvest in themselves.  Lincoln’s proposal is aimed at farms and small businesses, which employ the majority of workers in Arkansas.  Lincoln has said that with all the money we’ve spent to help the economy improve, very little of it has filtered down to Main Street and family-owned businesses.  We should take the opportunity to give these businesses the tools they need to reinvest in themselves so they can keep their businesses not only running, but growing and providing new jobs for their communities.  Small businesses and family businesses are the engines of our local economies, and at this time of economic crisis, it is all the more crucial to make investments that will help them create jobs.

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