Congressional session yields progress with small business

by Karen E. Culp

SBJ Staff

As the 1999 session of the 106th Congress closed, small business was beginning to see the benefits of the legislators' work this year.

A number of measures were passed that will benefit small business in the Ozarks, and some pieces of legislation that did not pass both houses of Congress made significant strides toward doing so.

One piece of legislation that did not make it through both houses was a bankruptcy reform bill that contained some provisions long sought after by Missouri Sen. Christopher Bond, chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business.

One provision was to have made self-employed individuals able to deduct 100 percent of their health care premiums from their income taxes beginning in 2000. The measure passed the Senate Nov. 9 but did not make it through the House of Representatives before adjournment, said committee spokesman Craig Orfield.

Another provision, passed in an earlier Congressional session, allows 100 percent deductibility in 2003