Holt Introduces Legislation To Support Small Businesses

Press Release

U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12), a member of the House Job Creation Task Force, has introduced legislation to encourage small business investment and job creation. Holt regularly meets with small business leaders and hears the difficulty they have finding the loans and credit needed to expand and hire more employees.

"The strength of our economy comes from small businesses and from innovation. Both have suffered during the economic downturn," Holt said. "As we move to a recovery, we need to ensure that we invest in our small businesses and in innovation, and the bills I have introduced would bolster each."

One bill -- the "Create Jobs by Expanding the R&D Tax Credit Act of 2010" -- would help businesses by strengthening the research and development (R&D) tax credit, which allows businesses to invest in innovation and, in the process, expand and hire new workers. Holt's legislation temporarily would boost the most common form of the federal R&D tax credit, which would create 162,000 jobs in the short-term and increase the GDP by $90 billion, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. In addition, Holt's legislation also would make the credit more useful for start-up businesses by allowing them to sell their unused tax credit, modeled after a successful New Jersey program.

Another bill Holt introduced -- the "Creating Jobs From Innovative Small Businesses Act of 2010" - would encourage small business investment by establishing a temporary 20 percent tax credit for investments in research-intensive small businesses. This legislation builds on a successful state initiative in New Jersey and 17 other states.

Last year, Holt helped pass legislation -- awaiting action in the Senate - that would eliminate fees on SBA loans and increase loan guarantees to increase lending to small businesses.

In addition to these bills, Holt has held multiple workshops for small businesses to highlight the services that are available to help them. Recently, he held a workshop in Manalapan where more than 100 small business owners learned about loan programs available through the SBA and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. This April, Holt is holding an event to help small businesses learn how to export their products to foreign markets.

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