The congressional spending bill battle had a message for Main Street

A majority of small business owners on Main Street say they support more financial relief from the federal government, but the resolution of the battle in Congress last week over the spending bill for the federal government shows that it may not be coming.

This shouldn’t be a surprise. With fiscal hawks reluctant to provide more funds related to the pandemic even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine became a key spending issue on Capitol Hill, odds have been long that Congress is going to provide another significant round of financial support for small business owners.

That’s even though the need is clearly there. Two-thirds of small business owners support more financial relief from the federal government, according to the latest CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey for Q1 2022, as inflation continues to hit Main Street hard.

“Following action on the spending bill, the legislative docket will be crammed with other things that leave little room for small business priorities. And given Putin’s aggression and what he does next to savage Ukraine and threaten Europe, the attention of Congress and the White House may move increasingly to international matters and away from domestic legislative plans or wish lists,” said Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.

In addition, there are a lot of complex domestic issues left to tackle in this legislative session, from prescription drug pricing to a version of President Biden’s Build Back Better plan that can receive the support of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, as well as a Supreme Court nomination in the Senate, all of which will “eat up legislative days,” Kerrigan said.

The specific measures for small business where hopes have been highest are the Restaurant Revitalization Fund and Employee Retention Credit. Hopes are not dead, but made more difficult by having to proceed on a stand-alone basis in Covid legislation.

The National Federation of Independent Business says while small businesses were left out of the spending bill, NFIB will continue to push for restoration of the Employee Retention Credit in the Covid-19 supplemental bill that is expected to be considered soon. NFIB is concerned about the omission of policy for Main Street given the headwinds small businesses are facing, including rising inflation, increasing energy costs, supply chain disruptions, and workforce shortages.

“Small businesses do not expect these problems to subside any time soon as expectations for future business conditions continue to decline, ” said Kevin Kuhlman, NFIB’s head of federal government relations.

The Employee Retention Credit, which was cancelled earlier that it was supposed to be in Q4 2021, has an estimated $8 billion in tax credits small business owners still might be able to claim. And NFIB thinks it has a better chance of receiving support than the much larger Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which is far larger (nearly $50 billion) and because it is targeted to one industry, makes it potentially harder to gain the broadest support. 

There are some positives to be considered in the just-passed federal budget. For starters,…