Reps. Crow and Garbarino Reintroduce Legislation to Support Small Business Succession Planning

WASHINGTON —Today, Representatives Jason Crow (D-CO-06) and Andrew Garbarino (R-NY-02) reintroduced the bipartisan Small Business Succession Planning Act. The bipartisan legislation would assist small business owners in creating a business succession plan that sets a process for continued leadership and operations in the event of an owner’s retirement, death, or other personnel changes.

The closure of small businesses has significant impacts to local economies, affecting employment, services, and overall wealth. In the US, many business owners lack succession plans, leaving economies vulnerable.

Today’s legislation aims to equip small businesses with the resources needed to keep workers on the payroll, provide services to other businesses, and continue investing in communities. 

"Colorado is a strong small business state, yet many of our hardworking small business owners in Colorado’s 6th lack tools for long term planning and continued success,” said Congressman Crow. “I’m glad to renew this bipartisan effort to help our small businesses owners plan for the future.”  

"As a third-generation Long Islander and small business owner, I know first-hand the blood, sweat, and tears small businesses owners pour into ensuring their businesses are a success. Unfortunately, more than half of our nation's small business owners do not have a succession plan in place – leaving small businesses, which are pillars in our communities, vulnerable to closure," said Congressman Garbarino. "I'm proud to join my colleagues in introducing commonsense legislation to better equip our small business community with tools to develop succession plans."

The Small Business Succession Planning Act would:

• Direct the Small Business Administration (SBA) to create an online business succession planning toolkit that walks small businesses through the process of creating a business succession plan with the help of SBA or resource partners. It would also require the SBA to provide trained staff or partners to help small businesses create their plan;
• Encourage the SBA to hold business succession planning workshops or events across the country;
• Create a plan to increase business succession plans among small businesses, including among minority-owned businesses, through the SBA; and
• Incentivize small businesses owners to create their own plan through multiple tax breaks for businesses:
  • This includes a one-time $250 tax break to create a business succession plan and an additional one-time $250 tax break when the succession plan is executed.

Congressman Crow has been a champion for Colorado’s small businesses. Last Congress, Crow’s bipartisan SBA Cyber Awareness Act was signed into law. In the 118th Congress, Crow introduced bipartisan legislation to help small businesses offer on-the-job learning opportunities to combat the labor shortage, and increase the maximum loan amount available to businesses to improve energy efficiency.  

Read the full text of the legislationhere.