Power Your Voice

NAWBO members are diverse in many ways, including the size of their business, the sectors and communities they serve, the stage of business development, race, ethnicity, geographic business areas and political leanings that determine policy views. The NAWBO Advocacy Agenda embodies the ever-present need to represent all of our members while creating both the avenue and environment to build sustainable women-owned businesses. NAWBO recently rolled out its agenda for 2024 with a focus on microbusiness, the hiring squeeze and more.

NAWBO Chicago: Get Involved With Advocacy

Learn more about the Advocacy Committee and how you can get involved: Download Our Committee Overview One-Pager Here.

In late 2023, the Advocacy Committee conducted a survey of our NAWBO Chicago membership — spanning Chicagoland, northwest Indiana and southeast Wisconsin — to understand what business challenges members are facing, with the goal of prioritizing these challenges in our future advocacy efforts. Download Our Survey Highlights One-Pager Here.

How could you advocate this week?

NAWBO National sent a list of talking points that a NAWBO Member could use with Members of Congress in Washington, D.C. These talking points were in response to media reports stating that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has asked for unfettered access to all the Small Business Administration or S-B-A systems, including HR, contract, and payment systems. Our call to action is to remind lawmakers to ensure that DOGE does not take any action that will impede the agency from executing its congressionally-mandated activities or otherwise override Congressional authority.

If you would like to make a call, you can find your U.S. Representative here and your U.S. Senator here. When you call, you can ask for their small business staffer, or if the small business staffer is not available, feel free to share your thoughts with the staff assistant who answers the call.

Talking Points:

• My name is __________; I am a constituent and a small business owner.
• I am calling to express my DEEP concern about media reports that the Department of Government Efficiency has asked for unfettered access to all the Small Business Administration or S-B-A systems, including HR, contract, and payment systems.
• I am VERY concerned as a small business owner in America and your constituent.
• SBA provides crucial services to small businesses, including thousands of small businesses recovering from the devastating hurricanes in the fall and the Southern California fires.
• As a woman business owner, programs like the Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) program have helped women enter the federal procurement system and scale their businesses.
• Women business owners contribute significantly to the U.S. economy, adding $3.3 trillion in 2024, and have the potential to bring an additional $10.2 trillion in economic activity.
• SBA provides crucial services to businesses, and I am calling on your office to ensure that the agency is not impeded from executing its congressionally mandated activities.

If you prefer to share your thoughts in writing, click share comments on the Senator’s website or click on the envelope icon once you see your U.S. Representative. Here is a letter that you can use to craft your message.

What else is NAWBO up to?

NAWBO continued to support the bipartisan Helping Small Businesses to Hedge Risk and Insure against Volatile Expenses (Helping Small Businesses THRIVE) Act this Congress. NAWBO is listed in a press release from Senators Cassidy and Shaheen on the topic. The Senators’ bipartisan bill would direct the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to create a new program that helps small businesses lock in the cost of commodities, like gasoline or lumber, to protect against the future volatile price of energy and other expenses.

You will also see a quote from NAWBO Board Chair Dr. Janis Shinkawa in a press release from Senators Fischer and King on the Paid Family and Medical Leave Tax Credit Extension and Enhancement Act. This bipartisan, bicameral legislation will make the Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) Employer Tax Credit permanent, helping companies of all sizes offer PFML plans to their employees.

NAWBO also commented on a proposed rule to adjust non-statutory FAR acquisition-related thresholds in 2025 due to inflation. You can view our comments here.

After hearing from all of you on our survey, NAWBO also joined a letter supporting the Main Street Tax Certainty Act of 2025, legislation to make permanent the 20-percent deduction for small- and family-owned businesses (Section 199A).

Toolkit

To support our chapter and members in their efforts to power their NAWBO voice and impact positive changes in their states and communities, we are pleased to provide a variety of resources. Click on the links below to get started.