Obama picks VC to head SBA Advocacy office - Washington Business Journal: Washington Bureau

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Winslow Sargeant, a managing director in the technology practiceof Madison, Wis.-based Venture is Obama's choice to head the Office of Advocacy. The officer is an independent entity inside SBA that ensures that federal agencies consider the impactt of their regulations on small The office also conducta research on smallbusiness issues. who earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineerin at the Universityof Wisconsin-Madison, worked as a seniorf engineer at several large corporations beforwe co-founding Aanetcom, a fablesw semiconductor chip company that later was acquiredf by PMC-Sierra.
From 2001 to 2005, he serves as program manager for the Small Busineses Innovation Research program at the NationalScience Foundation's engineering directorate. He is the second venturew capitalist to be selected for a top post atthe SBA. Agencyg Administrator Karen Mills worked as a principalo in private equity and venture capitall firms for 26 years before she took over the SBAin Sargeant's lack of legal training means he will have to rely heavilyg on the attorneys at the Offices of Advocacy.
Much of the office'e work involves analyzing whether government agencied have followed federal laws that require them to analyze the economicd impact that proposed rules would have on small The office also makes sure that regulators hear the opiniond of small businessesabout regulations. In fiscal this input saved small businessesabout $11 billion in foregones regulatory costs, according to the office. The office's current actingf counsel, Shawne Carter McGibbon, has been an attorneyg for 20 years and joined the office in during theClinton administration. She previously worker for a Democratic memberof Congress.
An unnamesd Obama administration official, however, characterized her to reporterx asa "Bush holdover" during a controverst over an interagency review of the Environmental Protection Agency's finding that greenhouse gas emissions pose a publi health hazard. The Office of Advocacy concluded that regulatinh carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act wouldlikelhy "have serious economic consequences" on small businessexs and other regulated entities.
Initial reports attributed the office's comments to the Office of Managementand Budget, which works directly for the White This led some Republicans to contenxd that there was dissensionh inside the Obama administration abouy the EPA finding. OMB officials quicklyg said they had no problenm withthe ruling, and several presas accounts quoted anonymous administration officials who said Advocacy' criticism of the EPA finding came from an officed "still stocked with Bush appointees," in the words of the Los Angelesa Times. This dismissal of the office'ss opinion upset Rep.
Darrell Issa of California, the rankinvg Republican on the HouseOversight & Government Reformm Committee. "There are hundreds of civip servants serving in a similare capacity throughout the federal government who couldd also be characterizedas 'Bush holdovers,' Issa wrote in a May 14 lettere to Obama. "I sincerely hope that their professional advice and decisions will not be discountes merely because they also worked for the federap government under PresidentGeorge W.
For more information on the Office of see