As our economy struggles to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression small businesses are bearing the brunt of the pain.

The problem is worse today than ever before. The cost of premiums for family policies have gone up by an average of 9 percent in the past year.

Much of the President's new health care law will be administered by the IRS, and this is the first credit provision to come into effect.

They account for more than half of America's private gross domestic product.

As a former small business owner running a small medical practice in Louisiana, I certainly know the challenges facing small businesses across this country.

Two years later, we see that the results do not match up to the promises.

Thank you, Mr. George.

And we have better proposals going down the line.

Well, the IRS has mentioned their outreach efforts. And Inspector General George gave them a B on it, not a bad mark.

Before I turn to the Ranking Member, Ms. Ingram, do you want to respond to that?

this tax credit was proposed as a means of helping to mitigate the high cost and rising cost of health insurance premiums for small businesses

We're talking about a relatively new tax credit that appears to be somewhat complex for the small business owner trying to navigate through it.

If you could provide that to the Committee.

Although the credit does not appear to be providing meaningful assistance to small business owners, it is still the IRS's job to implement it.

So, are you confident that that can be fixed?

I appreciate your testimony.

Do you see the possibility of the city of Detroit being a site for testing and evaluating homeland security technology?

Our region has the best potential, though, for job growth, just because of the capacity that we have in manufacturing.