Washington, D.C. – Senate Small Business Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch today presided over the Hearing on the Implementation of the Affordable Care Act: Understanding Small Business Concerns. At the invitation of Risch, Kevin Settles, CEO of Bardenay Restaurants in Boise, Eagle and Coeur d’Alene, testified on the second panel of this hearing. This panel was made up of small business owners from across the country. The first panel was made up of officials from the administration.

“Mr. Settles is angry,” said Risch, when introducing Mr. Settles. “I’m just really disappointed that the representatives of the Treasury Department, Health and Human Services and the Small Business Administration, who just gave us all these glowing stories about how wonderful Obamacare is, couldn’t stick around for just a few minutes to hear that it is all bologna and how this is actually working on the ground.”

“After more than three years, there is still a tremendous amount of uncertainty surrounding the [healthcare] laws. This uncertainty has been a key factor in extending the longest time period without expansion in all my years as an independent businessman,” said Settles. “More than three years after the law’s enactment we still do not know if it will make it easier for employers like me to cover more employees or not and for those of us with the goal of growing a business, this whole thing has just gotten much more complex.”

Mr. Settles full testimony can be found on YouTube.

Senator Risch is the highest ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. The committee oversees proposed legislation on matters relating to entrepreneurship and provides oversight of the Small Business Administration. They also research, investigate and report all problems relating to American’s small businesses to the full Senate.

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