WASHINGTON D.C. – All Americans enjoy the right to free speech, a speedy trial, and firearms. But another group of Americans – the nation’s 5 million small business owners – may get a second Bill of Rights.

Introduced by Congressmen Ric Keller (R-FL) and Bud Cramer (D-AL) in January and approved in the House on Wednesday, the Small Business Bill of Rights calls for small businesses to have the right to band together when buying health insurance, a simpler tax code and equal access to capital.

In 2004, employer-sponsored health plans rose 11.2 percent, marking the fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. As a result of higher costs, fewer businesses are offering their employees plans; in 2004, 61 percent of companies offered insurance plans, compared to 65 percent three years earlier.

The smaller the firm, in terms of employees, the less likely health plans are offered. Only 52 percent of firms with fewer than ten employees offered health plans in 2004, found the Kaiser report. But 87 percent and 99 percent of firms with 50 employees and 200 employees, respectively, offered their employees plans.

The legislation states that America?s small employers should have:

The right to join together to purchase affordable health insurance for small business employees, who make up a large portion of the millions of Americans without health care coverage.

The right to simplified tax laws that allow family-owned small businesses to survive over several generations and offer them incentives to grow.

The right to be free from frivolous lawsuits that harm law-abiding small businesses and prevent them from creating new jobs.

The right to be free of unnecessary, restrictive regulations and paperwork that waste the time and energy of small businesses while hurting production and preventing job creation.

The right to relief from high energy costs by reducing our nation?s reliance on imported sources of energy and encouraging environmentally sound domestic production and conservation of energy.

The right to equal treatment with large businesses when seeking access to start-up and expansion capital and credit.

The right to open access to government procurement through the breaking up of bundled contracts to give small businesses the ability to compete for federal government business.

Source: National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship