Legislative Update
Legislative Updates
In this column, Deb Smarth writes about Federal and NJ legislation that could affect your NJ business. The NJSBDC is pleased to present this information for educational purposes of our clients.
- August 2007 column. State support and Federal SBA allocation. Letter of support from NJ Congressional delegation.
- March 2007 column. State and Federal budget updates.
- July 2006 column. Budget recap and highlights.
- April 2006 column. Review of current small business legislation currently under consideration, State invests $100,000 more in small business services, SBDC national budget.
Archive of previous Legislative Update columns.
Deb Smarth, Curriculum Vitae
Deborah K. Smarth is the Associate State Director of the NJSBDC network. She has worked in the area of public and legislative affairs since receiving her graduate degree. She holds an M.A. in national politics and policy from Columbia University and a B.A. degree in Political Science from St. Peter’s College.
Before joining NJSBDC, Ms. Smarth was the Director of Corporate Affairs at WorldWater Corporation, a small solar engineering and water management company which manufactures powerful solar irrigation pumps for both agricultural and drinking water purposes in developing countries and most recently in the domestic market. In this capacity, she assisted the Chairman and CEO on day-to-day corporate operations and specializes in monitoring and researching governmental programs and legislation that impacts on the firms’ interests.
Prior to joining the firm of WorldWater Corporation, Ms. Smarth was Director of Policy and Planning for the New Jersey General Assembly for more than a dozen years where she focused her efforts on commerce and economic development issues as well as directing special policy study groups and task forces composed of private and public sector members. In that capacity, she conceived and drafted many innovative policy initiatives and legislation and authored many reports which covered such issues as school regionalization, domestic violence, adolescent violence, new approaches in economic development, etc. She received the Legislative Award of Recognition from the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners (April 2000) for her leadership and efforts concerning home business legislation and was interviewd on a Monmouth County cable television show “Reuniting Work with Home”(1999). She was also interviewed by Business News New Jersey (1995) and State Legislatures magazine (1996) for her work on a Task Force Report entitled “A Blueprint for Change” and the subsequent introduction and enactment of task force business legislation which changed the structure and process of the former State Department of Commerce. She also published an article in Commerce Magazine entitled “Re-engineering the Role of State Government and Enhancing New Jersey’s Retention, Expansion and Export Strategies (Jan. 1995).
Before working at the New Jersey Legislature, Ms. Smarth served as: Deputy National Field Director for a non-profit, educational think tank foundation in Washington, D.C. where she wrote policy reports and coordinated grassroots legislative lobbying activity; Special Assistant to the Undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Education where she focused on adult illiteracy and other education policy issues; Legislative Assistant for the Motion Picture Association of America where she monitored legislation in the fifty states that impacted on the film industry; and researcher for a special municipal services study at Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
