Small business owners breathe sigh of relief as Obama taps SBA leader

It had been nearly a year since the White House started searching for a new leader for the Small Business Administration, and more than four months since the former top executive gave up the wait and departed, leaving the agency in the hands of a more-than-capable but not-quite-official interim leader.

During that time, the complex health care law rolled out, hundreds of new federal regulations were proposed and implemented, and at one point, the federal government actually ground to a complete halt. Meanwhile, lawmakers started mulling whether the government even needed a stand-alone small-business department.