Oversight hearings, which fell out of fashion during most of the Bush Administration, came roaring back when Democrats took over Congress in 2006. In fact, there were those who thought said Democrats would use said oversight hearings to exact their revenge against Republicans for nameless partisan crimes and misdemeanors. That didn’t happen, of course. Mr. Bush didn’t get impeached and even now that he is out of office, his successor has been notably unenthusiastic about instigating witch-hunts for last year’s witches. Besides, why look for last year’s witches when this year’s models are so readily available? So, last week, the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship held another oversight hearing on implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) specifically as it has or has not impacted the nation’s small businesses.

As it happens, the Defense Department earned kudos for being small firm friendly, while Energy and the NIH were questioned closely for their less stellar records. There was little micro-specific discussion during the hearing, except a question about increasing the Microloan lending cap of $35,000 — which was not recommended. Besides that, there was a bit of vague language from a representative of the SBA’s Federal Contracting Business Development Office about improving the contracting process for small firms. In the end, Landrieu noted that she plans to pursue vigorous oversight to ensure that small firms have the tools to lead the nation out of recession. From what occurred at this hearing, however, there is no one asking specific questions about whether microbusinesses have access to those tools or are even expected to participate in the economic rescue.