That’s a headline that is designed to make a lot of small business owners and their advocates very happy.

House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) noted in his weekly Straight Talk newsletter that “the Senate successfully approved an amendment that would repeal the 1099 reporting mandate, illustrating that there is bipartisan and bicameral support for a repeal of the mandate.”

As to that, we shall see.

The operative phrase in that headline is “on its way”. It ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings and she hasn’t even started warming up yet.

I know that not many microbusiness owners are thrilled by the politics — they are even less thrilled with that than they are with the policy — but this repeal effort is going to provide us all with an excellent opportunity to see how the dynamic between the Democratic leadership in the Senate and the Republican leadership in the House will shape itself during the 112th Congress.

You may think that isn’t interesting at all but that dynamic will dictate what sorts of things can be accomplished by either chamber of Congress and/or by President Obama himself.

Pass the popcorn.

Also this week, we have a pair of stories about how small businesses and microbusinesses are doing (more or less) right now in an economy that is taking a very long time to recover.

The employment picture looks different from different statistical perspectives. And small businesses look different when you listen to other people talking about them than they do when they talk about themselves.

Funny how that works, huh?

For more information:

• Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act of 2011 (THOMAS)
• NSBA 2010 Year-End Economic Report (PDF)
• Quarterly Data on Business Employment Dynamics release (PDF)
• Innovation | The White House