We released the findings of our Q1 Small Outlook Survey yesterday, and small businesses from around the country said that energy prices and over-regulation are their top concerns.

Here are some of the highlights:

• 78% of small businesses have the perception that the Obama administration isn’t doing enough to address the surge in energy costs, support American jobs or energy production.

• 52% of the businesses we surveyed cited regulatory burdens from the government as the top threat they face in 2012.

• 80% cited taxes, regulation, and legislation coming out of Washington as the biggest roadblocks to increased hiring.

So what do you think? What are your top concerns, as a small business person?

Click here for the full results of the survey.

The EPA issued historic new regulations proposing the first limits of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The new rule likely would make new coal-fired power plants too expensive. This is bad for business and worse for our unemployment situation. Thoughts? Any small businesses out there that depend on affected power plants?

Read more about the rules here: http://www.uschambersmallbusinessnation.com/article/epa-announces-historic-rule-to-limit-climate-pollution-from-new-power-plants

Yesterday, the Senate passed the JOBS Act, a bill aimed at increasing access to capital for startups and small businesses by reducing red tape and eliminating unnecessary regulations. Now, the bill moves back to the House. Hopefully, the House can carry this momentum and pass the bill and send it to President Obama's desk for his signature. Read more about the bill here: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/74363.html.

As a small business person, have you struggled gaining access to capital?

Earlier today, the Senate passed a two-year highway and transit bill. As transportation and infrastructure are the platforms for business, this bill is a good start. Check out this Free Enterprise post to find out more about the bill. How does transportation and infrastructure affect your business?

As seen in a recent Free Enterprise blog post, confidence levels among U.S. small businesses rose in February to the highest level in a year as profits improved.

So, as a small business person, what's your outlook like? Are you feeling more optimistic?

Click here to view the Q4 Small Business Outlook Survey.

As a small business person, you know firsthand the challenges that you are facing. Join the conversation. Are these results consistent with your views on the economy? Are your more or less optimistic than a year ago? If you're not hiring, what's holding you back?

Join the national conversation about small businesses and your outlook for the future. Our country needs to hear from you!

Be sure to follow @uschamberaction for real time updates of tonight's State of the Union Address.  Have thoughts on the speech?  Post them here.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate counterpart, PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) were drafted to stop rogue websites trafficking in pirated goods from selling unsafe and illegal goods to consumers – not to enforce Internet censorship.

We understand the harm of overregulation, but also recognize the necessity of rules when thousands of American jobs are being lost and hundreds of billions in America revenue are jeopardized because of rogue sites.

Do you agree?  Tell us your thoughts.

"Small businesses see Washington as a threat, not just because of the legislative items that have come out of Washington over the last several years, but increasingly also the regulatory threats,” said Chamber of Commerce National Political Director Rob Engstrom, citing the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Labor Relations Board, financial service regulations and “Obamacare.” “The uncertainty that comes from the regulatory arm, it really makes it hard for small business members to plan."

Full Survey Results

The US Chamber of Commerce kicked off its 100th birthday celebration with a speech by the organization's President Tom Donohue on unemployment. 'Our nation's highest priority must be to put Americans back to work. To achieve this goal, our economy has to grow much faster than it is today. Unfortunately, we think the economy will actually slow down in the early months of the year. We expect growth to average about 2.5 percent in the first half and then work its way back to about 3 percent by the end of the year.'

After losing 2.2 million jobs in the economic downturn, the construction industry is projected to add 113,000 this year, more than doubling last year's pace and placing it among the fastest-growing sectors, according to a 2012 job market forecast by Moody's Analytics. Even a moderate rejuvenation of the troubled sector...helps the economy because of its ripple effects across industries such as furniture, steel and concrete."

Dramatic changes are in store for the nation's employers because of some controversial National Labor Relations Board actions. These changes are bound to transform the landscape of union organizing, and will likely alter the face of traditional labor as we now know it. The US Chamber of Commerce and the Coalition for a Democratic Workforce have filed a complaint against the NLRB in federal court, seeking to invalidate the final rule and to enjoin the board from enforcing it. Also, various members of Congress have announced that they will challenge the rule pursuant to the Congressional Review Act, which could stop implementation.

In a brief appearance before reporters, Cordray said he's eager to get to work as director of the new agency created as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street financial reform bill. 'We're gonna begin working to expand our [watchdog] program to non-banks, which is an area we haven't been able to touch up until now,' he said before White House press secretary Jay Carney pulled him away." Politico added, "Besides anger at Obama's power move, Senate Republicans' reactions included attacks on the CFPB's strong-director format, which they think puts too much power in the hands of a single unelected official at the expense of business."

President Obama will recess-appoint his nominees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), bypassing a likely filibuster from Senate Republicans to keep the controversial agency operating in 2012. The president will use recess appointments to install Sharon Block, Richard Griffin and Terence Flynn as NLRB members. Block and Griffin are Democrats, while Flynn is a Republican.

But the move also puts Obama at odds with business, which has clashed repeatedly with the NLRB in recent months. Bruce Josten, the chief lobbyist for the US Chamber of Commerce, denounced the recess appointments as political favoritism and said they will 'further poison the well' at the labor board. The president is wading into uncharted waters with the appointments, made while the Senate is holding pro forma sessions. Dave Hirschmann, a top official with the Chamber, said a court battle over the constitutionality of Obama's action is a near certainty.

Due to new federal air pollution regulations, more than 32 power plants across the country will be forced to close their doors, according to a recent Associated Press survey. Those plants, which are mostly coal-fired, discharge enough electricity to supply more than 22 million households, the survey notes, and their closure will lead to job layoffs, depleted tax revenues, and a considerable hike in electric bills.

Opponents of the regulations have voiced their concerns.

And a US Chamber of Commerce advertisement warned that the regulations 'could threaten America's energy supply.'

Last night, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace sued the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to challenge the NLRB’s new “ambush election rule,” which will make it significantly more difficult for employers, especially small employers, to respond to union campaigns. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is called Chamber of Commerce, et al. v. NLRB.

Republicans think they have a welcome-home present for returning troops: an oil pipeline project capable of producing 20,000 jobs. There's only one problem: President Obama must approve the pipeline, and Republicans claim he's refusing to do so to please 'extreme environmental groups.' That's the pitch being delivered by Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming in the Republicans' weekly radio address. His Senate Republicans did what they could late Friday to force Obama's hand on the Keystone XL pipeline project. They agreed to a tentative deal that would only extend a payroll tax cut and extra unemployment insurance for two months if a decision on the pipeline is made in the same time period. Obama had wanted to wait until 2013. The article republishes Barrasso's statement in which he notes, "Everyone from members of the United States Chamber of Commerce to members of Labor Unions support this project."

Since yesterday's House vote to extend the payroll tax cut beyond the end of the year took place late in the day there was next to no coverage from the networks. However, the vote and the attendant debate over the fate of the omnibus spending package generated a great deal of online and print coverage. Much of the coverage focuses on the debate over the inclusion of a provision requiring the President to make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline project that a drew a White house veto warning.

Check out the latest blog post: http://bit.ly/u4kq2B. It includes an infographic to help make sense of the federal spending process.

The theft of intellectual property is more than theft of property. It's the theft of confidence in US brands.

Rogue websites, which attract 53 billion hits each year (nearly 9 visits for each person on the planet), exist for the purpose of stealing and profiting from American ingenuity, at the expense of the very consumers they seek to hurt. The Senate's Protect IP Act (S. 968), co-sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Ia., seeks to remedy this scourge of the online theft.

The Protect IP Act offers a tool to tackle foreign rogue sites that is both commercially reasonable and effective.

The result is an approach that combats foreign criminals online, helps give consumers a safer Internet experience, and thereby promotes free speech. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote, 'there is no contradiction between intellectual property rights protection and enforcement and ensuring freedom of expression on the Internet.'