President Barack Obama celebrated the first anniversary of the Startup America initiative by sending Congress today a package of legislation aimed at boosting entrepreneurship through tax breaks and new ways to access capital.

Obama also welcomed Small Business Administration chief Karen Mills to her first meeting as an official member of the president’s cabinet.

Some of the legislative proposals are new, while others were part of the president’s jobs plan or other small-business initiatives he’s proposed in the past. Some are pending in Congress. Obama said it’s time to get these proposals enacted all in one package.

“My expectation and hope is that they will get a bill together quickly, that they will pass it and get it on my desk,” he said before today’s meeting. “I will sign it right away.”

Here are the highlights of Obama’s “Startup America Legislative Agenda”:

Small-Business Tax Breaks

• Permanently eliminate capital gains taxes on investments in C corporations with less than $50 million in assets. This break would be exempt from the alternative minimum tax, and investors would have six months to roll over their gains into new investments in small businesses.
• Allow businesses to write off 100 percent of their capital expenditures (e.g. new equipment) this year, extending a bonus depreciation break that had been in effect from September 8, 2010 to January 1, 2012.
• Provide small businesses with a 10 percent income tax credit on new payroll—either new employees or higher wages for existing employees—added in 2012.
• Permanently double the deduction for the expenses of starting a new business from $5,000 to $10,000.

Access to Capital

• Allow businesses to raise up to $1 million a year through crowdfunding—using the Internet to solicit small equity investments from large numbers of people.
• Permit small companies to offer up to $50 million in stock to the public without registering it with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The current limit for such Regulation A offerings is $5 million—too low to be of much use.
• Phase in costly financial statement and audit requirements for small, young companies during their first five years after an initial public offering. This would encourage more companies to go public by reducing the costs that go along with it.
• Expand the Small Business Investment Company program, which provides loans to venture capital firms licensed by the Small Business Administration. These firms use this money, along with capital they raise themselves, to invest in small businesses.

Some of these ideas have broad bipartisan support. In fact, the House passed a crowdfunding bill and the higher limit on Regulation A offerings in November. The Senate hasn’t acted on this legislation, however. The House also passed legislation in December extending the 100 percent expensing concept.

The president’s continued attention to boosting entrepreneurship could prod the Senate to act.

“It is great to see the White House continue to focus on this important issue,” said Senator Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat who chairs the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. “These policy initiatives, many of which I have proposed myself, are a great first step toward our shared goal of passing sweeping legislation to help America’s entrepreneurs succeed.”

“Now is the time for Congress to do its work,” Mills said.