Last week 25 eBay Sellers from 22 states visited Washington DC’s Capitol Hill for eBay’s 11th annual U.S. of eBay Advocacy Day event. Hosted by the eBay Government Relations team, this event brings together eBay sellers to meet with Federal officials and advocate for sound ecommerce public policy. This year participants held more than 65 meetings with U.S. Senators, Representatives and members of their staff to discuss important issues that affect small and medium sized businesses, like Internet sales tax and cross border trade.

This post originally appeared on the eBay Inc. blog. Written by Hal Lawton.

The secret of every successful business -- big or small, global or local -- boils down to the same two things. A great idea, and someone who refuses to let it go.

At eBay, we see those big ideas -- and that dogged determination to bring them to life – transformed into thriving small businesses every day.  

On Friday, Senator Kelly Ayotte wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, requesting that he allow the Senate Finance Committee to consider and amend the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA) before it is brought to the floor for a vote. In February, proponents of MFA successfully convinced Leader McConnell to allow a Senate vote on the measure “sometime this year”.

On Thursday evening, eBay Chief Executive Devin Wenig discussed issues that will define the future of a technology-enabled economy, policies that will impact innovation, and the relationship between the tech sector and government.

On April 27^th, the eBay Public Policy Lab released the United States Small Online Business Growth Report as part of their ongoing research examining the trade patterns and growth of enterprises using the eBay Marketplace. This report provides an in-depth look at trade and growth figures for eBay-enabled small businesses and entrepreneurs (Commercial Sellers with annual sales of $10K or more) in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia.