The president elevates SBA Administrator Karen Mills to a Cabinet-level position.

A new plan from President Obama aims to offer “one-stop shopping” for small business owners seeking help from the federal government.

The president has announced plans to merge the Small Business Administration with five other agencies into one body that would promote U.S. business and exports. He also promoted the head of the SBA, Karen Mills, to a Cabinet-level position, though the SBA chief would lose that spot if the consolidation is completed.

In the coming weeks, the government also will launch a new website, BusinessUSA, to serve as a central location for federal resources available to companies and entrepreneurs.

“We’d have one department where entrepreneurs can go from the day they come up with an idea and need a patent,” the president said, “to the day they start building a product and need financing for a warehouse, to the day they’re ready to export and need help breaking into new markets overseas.”

The move could save taxpayers $3 billion over the span of 10 years. About 1,000 to 2,000 jobs would be cut, mostly through attrition.

Rep. Sam Graves, who leads the House Small Business Committee, said he wants more information about the proposal. He praised the SBA chief’s move into the Cabinet.

“I hope that by elevating the SBA administrator to a cabinet-level official, the president becomes more sensitive to the needs of small businesses, including their need for more certainty from Washington,” Graves said. “This platform could provide an opportunity to advocate for small businesses in an environment where important decisions are made.”

The National Federation of Independent Business doubted the consolidation would do much for small businesses.

“Despite the president’s lip service to small businesses in announcing his plan, it is unlikely to help job creators in any meaningful way,” said Susan Eckerly, NFIB’s senior vice president of federal public policy. “If the president really wants to help small businesses succeed, he can start by shrinking the agencies most responsible for standing in the way of their growth, such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Labor.”

The Small Business Majority expressed concern that a merger could hurt the SBA.

“Right now, small business has an independent agency that reflects its needs,” chief executive John Arensmeyer told The New York Times. “The obvious concern is that by bringing this into larger agency there’s a risk that some of that voice gets lost. We know that government is held in very low esteem by small business, but the SBA is an exception to that right now.”

Any consolidation would require approval from Congress. In his remarks at the White House, Obama also urged Congress to restore the presidential ability to quickly restructure the federal government, an authority that was cut back during the Reagan administration.

Under the president’s new proposal, the president would be able to restructure the federal government only if the number of agencies was reduced or the moves saved money.

The idea of a merger came after complaints from business owners who called the federal system “too much of a maze.”

“It’s a mess,” Obama said. “This should be easy for small business owners.  They want to concentrate on making products, creating services, selling to customers. We’re supposed to make it easier for them.  And we can.”

Besides the SBA, the proposed merger would include the U.S. Department of Commerce’s core business and trade functions, the Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.