SBA Proposes Plan To Allow Big Business To Keep Small Business Contracts

The SBA is taking public comment, until February 1, on a proposed policy change that will allow some of the biggest companies in America to continue to receive contracts that Congress intended to go to small businesses.

(PRWEB) January 13, 2005 -- The SBA is taking public comment, until February 1, on a proposed policy change that will allow some of the biggest companies in America to continue to receive contracts that Congress intended to go to small businesses. Three different studies in the last 24 months have shown that some of the biggest companies in America like Hewlett Packard, Raytheon and Titan Industries have been allowed to receive billions of dollars in small business contracts. While politicians and small business groups around the country are dismayed over the findings, the SBA has shocked small businesses by putting forth this policy that will allow these large companies to continue to receive those contracts in the future through grandfathering". Lloyd Chapman, President of the American Small Business League, is vehemently opposing the proposed policy change.

This policy comes on the heels of an embarrassing report the SBA Office of Advocacy was forced to release after the American Small Business League filed suit in federal court in San Francisco demanding the release of the report under the Freedom of Information Act. The portion of the report that has been released shows that billions of dollars in small business contracts are going to some of the largest companies in the world. This is the third report in 24 months that has found billions of dollars of blatant abuse in Federal small business contracting programs. The SBA has consistently tried to explain the dramatic abuses as miscoding and computer glitches." Chapman responded, Under the SBAs watch, the small business community has lost billions of dollars in small business contracts to large businesses. The SBAs excuses of miscoding and computer glitches are absurd and just not believable. Why hasnt the SBA taken any definitive action to stop this abuse by large businesses?" The SBA has refused to release the most damaging portions of the report that show blatant fraud.

Chapman has vowed to continue his legal battle against the SBA until the original draft is released to the public. The portion of the report that we forced the SBA to release clearly shows some staggering abuses in federal small business contracting programs. The SBA is directly responsible for this level of abuse. Their new proposal that will allow these large companies to continue to receive small business contracts is a good example of whom the SBA really works for. Our goal is to rally small businesses around the country to defeat this plan and see that in the future small business contracts go to legitimate small businesses and not to Fortune 1000 companies and international conglomerates." The American Small Business League (ASBL) is mounting a national campaign asking small businesses to go to the website and support their position opposing the SBAs plan.

Earlier this year, the Center for Public Integrity released a study that found that the Defense Department alone had awarded $47 billion in small business contracts to some of the nations largest suppliers. In the recently released report by the SBA, Buhrman, a Dutch conglomerate, received over $98 million in small business contracts along with dozens of other big companies.

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For further information, contact:

Lloyd Chapman, 707-789-9575