SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Nov. 28, 2005 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Small Business League filed suit in Federal court last week against the Small Business Administration. The suit was filed under the Freedom of Information Act after the SBA refused to release documents detailing hundreds of contracting protests filed against large firms falsely claiming to be small businesses. ASBL attorneys have struggled to obtain the documents over a period of eighteen months.

Several government investigations and private studies have found that billions in Federal small business contracts actually wound up in the hands of corporate giants. In a recent report to Congress the SBA Office of Inspector General stated, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal government today is that large businesses are receiving small business procurement awards and agencies are receiving credit for these awards."

Earlier this year the ASBL won a similar case against the SBA when Federal Judge Susan Ilston ordered the SBA to produce the original draft of a report acknowledging that over two billion dollars in small business contracts had actually gone to some of the largest corporations in the U.S. and Europe.

"I don't think there is any question that the SBA is trying to withhold information that will show they have known about widespread fraud and blatant abuses in Federal small business contracting programs for several years. Thousands of small businesses have needlessly suffered, some have even been forced to close, because of these staggering abuses," stated Lloyd Chapman, President of the ASBL. "It's time for the Attorney General to stop helping the SBA withhold information on contracting abuse and begin investigating which Federal officials have been involved in allowing Federal small business contracts to be awarded illegally to large corporations."

Under federal law, falsely claiming to be a small business in order to receive a Federal small business contract is a felony with a penalty of up to ten years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

About the ASBL
The American Small Business League was formed to promote and advocate policies that provide the greatest opportunity for small businesses - the 98% of U.S. companies with less than 100 employees. The ASBL is founded on the principle that small businesses, the backbone of a vital American economy, should receive the fair treatment promised by the Small Business Act of 1951. Representing small businesses in all fields and industries throughout the United States, the ASBL monitors existing policies and proposed policy changes by the Small Business Administration and other federal agencies that affect its members.

For more information contact:
Lloyd Chapman
lchapman@asbl.com
1-707-789-9575

PETALUMA, Calif., Nov. 17, 2005 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2006 budget number for the Small Business Administration has been set at $456.5 million, down $123 million from 2005 and nearly 60% from 2001. The original budget proposal was $593 million, but the Bush Administration submitted an amended number to reflect further cuts. The SBA budget has made its rounds through the approval process of the House and Senate and is on its way to Bush for final approval.

As a result of previous budget cuts, personnel at the SBA who handle size protests, minority and disadvantaged business, and government contracts have been laid off or forced into early retirement. Undisclosed sources at the SBA have acknowledged that the Bush Administration is, in effect, trying to "starve the SBA to death."

John Kerry, ranking Democrat on the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship had this to say about the new budget number, "The favorite target for President Bush's budget axe is small business. Since taking office, he's tried to cut the SBA's funding in half. The result is that over the last five years, the SBA has been cut more than any other agency."

"We're extremely disappointed that President Bush has slashed the SBA budget to this extreme," stated Lloyd Chapman, President of the American Small Business League. "This will undoubtedly have adverse effects on small and minority-owned businesses all over the country. I guess 'compassionate conservatism' does not apply to the 98% of companies in the United States that have less than 100 employees."

About the ASBL
The American Small Business League was formed to promote and advocate policies that provide the greatest opportunity for small businesses - the 98% of U.S. companies with less than 100 employees. The ASBL is founded on the principle that small businesses, the backbone of a vital American economy, should receive the fair treatment promised by the Small Business Act of 1951. Representing small businesses in all fields and industries throughout the United States, the ASBL monitors existing policies and proposed policy changes by the Small Business Administration and other federal agencies that affect its members.

To: National and Business desks

Contact: Catherine Scott of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, 202-224-8496

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Senate today voted to support Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, in his effort to boost the Small Business Administration's (SBA) budget above President Bush's request for FY 2006.

Included in the appropriations conference report that passed the Senate today by a vote of 94-5 were several provisions requested by Kerry and Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), chair of the Committee, to increase the SBA's budget beyond Bush's recommendation of $453 million.

"The favorite target for President Bush's budget axe is small business. Since taking office, he's tried to cut the SBA's funding in half. The result is that over the last five years, the SBA has been cut more than any other agency. The President does not understand the importance of small business to our economy, but small businesses that will boost job growth and expand our economy," Kerry said.

Kerry and Snowe fought for months to increase the SBA's budget. In March, the Senate passed their bipartisan amendment to restore funding for critical programs that Bush had proposed drastically cutting or eliminating all together. The conference report included their request for:

-- $12 million to Microloan Technical Assistance (terminated by President Bush's budget);

-- $1.3 million to the Microloan Program for $12.7 million in loans (terminated by Bush), which allows entrepreneurs -- especially women, minorities, and rural-based -- to obtain very small loans;

-- $2 million to the Program for Investment in Micro- entrepreneurs (PRIME) (terminated by Bush), which provides in- depth business counseling to low-income entrepreneurs;

-- $1 million to the Small Business Development Centers (increases funding to $89 million), which offer management assistance and training to entrepreneurs;

-- $2 million line-item for the HUBZone program (Bush eliminated the line-item), which gives federal contracting preferences for businesses within the designated areas;

-- $500,000 to the Women's Business Centers Program (increases funding to $12.5 million), which helped 106,000 business owners last year;

-- $1.5 million line-item for the Export Assistance Centers (Bush eliminated the line-item), which assist businesses interested in selling their products in other countries;

-- $1.5 million line-item for the 7(j) contracting assistance program (Bush eliminated the line-item), which helps to train small disadvantaged businesses; and

-- $1.2 million for Native American outreach (increases funding to $2 million).

http://www.usnewswire.com/

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PETALUMA, Calif., Nov. 16, 2005/PRNewswire/ -- John Kerry sent a letter to a top federal procurement official this week to determine what is being done about the inaccurate small business contracting data in the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG). The letter was in response to a report by the Government Accountability Office that raised concerns that data in this system, which tracks all federal government contracting, is "inaccurate and incomplete."

According to the Bush Administration and the SBA, U.S. small businesses garnered a record $69.23 billion in Federal prime contracts in 2004. But this information is based on the data contained in the FPDS-NG.

"The real question is, 'why does the Administration continue to brag about these numbers that we know are not correct?'" Kerry wrote in his letter. "Given that the FPDS is the only tool utilized by the Federal government to document agency contracting, the accuracy of this data is essential for proper oversight of the use of Federal taxpayer dollars."

Efforts by the American Small Business League to obtain the names of firms garnering small business contracts have met with stiff resistance. "We've been trying unsuccessfully to get an accurate list of small business contract awards for the past several months." stated Lloyd Chapman, President of the American Small Business League. "We applaud Senator Kerry for calling attention to a faulty system that hides the fact that billions of dollars in Federal small business contracts are being awarded to Fortune 1000 corporations. The GAO report should sound the alarm that the government does not want the public to have access to this information."

About the ASBL
The American Small Business League was formed to promote and advocate policies that provide the greatest opportunity for small businesses - the 98% of U.S. companies with less than 100 employees. The ASBL is founded on the principle that small businesses, the backbone of a vital American economy, should receive the fair treatment promised by the Small Business Act of 1951. Representing small businesses in all fields and industries throughout the United States, the ASBL monitors existing policies and proposed policy changes by the Small Business Administration and other federal agencies that affect its members.

WASHINGTON -- Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) today sent a letter to the top federal contracting official asking what steps are being taken to monitor the collection of small-business contracting data in light of reports that the data is not accurate.

Kerry asked the Associate Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) to report back to the Committee with information on how the Administration is addressing concerns raised by the Government Accountability Office in letters and most recently in a hearing held in the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship last week that data from the system tracking all federal government contracting, the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG), is "inaccurate and incomplete."

"The real question is, 'why does the Administration continue to brag about these numbers that we know are not correct?'" said Kerry, top Democrat on the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. "If the Administration would spend the same amount of time working to fix this system as it spends bragging about the inaccurate results, then maybe Congress would trust the numbers they're giving us."

Kerry pointed out three main obstacles that prevent FPDS-NG from reporting correct data: incomplete listings that do not include the dollar value of the contract awards, incomplete information on the company that receives the contracts, and the use of temporary rather than permanent identification codes for specific companies, preventing the long-term tracking of contracts.