For companies with fewer than 100 employees, the chance to do business with the federal government offers the promise of growth and prosperity.

Which is why, when the U.S. Small Business Administration came to Seattle last week to hold hearings, small business owners were hoping to hear how they could win government contracts. They wanted their shot at doing business with Uncle Sam. And they wanted to make sure SBA policies helped them do that.

Instead of hearing from government officials committed to helping small businesses grow, they were forced to listen to federal bureaucrats drone on about why public policy should change to let big businesses compete with small businesses.

Small businesses are losing small business set-aside contracts to large corporations every day. Companies such as Raytheon, Verizon, AT&T and Hewlett-Packard have been awarded billions of dollars in small business contracts by federal agencies in the past three years.

The SBA has lost touch with small-business owners and is promoting flawed policies that help large businesses win government contracts intended for small businesses. One proposed measure would allow large corporations that are currently in violation of size regulations to hold onto their contracts for up to five more years. These policies are in direct contravention of the SBA's mission, and of federal contracting laws to protect small businesses and ensure a healthy economy.

The Small Business Act of 1953 directs that at least 23 percent of federal government procurement contracts go to small business. But in December 2004, the SBA Office of Advocacy reported that more than $2 billion in small-business contracts had been awarded to 44 companies found to be "other than small." A series of reports by the investigator general this year showed that not only are large businesses being awarded small-business contracts, but the agencies awarding the contracts are receiving credit toward meeting their small business goals.

A September 2004 report from the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity found that 30 percent of all defense-contract money reported as going to small businesses and special minority-owned businesses ended up in the hands of the top defense companies from 1998 to 2003. The loss to American small businesses? A staggering $47 billion.

Politicians use the 23 percent of government contracts that allegedly go to small business to wrap the flag around themselves. In March 2004, SBA Administrator Hector V. Barreto proclaimed that the government had exceeded the 23 percent goal, stating, "This is a tremendous victory for America's small-business owners and for our economy. ... President Bush and the SBA have worked hard to help small entrepreneurs do business with the federal government."

But the SBA's own inspector general has declared, "These numbers are questionable." In February, the inspector general said, "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."

As the federal agency charged with fighting for small-business issues, the SBA has failed. SBA officials need to clean up their act. With 98 percent of businesses nationwide employing fewer than 100 people, this is an issue that cannot be ignored. The next time SBA officials come to town, tell them to stop giving government contracts intended for small companies to big businesses.

Small businesses unhappy with the Small Business Administration's current definition of the word "small" are having their say this month as the government agency holds a series of 11 hearings around the country.

The hearings were called after complaints by small business owners and members of Congress that some government contracts were being unfairly distributed to large companies who used the SBA's definition of "small business" to land contracts for their smaller operating units.

Currently under debate is a series of restructuring proposals the SBA is considering, including a "grandfathering" proposal that would allow corporate giants to keep their existing small-business contracts up to five more years, even if size standards were reduced in the future.

Small business owners and advocates have met these proposals with apprehension, flooding the SBA with over 6,000 comments-the most the SBA has ever received in response to any proposal. The owners contend that the SBA has failed to represent the interests of small businesses in favor of larger companies' own.

Concerns over the uneven competition between small businesses and larger ones first came to light when a report found that the government was not fulfilling its promise to reserve 23% of its contracts for small businesses.

Recent news stories have suggested that the U.S. Small Business Administration is shortchanging Maine by allowing big companies to get contracts that are meant to help small ones. SBA officials will likely hear such complaints when they come to Maine next week as part of a national series of public hearings on its size standards.

The complaints, however, may not be accurate. Maine has done quite well securing business capital, according to former and current development officials. Overall, however, more funding, from government and private sources, is needed.

How businesses are classified as small is currently under routine review by the SBA. Depending on the industry, businesses are qualified as small based on their number of employees or their annual revenue. For many businesses, the threshold is 500 employees. This sounds large by Maine standards. But, when it comes to business size, small is a matter of perspective. Small businesses in Maine would likely be tiny by national standards and our big businesses would be considered small.

Lincoln Paper and Tissue, for example, funded the restarting of its mill, in part, with SBA funding. The company employs 350 people. Creative Apparel, which employs about 350 people making military clothing in five Maine locations, has also benefited from small business set asides.

If the small business size standard is dropped significantly, these businesses could lose SBA funding. That would harm them and the many smaller Maine companies they contract with. Mainers can weigh in on the size standards at a public hearing beginning at 9 a.m. June 7 at Portland City Hall.

There are problems, however, with the policing of small business set asides, the government practice of dedicating a portion - 23 percent of its contracts to small companies.

A recent SBA office of advocacy report found that some large companies got contracts meant for small businesses. The SBA allows companies to self-certify that they are small. There are penalties, both civil and criminal, for falsely presenting a large business as a small one. However, the agency does not aggressively pursue companies that file false information.

Like other agencies, the SBA has limited resources and personnel, few of which are devoted to routing out fraud. Sen. Olympia Snowe, chair of the Senate's Committee on Small Business, and her committee colleagues have proposed increasing the agency's funding, an unlikely possibility given the president's mandate to cut government costs. She has also proposed increasing the penalties for businesses that say they are small when they are not.

Sen. Snowe and other members of Maine's congressional delegation have also succeeded in getting disadvantaged areas, such as Aroostook County, designated as special zones, entitling them to easier access to federal funding and government contracts.