A bigger Voice for Small Business

New Hampshire Small Businesses Could Lose Millions with New SBA Policy

by | May 30, 2007 | Press Release

Press Release

New Hampshire Small Businesses Could Lose Millions with New SBA Policy

May 30, 2007

Petaluma, Calif.- A Small Business Administration Policy proposed by Administrator Steven Preston is set to go into effect June 30th and could cost New Hampshire’s 31,593 businesses with less than 500 employees, millions of dollars over the next five years. 
 
The proposed policy would call for the five-year re-certification of small business status for all firms who have been awarded a federal small business contract based on that standard.   The policy will allow Fortune 1000 corporations and their subsidiaries to continue to collect on existing federal small business contracts through the year 2012.
 
“Five-year re-certification will cost New Hampshire small businesses millions,” American Small Business League President Lloyd Chapman said. “Annual re-certification is the best, most reasonable and prudent method of removing Fortune 1000 corporations and their subsidiaries from America’s federal small business contracting program.”
 
Without annual re-certification, U.S. firms will loose more than $60 billion a year, or more than $300 billion over the next five-years. This could translate to huge losses for New Hampshire small businesses through 2012, Chapman emphasized.
 
In recent years, the SBA, the SBA Office Inspector General, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, the Office of Management and Budget and the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship have all endorsed an annual re-certification.
 
The Preston policy could force legitimate small businesses in New Hampshire to compete with some of the largest businesses in the country for even the smallest federal contracts. Groups like the American Small Business League are pledging to rally the support of small businesses around the country and even take legal action if necessary to stop the policy from going into effect.
   
“The proposed SBA policy is bad for small business and it is bad for New Hampshire,” Chapman said. “New Hampshire’s small business supply more than 305,000 jobs in the state; annual re-certification for all firms with existing federal small business contracts will only protect those employers and their employees.”
 
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2008 Presidential Candidates Ignore Backbone of U.S. Economy According to a Study By My Success Gateway LLC

by | May 29, 2007 | Press Release

Press Release

2008 Presidential Candidates Ignore Backbone of U.S. Economy According to a Study By My Success Gateway LLC

May 29, 2007

Petaluma, Calif.- A recent study by My Success Gateway, LLC (www.mysuccessgatway.com/candidate.php) has found that the websites of the 2008 Presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani lack a concentration on solutions for small businesses, seniors and veterans. This is an interesting fact considering that more than 75 million votes are collectively shared between the 25 million small businesses, the 38 million members of the American Association for Retired Persons and the more than 25 million veterans in the United States, says the American Small Business League. 
 
On August 15, 2001, President George W. Bush addressed the Hispano Chamber of Commerce in Albuquerque, New Mexico and in regards to the economic impact of small businesses in America stated, "Most of the new employment in America comes from small-business owners. Small business is the backbone-is the backbone of our economic system."
 
Contradictory to this statement the Bush Administration has taken action to cut the Small Business Administration's budget significantly during the course of their term. In 2001, the last year in the Clinton Administration, the SBA's budget was $1.1 billion. However, at the inception of the Bush Administration the SBA budget proceeded to drop to $579.5 million in 2005 and $456.5 million in 2006, according to a November 21, 2005 article in Inc Magazine. 
 
"It is amazing that this field of candidates are absent of any solutions to strengthen small businesses, the backbone of the U.S. Economy," said Jim Peake of My Success Gateway LLC, a resource for entrepreneurs and small businesses. "Looking at the numbers the current administration has eroded the backbone and America is asleep at the wheel, probably paying more attention to the personal business of Paris Hilton than to the small business backbone of America."
 
It is concerning that candidates expressed more interest on the war in Iraq, Immigration and wedge issues than the small businesses that make up the backbone of the U.S. economy. "What the candidates fail to realize is that small businesses are funding a significant portion of the war in Iraq, and carrying a heavy burden in repaying the national debt," expressed Peake.
 
For Instance, in the State of New Hampshire there are 31,593 employer firms with fewer than 500 employees and those firms provide 305,000 jobs in the state. During the 2004 presidential race, George W. Bush received 331,237 popular votes and lost the state to Senator John Kerry who obtained 340,511 popular votes. Thus, by ignoring small business interests the presidential candidates are ignoring a large portion of American voters. "If any one candidate were to focus on small business in New Hampshire they could potentially wrap up the majority of the popular vote for that state," Peake said.
 
"The fact that the presidential candidates are virtually ignoring small business interests, is an indication that the candidates do not take small businesses seriously," American Small Business League President, Lloyd Chapman said. "Small businesses need to take a look at this situation and realize that it is time to get organized, create a movement for change, and ask these candidates about how are they going to support small businesses in their presidency." 
 
Visit the 2008 presidential candidate web-site review at (www.mysuccessgateway.com/candidate.php) for more information and sign up here (www.asbl.com/join.php) for more breaking information.
 
 
 
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California Small Businesses Plead with Senators Boxer and Feinstein to End Fraud and Abuse in Federal Small Business Contracting

by | May 23, 2007 | Press Release

Press Release

California Small Businesses Plead with Senators Boxer and Feinstein to End Fraud and Abuse in Federal Small Business Contracting

California Small Businesses want Fortune 1000 corporations out of federal small business contracting.

May 23, 2007

Petaluma, Calif.- Small business owners across the State of California are contacting United States Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and asking for their help to halt the flow of government small business contracts to Fortune 1000 corporations.  
 
To date, fourteen different federal investigations have all found that billions of dollars in contracts earmarked for legitimate small businesses have instead found their way into the hands of some of the largest companies in the United States and Europe. 
 
The bill, H.R. 1873 the “Small Business Fairness in Contracting Act,” passed through the House of Representatives last week and will allow large companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Halliburton, Rolls-Royce and L3 Communications to keep their existing federal small business contracts for up to five more years.
 
Small business owners are asking Senators Boxer and Feinstein to amend the bill and push for the immediate removal of all Fortune 1000 corporations and other large companies from federal small business contracting programs and to force all firms with existing federal small business contracts to re-certify on an annual basis.
 
The campaign to garner the support of Senators Boxer and Feinstein has been organized by the Petaluma, California based American Small Business League. If Senators Boxer and Feinstein can convince the Senate to add a provision in the new legislation to close the loophole that allows Fortune 1000 corporations to obtain small business contracts, the ASBL predicts that up to $60 billion a year in federal small business contracts would be re-directed to legitimate small businesses in California as well as every other state in the country.
 
Federal procurement for small businesses is centralized within 50 miles of Washington D.C. and an annual re-certification provision would de-centralize that procurement and spread those purchases and contract dollars more equitably around the nation.
 
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SBA Urged to Release Latest Small Business Contracting Numbers, Says American Small Business League

by | May 22, 2007 | Press Release

Press Release

SBA Urged to Release Latest Small Business Contracting Numbers, Says American Small Business League

Small business contracting data overdue at SBA.

May 22, 2007

Petaluma, Calif.- The following is a statement by the American Small Business League:

Nearly a month after the American Small Business League accused the Small Business Administration of stalling the release of FY 2006 small business contracting statistics, the SBA has yet to release the data.

"On March 11th the SBA issued a press release claiming that it is a myth that the SBA is reporting awards to corporate giants as small business awards.  However, I think that they are refusing to release the information because it will show, as it has for every year since President Bush was elected, that most of the money goes to some of the biggest companies in the world," President of the American Small Business League, Lloyd Chapman said.  "One way for them to end this controversy is to release the names of the firms."

The SBA release in question titled, "Myth VS Fact: SBA and Government Contracting," claims that federal small business contracting award data is available online through the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation.  However, small business advocates like the ASBL contend that the information is next to impossible to obtain.

"Try and find them," Chapman said in reference to the names of contract award recipients in FPDS-NG.

SBA critics believe the SBA is stalling the release of the current statistics until the dust settles from a series of investigative stories by ABC, CBS and CNN on the actual recipients of federal small business contracts. All three investigations found the SBA had significantly inflated the statistics by including billions of dollars in contracts to corporate giants like Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop-Grumman, Rolls Royce, Wal-Mart and L3 Communications.

In March, Eagle Eye Publishers, a Virginia firm that analyzes federal contracting data, released its latest report on 2006 federal contracting data. They found the federal government had missed the congressionally mandated 23 percent small business goal for the seventh consecutive year.  Additionally, a 2005 report by Eagle Eye Publishers, found the top recipient of federal small business contracts for that year was L3 Communications, a Fortune 500 defense contractor that received over $650,000 million in federal small business contracts.

Last year, SBA Administrator Steven Preston refused requests from the ASBL as well as several media outlets to release the specific names of firms the SBA had included in their 2005 small business contracting statistics.

Small business supporters like Chapman, predict that when the SBA finally releases the latest federal small business contracting statistics it will again be dramatically inflated by including billions of dollars to Fortune 500 firms and their subsidiaries.

"If it is a myth that the SBA won't release the recent contracting statistics, why don't they prove it and release the names of the companies?" Chapman said. "I challenge SBA administrator Steven Preston to release the names. Prove me wrong."


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Five Questions for Lloyd Chapman, President of the American Small Business League

by | May 21, 2007 | ASBL News

News

Five Questions for Lloyd Chapman, President of the American Small Business League

By Shawn Zeller
CQ Weekly
May 21, 2007

A former computer company executive, Chapman, 57, founded the league in 2002 after discovering that government contracts purportedly set aside for small businesses had been granted to large corporations. He’s made a name for himself in Washington by courting the press and besieging federal agencies — primarily the Small Business Administration — with requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act to disclose their contracting practices. From his home base in Petaluma, Calif., he also berates legislators from both major parties and much of the small-business lobbying establishment.

Q.Do you consider yourself a gadfly or a watchdog?

A. I consider myself a watch pit bull. When you look at my success in court, I’m more than a gadfly.

Q.What legal actions are you pursuing now?

A. My ultimate goal for 2007 is to file the big kahuna lawsuit and get a federal judge to look at the Small Business Administration policies that allow Fortune 500 firms to get small-business contracts.

Q.Has the new Democratic majority been more responsive than the GOP had been?

A. I couldn't be more disappointed. I thought when the Democrats took over Congress that John Kerry, who heads the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, would announce oversight hearings. He’s done nothing.

Q. Have the Washington lobbies for small business backed you up?

A. Go to the National Federation of Independent Business Web site and see if you can find small-business contracting mentioned. You can’t. What they do is lobby for Fortune 500 companies.

Q.What should they be doing instead?

A. More than 90 percent of all American companies have fewer than 100 employees. Those firms generate 80 to 90 percent of the jobs. Right now the government’s self-proclaimed goal is that small businesses should get 23 percent of the contracts. We think it’s fair if we get 23 percent — but we don’t get that.