One group working on behalf of small businesses around the country has again expressed anger with what they consider to be inaction by the federal government to better serve small business interests.

The American Small Business League has expressed frustration with President Obama's work toward helping small businesses regain their footing in the volatile economy.

Many economists and policy makers agree that small businesses play a central role in the economy - during good times and bad - and are a key source of job creation. The government has stepped up efforts to unlock the credit markets and get fund flowing to small businesses - but some say it's not enough.

The ASBL claims that stimulus funds have been funneled too aggressively to large corporations and not small businesses. They also worry that contracts intended for small businesses will - to the detriment of small firms - instead be awarded to big companies.

ASBL president Lloyd Chapman directed harsh words to the nearly 3-month-old administration.

"So far, not only has President Obama not given those companies a dime of the stimulus funding, but he is refusing to end blatant, widespread fraud and abuse in existing government economic stimulus programs for small businesses," Chapman said.

Source:  http://capitalsolutionsbancorp.com/news/small-business-advocate-frustrated-with-government-inaction-20090415

As stimulus money starts trickling out, some are asking a timely question: Is the federal government doing enough to ensure small businesses get their share?

Lloyd Chapman, president of the American Small Business League – a California-based group that follows small-business contracting issues – argued in an editorial on HuffingtonPost.com yesterday that the Obama administration needs to be more proactive in directing government stimulus work at small companies. President Obama, he says, promised in February 2008 that he would fight for small-business contracting issues, but has mentioned the issue little, if at all, in recent weeks.

The issue at hand: Congress passed legislation in 2003 mandating that federal agencies aim at least 23% of all prime and subprime contracting dollars at small businesses. But several investigations found the government has done a shoddy job of enforcing that rule. And a Washington Post investigation last fall found that 38.5% of all government contracts coded as small were actually being diverted to Fortune 500 companies including Lockheed Martin Corp. and Dell Inc.

Mr. Chapman says that ensuring that money actually went to small businesses would result in $100 billion of government work for them.

“So far, nothing President Obama has proposed to stimulate our nation’s failing economy would be as effective and cost efficient as simply adopting policies and legislation that would redirect over $100 billion, year-after-year, back into the middle class economy,” he writes.

Mr. Chapman has consistently criticized the government (both under former President Bush and now President Obama) for not caring enough about small-business contracting rules, but now more than ever his point seems valid. Companies are looking at the federal government as a potential customer more than ever before. Many are applying for government contracts for the first time and competing against much larger companies with political influence.

If the federal government sees the stimulus money as helping businesses of all size, now seems a ripe time for the federal government to address the issue of contracting fairness and fraud and ensuring small businesses aren’t being overlooked.

So far President Obama has issued a government-wide review into how government contracting procedures, and whether they’re efficient. But he’s said little about whether he will address small-business contracting issues in particular.

Do you think President Obama needs to be more proactive in enforcing small-business contracting rules? Or is current oversight enough?

Source:  http://blogs.wsj.com/independentstreet/2009/04/14/should-obama-do-more-to-help-small-businesses-win-government-contracts/

There was no April fooling when the Senate confirmed venture capitalist Karen Mills to take over as the Obama administration's chief administrator of the U.S. Small Business Association last week.

"Small business is the heart of the American economy," the 55-year-old states. "There are over twenty-six million small businesses in this country and they create 70 percent of the new jobs. This means that to find our way out of the current economic crisis, we have to find ways to help small businesses stay in operation and even expand." Mills was enthusiastically endorsed by Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee ranking Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), who spearheaded a campaign to appoint Mills before Obama took office.

"The Senate's quick and unanimous approval of Karen Mills as the next administrator of the SBA is a testament to her tremendous qualifications and outstanding record in assisting small business," Snowe says. "She is truly ready to assume the reins of the agency responsible for small businesses, America's preeminent job generators that will lead us out of our economic morass."

Not so fast, argues the American Small Business League, which has opposed Mills, painting her as leader who tows the line of the Bush administration's pro-corporate business policies. The league argues that the federal government under Bush has given billions worth of federal contracts intended for small business to large corporations.

"I predict Mills is not going to do anything to stop the diversion of federal small business contracts to large businesses and in fact, you can bet that Mills is going to support policies to divert even more federal small business contracts to some of President Obama's wealthiest contributors in the venture capital industry," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman states.

Source:  http://blog.entrepreneur.com/2009/04/new-sba-head-takes-reigns.php