A bigger Voice for Small Business

Obama Administration Small Business Forum Rules Discourage Attendance

by | Jun 22, 2010 | Press Release

Press Release

Obama Administration Small Business Forum Rules Discourage Attendance

June 22, 2010

Petaluma, Calif. - On Monday, June 14, the Obama Administration surprised small business owners across the country by announcing a small business forum to be held at the U.S. Department of Commerce on June 28. The agenda has been so narrowly focused that it will be difficult, if not impossible, for meeting attendees to bring up President Obama's broken campaign promises to small businesses such as, "it is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." (http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/26/the_american_small_business_le.php)  

The American Small Business League (ASBL) believes the Obama Administration has fast tracked the registration process and erected barriers as a means of discouraging attendance by small business interests outside the Washington D.C. area.

The ASBL maintains the short notice and other registration barriers may have a chilling effect on the attendance of small business owners who take issue with the Obama Administration's poor track record for small businesses. (https://www.asbl.com/documents/20100526_ASBL_AnalysisObamaSB.pdf)   

Although the forum was supposedly designed to collect input from small businesses on ways to increase their business with government, no small business registrant has received notification that they will be allowed to speak.  Legitimate small business organizations or individual small business owners who had hoped to be heard, will not know if they will be allowed to speak.  This has made it extremely difficult for small business owners outside the Washington area to attend. To make matters worse, the forum will be extremely short, which has also discouraged individuals around the country from attending. 

The ASBL believes the true purpose of the forum is to gain support in the media for Obama Administration policies that may actually reduce small business contracting opportunities with the federal government.

"I guarantee President Obama will try to use his small business task force and this meeting to push policies that will actually reduce the volume of federal contracts to legitimate small businesses under the guise of helping small businesses," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. "A proposal to change the definition of a small business, which would divert small business funds to firms controlled by venture capitalists, is a certainty.  I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to weaken small business programs further by breaking up the SBA. Big defense contractors and wealthy venture capitalists want the $150 billion that is supposed to go to small businesses, and they contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to President Obama and congress to achieve that goal."

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Advocates irked by last-minute forum call

by | Jun 21, 2010 | ASBL News

News

Advocates irked by last-minute forum call

By Jan Norman
OC Register
June 21, 2010

The American Small Business League, based in Petaluma, has launched a nationwide campaign to get small-business groups to send representatives to a hastily called public forum to collect public comment on the new Interagency Task Force on Small Business.

The forum will be at 1 p.m. June 28 at the Dept. of Commerce building in Washington D.C. Participants must preregister by today. Those who can’t attend have until June 30 to submit written comments to SB_TaskForce_Comment@sba.gov.

Notice of the meeting was published in the Federal Register June 14.

“The American Small Business League believes the Obama Administration opted to hold the meeting in Washington D.C. on short notice to minimize comments from angry small businesses over the administration’s failed small-business track record,” said league President Lloyd Chapman.

The league’s primary issue is the federal government’s ongoing goal to spend a certain amount of its money with small businesses. However, administrations from both political parties have claimed significant spending with small businesses when the money has gone to Fortune 500 companies.
“In the most egregious example, President Obama has allowed the continued diversion of more than $100 billion a year in federal small-business contracts to Fortune 500 firms and even some of the largest corporations in the world,” ASBL said.

But that’s not the only issue small-business advocates have complained about recently.

  • The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council complained on June 15 that “up to 80% of all small businesses may be forced to switch health care plans in order to conform to government requirements” under the new health insurance reform law.
  • The National Federation of Independent Business on June 14 also objected to the new health reform regulations that “take away small business choice and flexibility.”
  • American Solutions for Winning the Future on June 15 said the proposed energy tax in response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill will kill jobs.

In the Federal Register meeting notice, interested public and private partners are asked to offer their views of the challenges small businesses face in pursuing federal contracts, how to overcome these challenges and increase “small-business participation in the federal marketplace.”

“I’m predicting that the Obama Administration will use its ’small-business task force’ and this sham meeting on June 28 to push anti-small business policies like changing the definition of small businesses to include larger firms (more than 99% of U.S. businesses are already categorized as small by federal definitions) or dismantling the (U.S. Small Business Administration) by combining it with the U.S. Department of Commerce,” Chapman said. “If President Obama really wanted to help small businesses, he would quit diverting small-business funds to Fortune 500 firms.

Karen Karrigan, head of the SBE Council, said, “The ASBL makes valid points about the Administration’s lack of sensitivity and understanding regarding the realities of small business and how policies impact their ability to compete.

“More broadly, I have no confidence that the Administration will actually listen and follow up on small business input and concerns. My experience with the Administration and the various agencies to date on a host of issues has shown that they sometimes go through the motions of soliciting input, but rarely does that input show up in actual policy. In fact, the policies and legislation supported by the Administration often imposes more costs and burdens on entrepreneurs rather than helping them.

“For example, in the world of government procurement, policies supported by the Administration that favor project labor agreements, Davis-Bacon expansion and adding labor-related requirements to contracts or stimulus projects all put small businesses at a competitive disadvantage.”

Source:  http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/06/21/advocates-irked-by-last-minute-forum-call/40117/

Dear President Obama, Quit Cheating Small Businesses Out of Federal Contracts

by | Jun 18, 2010 | Press Release

Press Release

Dear President Obama, Quit Cheating Small Businesses Out of Federal Contracts

June 18, 2010

During your Presidential campaign you promised, "an end to business as usual in Washington," and "change we can believe in." You made several promises to small businesses. You promised to restore the Small Business Administration's (SBA) budget and staffing, restore the SBA Administrator to a cabinet level position, and implement the 5 percent set-aside contracting goal for women. You also released the statement, "it is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." You have failed to honor any of those campaign promises. (http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/26/the_american_small_business_le.php)

YOU LIED!

The SBA's budget and staffing were larger during the Reagan Administration than they are today. The most recent data released by your administration reported that the largest recipient of federal small business contracts was, Textron, a Fortune 500 firm. Your administration included over $775 million in contracts to Textron as small business contracts. Other firms your administration included as small businesses were Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics, British Aerospace (BAE), Rolls-Royce, French firm Thales Communications, Ssangyong Corporation headquartered in South Korea, and Italian firm Finmeccanica SpA. (https://www.asbl.com/documents/20090825TopSmallBusinessContractors2008.pdf)

YOU LIED!

During your campaign you stated, "Let me say it as simply as I can: Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency." (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/01/remarks_by_the_president_welcoming_senior_staff_an.php) In reality your administration has moved to dramatically cut transparency in all areas of federal small business contracting programs. Your administration destroyed ten years worth of federal contracting data, which has been used by federal investigators to uncover billions of dollars in federal small business contracts that have been illegally diverted to corporate giants. Your administration has also refused to release a wide variety of public information on federal small business contracting programs, which indicates that billions of dollars a month in federal small business funds are being diverted to corporate giants.

YOU LIED!

Recently, the American Small Business League (ASBL) released a report that found 16 separate areas in which your administration broke campaign promises to small businesses or adopted anti-small business policies. (https://www.asbl.com/documents/20100526_ASBL_AnalysisObamaSB.pdf)

YOU LIED!

I don't know if any of your hotshot economic advisors have told you this, but 98 percent of all U.S. firms have less than 100 employees. These 27 million firms employ the majority of the private sector work force, and are responsible for virtually 100 percent of all net new jobs in America. Cheating small businesses is stupid if you are trying to stimulate the economy and create jobs. You might want to give former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Reich a call and have him explain it to you.

If you want to stimulate the economy, you direct more federal infrastructure spending to small businesses. You don't divert federal small business funds to corporate giants around the world.

I know you are going to try to adopt policies and legislation to divert even more federal small business contracts to your buddies and campaign contributors in the venture capital industry. I would not be surprised if you were stupid enough to try to dismantle federal small business contracting programs by breaking up the SBA or adopting more anti-small business policies, while attempting to convince the press and the public that you are trying to help small business and increase access to capital. If you sincerely wanted to increase access to capital for small businesses, you would have helped CIT. CIT was the nation's number one lender to small businesses, especially those firms owned by women, minorities and veterans but you didn't do that, did you?

In case you haven't heard, federal judges don't seem to like your anti-small business, anti-transparency policies. So far we have won federal lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, the SBA and the U.S. Department of Defense. Our case against the General Services Administration (GSA) is looking good too. I have to admit, I'm looking forward to the fireworks when some unfortunate attorney from the Justice Department tries to convince the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that the SBA does not have any phone records.

Good luck with your sham small business forum on June 28. Will this be another publicity stunt and photo op like the last small business forum you put on? I heard photographers outnumbered small business owners at that one. I think there were about a dozen actual small business owners at your last, "national small business conference."

Let me guess, are we going to hear from any of your contributors in the venture capital industry on how important it is to "increase access to capital for small businesses" by changing the long standing federal definition of a small business as being "independently owned." You and I know your venture capitalist buddies are really just interested in increasing their access to over $150 billion a year in federal small business contracts.

Allowing greedy venture capitalists to hijack billions of dollars in federal small business contracts is not going to go over well in the press. I can promise you that, and I always keep my promises.

Obama Small Business Conference Draws Criticism

by | Jun 17, 2010 | Press Release

Press Release

Obama Small Business Conference Draws Criticism

June 17, 2010

Petaluma, Calif. – On Monday, June 14, the Obama Administration suddenly announced that it will hold a small business forum in Washington D.C. on June 28.  Obama Administration officials claim the purpose of the forum is to collect public input on the administration's recently established Interagency Task Force on Small Business. (http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-14144.pdf)  

Small business groups and owners around the country are concerned about the short notice the Obama Administration has given members of the small business community regarding the meeting.  The American Small Business League (ASBL) believes the Obama Administration opted to hold the meeting in Washington D.C. on short notice to minimize comments from angry small businesses over the administration's failed small business track record.  (https://www.asbl.com/documents/20100526_ASBL_AnalysisObamaSB.pdf)  

During the 2008 campaign President Obama made a wide variety of promises to the small business community, including a promise to, "end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." To date, President Obama has refused to honor those promises.
(http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/26/the_american_small_business_le.php)  

In the most egregious example, President Obama has allowed the continued diversion of more than $100 billion a year in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms and even some of the largest corporations in the world.  Since 2003, over a dozen federal investigations have uncovered the diversion of billions of dollars in small business contracts to corporate giants. (https://www.asbl.com/documentlibrary.html)  

The ASBL has launched a national campaign to rally small business groups and small business owners around the country to attend the meeting and send comments to the small business task force.   The public has until Monday, June 21 to register to attend the event and Wednesday, June 30 to submit comments.  (http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-14144.pdf)  

"I'm predicting that the Obama Administration will use its 'small business task force,' and this sham meeting on June 28, to push anti-small business policies like: changing the definition of small business to include larger firms, increasing small business size standards or dismantling the SBA by combining it with the U.S. Department of Commerce," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. "If President Obama really wanted to help small businesses he would quit diverting small business funds to Fortune 500 firms. Small business owners around the country need to prepare themselves to oppose any new Obama Administration policy that will actually weaken federal small business contracting programs under the guise of helping small businesses."

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NASA sued for failing to disclose contracting information

by | Jun 15, 2010 | ASBL News

News

NASA sued for failing to disclose contracting information

By Dawn Lim
Government Executive
June 15, 2010

In a bid to hold NASA accountable to meeting federally mandated goals for small business contracting, advocates demanded for the third time that the agency release contracting information for its space operations.

The American Small Business League filed a lawsuit on June 8 asking the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to require NASA to release subcontracting reports involving United Space Alliance LLC, a spaceflight operations company co-owned by defense giants Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., and NASA's primary industry partner in managing the space shuttle and the International Space Station programs.

The advocacy group wants to know if United Space Alliance has complied with small business subcontracting goals under those contracts. The organization alleges that NASA violated the Freedom of Information Act by withholding agency records, while NASA claims the data was exempt from disclosure as "commercial or financial information obtained from a person which is privileged or confidential."

ASBL suspects NASA is withholding data that will prove it is allowing major prime contractors to falsify compliance with small business subcontracting goals, as well as inflating fulfillment of small business targets by counting "clearly large" firms as small, according to Lloyd Chapman, the group's president.

The federal government sets out to award 23 percent of the total value of all prime contracts to small businesses annually. The Small Business Administration negotiates individual objectives for each agency, ensuring that when combined they meet the overall statutory goals.

In 2007, SBA instituted requirements for long-term federal contracts to be recertified every five years and at every option point going forward. This would take into consideration the possibility of growth and ensure agencies receive credit for making contract awards to small businesses only as long as the firms remain small.

But advocates say instances of large corporations being listed as small businesses in federal contracting awards keep cropping up.

ASBL spokesman Christopher Gunn said large companies that showed up in data on small business awards in 2008 included Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp.

Corporations that raked in billions of dollars in federal contracts and did not meet the criteria for being small were labeled as such in Washington Technology's top 2010 government contractors, a list compiled from government procurement data, said Guy Timberlake, chief executive officer of The American Small Business Coalition, which helps small businesses win federal contracts and strengthens their partnerships with the government.

Whether these cases resulted from mistakes in data entry or fraud remains a point of contention between the federal government and advocacy groups.

Timberlake said because federal contracting programs are such complicated bureaucratic exercises, some corporations exploit the loopholes and lack of oversight. They go "code shopping," seeking out industry codes that will identify them as a small business, even if the definitions do not apply to their actual operations, he said.

Whether a corporation meets the criteria of being coded as a small business depends on host of factors, including its subsidiaries, affiliations, primary industry, number of employees and annual revenues.

"Some out there may say, 'Uncle Sam is really bogged down right down, so they'll never notice me.' " Timberlake said. "In addition to deliberate efforts to scam the system, just as many corporations are simply not getting good information from various expert resources."

He added, "There is a level of enforcement with teeth that is needed" in a more competitive climate, but "additional scrutiny entails process, which entails costs." It is difficult to come up with extra money for oversight at a time when the government is tightening its belt, he said.

United Space Alliance, which received $1.5 billion in contracts from NASA in fiscal 2009, according to ASBL, said it has both large and small business as subcontractors. "Small businesses play a vital role in our efforts to support the nation's space program," said spokeswoman Tracy Yates, "and USA is absolutely committed to working with as many small companies as possible to meet that goal."

SBA declined to be quoted for this story. A NASA spokeswoman said the agency is looking into the matter, but has no further information to provide at this point.

Source:  http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=45501&oref=todaysnews