Petaluma, Calif. – Voters in the upcoming democratic primaries will be making one of the most difficult decisions they have ever had to make. Two dream candidates, each with their own unique resume. Either one of them would clearly be one of the most qualified democratic presidential candidates in United States history.

It would be great to see America's first woman president. Who could possibly be more qualified for that position than Sen. Hillary Clinton? The breadth and depth of her experience in government is undeniable. Fewer American mothers would be mourning the loss of their sons and daughters in a pointless and blundering war if there were a woman president in the White House.

On the other hand, it would be wonderful to see America's first African American president. Sen. Obama is a man of unwavering integrity that has not been weighed down with the baggage of lobbyists and special interests. He is a man that could restore our faith and confidence in government. Who could be more qualified to be the next president of the United States than Sen. Barack Obama? In the eyes of extremists around the world, the very image of an African American president could in and of itself bring about a decrease in terrorist threats against America. 

While making an incredibly difficult decision it is always wise to use common sense, logic and the facts. Democratic voters that do not want to endure four more years of war, skyrocketing oil prices, a national mortgage meltdown and an ever accelerating economic downturn must consider one supremely important factor on Tuesday.

Hillary Clinton cannot beat John McCain, but Barack Obama can.

The most recent polls from Time and CNN both show that if the election were held today, Obama would win over McCain, but Sen. Clinton would lose. Statistically, Obama is clearly the better candidate in a race against McCain. If we assume that the polls are accurate, a vote for Hillary Clinton could be a wasted vote. At the worst, it could be the same as a vote for McCain.

Democrats that favor Senator Clinton need to ask themselves this question: Do you like Hillary Clinton enough to take a chance on winding up with another republican president that has stated that the economy is not his strong suit, and a man that is ready to send thousands of young America soldiers to their deaths in Iraq for the next 100 years?
###

The American Small Business League has launched a national campaign to abolish the Defense Department's Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program, which it believes encourages fraud and abuse in federal small business subcontracting.

Under FAR clause 52.219-16, titled "Liquidated Damages-Subcontracting Plan (Jan 1999)," any government contractor that fails to meet its small business-contracting goal is required to pay damages to the federal government in the amount of the deficiency.  However, participants in the comprehensive test program, like: BAE Systems, GE Aviation, General Dynamics, L3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon are allowed to circumvent the liquidated damages clause and therefore avoid penalties for non-compliance with federal law which mandates contracting with small businesses.

In 1990, Congress passed Public Law 101-189, which established the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program.  Opponents of the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program believe that it was created as a loophole to allow prime contractors to circumvent the liquidated damages clause by removing the primary reporting function used by the federal government to review compliance with subcontracting goals and by removing the penalty for non-compliance.
 
"The Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program was clearly written by lobbyists for major prime contractors in the defense and aerospace industry and needs to end immediately," President of the American Small Business League Lloyd Chapman said. "It is ridiculous to think that 18 years ago they passed a test program and it is still in place.  This legislation was passed to help prime contractors circumvent their small business subcontracting goals and was never intended to help small businesses in any way.  With that in mind, we are going to do everything that we can to see that this program is eliminated as soon as possible."

The ASBL estimates that over the last 18 years, hundreds of billions of dollars in federal small business subcontracting dollars have been diverted from legitimate small businesses by participants of the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program.

The ASBL's campaign to abolish the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program will be a campaign to educate every member of Congress, presidential candidates, members of the media and chambers of commerce across the country about the negative impact that the program has had on small businesses in every state. Additionally, the ASBL intends to encourage small businesses around the country to file litigation under the False Claims Act against prime contractors that have falsified their subcontracting plans, initiate an GAO investigation and push for congressional hearings on the subject.

###

PETALUMA, Calif., July 21, 2006 /PRNewswire/ -- The Government Accountability Office has issued a report which found that the Department of Defense is late-paying invoices from small businesses more often than all other invoices. Overall, small firms are paid late about 14.5% of the time. In many cases, this causes a financial hardship for small contractors, interrupting their day-to-day operations and often forcing them to seek credit to cover their costs while they await payment for goods and services already rendered.

The report found that DOD's antiquated paper-based systems are part of the problem, but DOD also admitted to paying larger contractors on a priority basis. Furthermore, the Prompt Payment Act requires that DOD pay interest on certain late invoices, but of the 17 small contractors that GAO interviewed, 10 stated that they often were not paid interest on late payments. One contractor was owed $1000 in interest after he followed up with DOD on late invoices. To make matters worse, the cost of capital is often more than any interest payment made.

The Department of Defense is responsible for about two-thirds of all small business procurement dollars, reported at $46.9 billion in fiscal year 2005. Because of the magnitude of their expenditures and their history of late paying small firms, Congress has mandated that GAO report on the timeliness of DOD payments to small contractors.

DOD pay officials told GAO they were unaware that small businesses were paid late more often than other businesses. And while their written policy states that small disadvantaged businesses are to be paid as quickly as possible, none of the pay sites investigated by GAO were following this directive. When questioned about this issue, officials responded that it would be too complicated to alter their systems to take size determinations into consideration when processing invoices.

"The Pentagon's failure to pay small businesses in a timely manner underscores the fact that the current administration has no commitment to policies designed to help America's entrepreneurs," stated Lloyd Chapman, President of the American Small Business League. "This GAO report is the latest in a series of federal investigations that show that small firms are being treated unfairly by the government. It's time for small businesses to join forces to see that their interests are being represented."

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 1953. 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.

###

PETALUMA, Calif., July 20, 2006 /PRNewswire/ -- The House Small Business Committee is currently preparing to reschedule its debate on reauthorizing the Small Business Administration. Republican Chairman Don Manzullo's proposed resolution, H.R. 5352, has come under criticism by a number of small business groups for lacking any strong provisions to address widespread fraud and abuse in small business contracting.

In a recent Congressional hearing, SBA Inspector General Eric Thorson stated that the #1 management challenge facing the SBA is that large firms are receiving small business contracts and federal agencies are receiving credit for these awards.

A review of the Manzullo resolution revealed only the expansion of fines and penalties for small business fraud. Unfortunately, the SBA Inspector General has admitted that the SBA has never obtained criminal prosecution of a large business misrepresenting its size in order to obtain small business contracts.

"We don't need stiffer penalties we need current penalties enforced," stated Lloyd Chapman, President of the American Small Business League. "The Republican-controlled Congress has not proposed a single piece of legislation in three years to address the fraud and abuse documented in 13 federal investigations. Quite to the contrary, they continue to propose more and more loopholes that will only exacerbate the problem."

Rep. Manzullo is the primary sponsor of a controversial provision that will allow franchises of large corporations to be considered small businesses for the purposes of federal contracting.

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 1953. 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.

###

PETALUMA, CA, May 24, 2006 /PRNewswire/ -- The five year reign of outgoing SBA Administrator Hector Barreto has left the agency a gutted shell of what it was when he took office in 2001. The SBA's dismal performance under Barreto's leadership has been chronicled in ten Federal investigations and two private studies that uncovered fraud, abuse, and lack of proper oversight in virtually every major SBA program. And, as Barreto allowed the SBA's operating budget and staff to be cut every year, a government-wide survey showed that the morale of SBA employees plummeted to the lowest level of any Federal agency.

Barreto has drawn the ire of both houses of Congress and from Republicans and Democrats alike. The small business committees in both the House and Senate have grown accustom to the false and misleading information he delivers on SBA performance. New York Representative Nydia Velasquez was so angered by Barreto's attempts to mislead Congress that she publicly accused him of "being dishonest" in a Congressional hearing last year.

A 2003 Government Accountability Office investigation found that Mr. Barreto had allowed Federal small business statistics to be inflated by reporting billions of dollars in contracts to large companies as small business awards. After a subsequent Congressional hearing on the matter, the SBA was forced to remove the names of 600 large businesses from its PRO-NET database, which at that time was the main source for government procurement officers to find small business contractors.

A 2004 report commissioned by the SBA Office of Advocacy found Barreto had permitted awards to firms such as Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman to be reported as small business contracts. The same report found "vendor deception"- another word for fraud - was one reason for the illegal contracting activity. To date, Barreto has refused to take any action to address the abuses.

In 2005, the SBA's own Office of Inspector General issued four reports that documented continuing cases of fraud and abuse. Report 5-15 stated that, "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." Still, Barreto refused to take any action to address the problems.

Report 5-14 found that during Barreto's tenure, the SBA had falsified their own small business contracting statistics by reporting millions in awards to large businesses as small business contracts. In one instance, the SBA reported a large contract to Buhrmann NV-a Dutch firm with 18,000 employees worldwide-as a small business award.

Report 5-16 found Barreto had allowed large businesses to receive millions in Federal small business contracts through "false certifications".

Report 5-20 found that under Barreto's guidance, the SBA had failed to properly monitor major federal "bundled" contracts to allow small companies a more equitable opportunity to compete for government business.

In a failed attempt to protect the SBA's dubious small business contracting statistics, Barreto directed SBA attorneys to fight Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that could prove the SBA had intentionally manipulated the numbers. The SBA lost two FOIA cases to the American Small Business League and; in both instances, they were forced to release information that proved the agency had extensive knowledge of fraud and abuse in the system.

Barreto's refusal to implement the women's procurement program that Congress enacted in 2000 has cost women entrepreneurs well over $33 billion in lost contracting opportunities. Frustrated with his lack of action, the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce successfully sued the SBA in order to compel Mr. Barreto to take action.

A September 12, 2005 story by the Associated Press reported that the 9/11 disaster-recovery loan program had been completely mishandled and that less than 11% of the loans approved had actually gone to firms in New York.

In 2006, the SBA Office of Inspector General issued report 6-15 that revealed the SBA has mismanaged the 8(a) contracting program to the point where it is rife with fraud and abuse. The Government Accountability Office released an additional report on abuse by Alaska Native Corporations in the 8(a) program that the SBA allowed through a significant lack of oversight.

Budget cuts and staff layoffs during Barreto's term resulted in a dramatic loss of knowledgeable and experienced staff. After the Gulf hurricanes last year, the SBA was forced to take on thousands of temporary workers to compensate for the severe lack of experienced employees.

Furthermore, the Gulf loan program has been so poorly handled that thousands of small business owners have been forced into bankruptcy because they have been unable to get timely financial help. While Barreto has frequently touted record numbers of loans approved for hurricane victims, the reality is that only a small percentage of the loans have actually been dispersed. The New Orleans Times Picayune cited a recent study by a post-Katrina advocacy group that found only about 21% of small businesses had received any assistance.

A recent article in Inc. magazine labeled Barreto "the disappointment" in the Bush Administration. SBA insiders have acknowledged that he was forced to resign after the White House determined Barreto's handling of the SBA was a public relations nightmare and an embarrassment to President Bush. Barreto's removal as head of a Federal agency to run a small and obscure Hispanic lobbying group marks a dismal end to his troubled political career.

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 1953. 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.

###