North Carolina Senator Richard Burr is proposing to
resurrect a plan from the Reagan Administration to essentially close the Small
Business Administration by combining it with the Department of Commerce and the
Department of Labor.

Former President Ronald Reagan tried to permanently close
the Small Business Administration by combining it with the Department of
Commerce. Senator Burr’s bill is almost identical to the Reagan plan to close
the SBA. (news story)

Burr’s bill, S. 1836 is cosponsored by Indiana Senator
Daniel Coats and Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe.

 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 98% of all U.S. firms
have less than 100 employees. There are approximately 28 million small business
in America and those small businesses are responsible for over 90% of the net
new jobs , over 50% of the Gross Domestic Product, over 50% of the Private
sector work force and over 90% of all U.S. exporters.   

The SBA is the only agency in government to assist American
small businesses. The SBA’s current budget is approximately .001% of the
Pentagon’s budget.Opponents of S. 1836 believe the true purpose of the bill is
to close the SBA to obscure hundreds of billions in fraud that has been
uncovered in small business contracting programs primarily at the Defense
Department.

Over the last ten years a series of federal investigations and
investigative reports in the media have found billions in federal small
business contracts have actually gone to some of the nation’s largest defense contractors.

According to the most recent data from the Federal Procurement Data System,
last year 235 Fortune 500 firms received federal small business contracts.

Every year for the last nine years the SBA Office of
inspector General has named the diversion of federal small business contracts
to corporate giants as the number one problem at the SBA. (report 5-15)

If S. 1836 were to be signed into law, the Department of Commerce, which represents the nation’s largest firms, including the 235 Fortune 500 firms that are currently receiving federal small business
contracts, would have complete control over all federal small business
programs.

The American Small Business League (ASBL) was anticipating
the introduction of a bill to close the SBA.

The ASBL recently completed a survey of 3000 Chambers of Commerce across the
country about a bill to close the SBA or combine it with the Department of
Commerce. Only two Chambers of Commerce said they would support such
legislation

.Video