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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