Lloyd Chapman of Novato says he isn't upset that federal officials bumped today's deadline for public comment on proposed new small-business size standards back another 45 days.

"Apparently there was some pressure from Congress to do that," said Chapman, president of the Microcomputer Industry Suppliers Association, a trade group that advocates for small business rights.

"I'm still going to win."

Chapman, a consultant with North Bay software reseller GC Micro Corp., said the proposed new standards would affect U.S. Small Business Administration rules that set 500 employees as the maximum size for a business to qualify for federal small business contract money.

Chapman has lobbied for two years against the 500-employee standard, saying it opens the door for huge conglomerates to circumvent the rules and usurp money earmarked for bona fide small businesses. The proposed new rules would reduce the definition of a small business to a maximum of 100 employees.

He said he believes the public comment period extension was a reaction to the strong support for the rule change.

" I found out (the SBA) got 1,400 responses so far - and 1,000 were from my Web site," said Chapman, whose company moved last year from Novato to Petaluma. "Apparently the SBA didn't like the response (in favor of the size reduction), so they're going to try to manipulate it by giving the people who are opposed to it more time."

SBA spokesman Gary Jackson could not be reached for comment on the reason for the public comment period extension.

According to Chapman, the size standard change would redirect $30 billion to $50 billion annually in federal small business contracts away from large conglomerates and instead to actual small businesses. An investigation last summer by the U.S. General Accounting Office found some of the nation's largest corporations - including Verizon and Dole Food, for example - appeared on the SBA's database of eligible federal small business contractors.

U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, who has supported Chapman's efforts, said she backed the size standards reduction.

"Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy," Woolseysaid. "By working to change the definition of a small business for government contracts from 500 to 100 employees, federal contracts specifically designed to ensure the success of American small business would go where they belong - to support Americans, not big companies dressed in sheep's clothing."

The public comment period extension comes coincidentally at the same time that President Bush proclaimed this week as "National Small Business Week."

In the proclamation, issued yesterday, Bush said small businesses "create approximately 70 percent of new private sector jobs in this country.

" As our nation's economy continues to grow stronger, we must encourage their spirit of enterprise," Bush said.

U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., Bush's likely opponent in the November elections, has publicly supported Chapman's efforts to streamline the SBA's small business contracting guidelines.

Kerry, lead Democrat on the Senate's Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, said yesterday he supports the 45-day public comment period extension.