George Bush stood before the nation tonight and in an attempt to repair his tarnished image, unveiled the most massive reconstruction program since - maybe the reconstruction. At the same time, the US Army Corps of Engineers in conjunction with FEMA announced 4 contracts worth $500 million each, with the option of an additional $500 million. While Bush touted local jobs and local small business incentives, the debris removal contracts have been awarded to 2 corporations in Florida, 1 in Minnesota and 1 in California. Not a very promising start.
Certain provisions in the contracts do have the appearance of meeting Bush's purported agenda of local economic invigoration with targeted goals of 73.5 percent for Small business, 3 percent for Service-disabled veterans, 3.2 percent for Small HUB-Zone concerns, 10.6 percent for Small Disadvantaged business, and 11 percent for Small Women-owned business. But Americans have had 5 years to weigh Bush's proposals against his actions and the reality of these contracts cannot be spun away.

The first astonishing blunder is the glaring absence of a target percentage for Minority Owned Businesses. I suppose it isn't surprising considering this Administration's abysmal treatment of Minority Owned Businesses through the constant reduction of programs designed to help them gain federal contracts and access to new markets. Many of these small business programs are the same or similar to the programs Bush has been cutting or threatening to cut since he took office, from $900 million in 2001 to around $500 million this year. In fact, earlier this year, Senators Kerry and Snowe fought to restore funding as some of these programs were in danger of running out of money altogether.

This also follows the recent pattern, according to the NSBA, where small businesses are forced into the role of sub-contractor which inhibits their ability to establish a performance record, meet with contracting officers, or negotiate terms. In other words, it enables the government to say there is nobody but Halliburton with the contracting history to do the job. Despite Bush's claim to be a friend to small business, 15 of 22 federal agencies have reduced the number of federal contracts award to small business. Senator Kerry introduced the Contractor Safeguard Act and the Regulatory Assistance Pilot Program to begin to address these concerns.

Then there is the issue of fraudulent and deceptive practices within the SBA. Senators Kerry and Snowe announced the congressional investigation into abuses of the administration of the 9/11 small business loans. Accusations have been made that the SBA encouraged banks to give the loans with the loosest interpretation of the rules possible. Some businesses have received STAR loans without knowing that these loans were targeted at businesses hurt by the terrorist attacks, reports include a Dunkin' Donuts and a motorcycle shop from as far away as Colorado. There is also the recent revelation that a large number of federal contracts that claimed to go to small business actually went to such corporations as Titan Corp., Raytheon Co., General Dynamics Corp., Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., Archer Daniels-Midland, and Hewlett-Packard Co. To add insult to injury, many large corporations receive Small Business Loans as well. Lloyd Chapman, president of the California-based American Small Business League, believes that "80 to 90 percent of the contracts they say are going to small businesses are actually going to large businesses."