If Hector Barreto were an employee of a public company, he would have already been issued his final paycheck.

That's why I was gratified to read the news release from Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, demanding the resignation of Mr. Barreto, the Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Velázquez, ranking Democrat on the House Small Business Committee, pointed to numerous examples that illustrate the failure of the SBA to uphold its mission, which is to aid and protect the interests of small business.

In the past year alone the SBA has bungled disaster loans in the Gulf region, caused a temporary shutdown of the SBA's flagship loan program, forced women entrepreneurs to bring a lawsuit against the agency, and covered up billions of dollars in Federal small business contract fraud and abuse. Mr. Barreto is working contrary to the mission of the SBA. He needs to step aside.

Businesses affected by this year's hurricanes have suffered immeasurably, with little assistance from the SBA. The agency declined 80% of disaster loans to small businesses and has a backlog of over 200,000 pending applications. Why? Apparently, Barreto's staff made the decision to implement a new loan processing system during the height of the hurricane season.

It's no secret that the SBA's budget has been cut 60% since 2001. Joshua Bolton, head of the Office of Management and Budget, is no fan of the SBA. Hector Barreto is following Bolton's marching orders, claiming his agency can "do more with less". But last year, the SBA's 7(a) loan program – responsible for 30% of all long term lending – was temporarily shut down because the agency failed to notify Congress that it needed additional funding to keep the program running.

One of Barreto's most outrageous failures has been his refusal to implement the women's procurement program that was enacted in 2000. This 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.

But the quintessential act of arrogance has been Barreto's claim that Federal small business contracting reached a record $69.2 billion in 2004. This is an outright lie. There have been seven separate government investigations over the last few years that have shown that small business contracts are being awarded to huge corporations. Yet Barreto has made no effort to change the status quo.

Under the leadership of Joshua Bolton and Hector Barreto, I fully expect the Bush administration to propose policies in early 2006 that will essentially repeal the Small Business Act. This will allow the SBA to legally divert billions in Federal small business contracting dollars to Fortune 1000 firms. Further budget cuts will be designed to force the agency to close its doors.

The SBA desperately needs a champion who will fight for policies that will ensure fair treatment of America's entrepreneurs. Instead, we have Hector Barreto, puppet of big government and big business, who perpetuates the problems of an incompetent agency. Mr. Barreto, please do small businesses a big favor: step down now.