WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote today on a somewhat weakened version of legislation that strengthens government requirements for employing small businesses.

The Small Business Fairness in Contracting Act (H.R. 1873) increases the amount of work the government must give to small businesses and tightens restrictions on how the work should be administered.

The bill raises the amount of work required to 25 percent of total government business, up from the current 23 percent. The number is less than in earlier drafts of the bill, which required a 30 percent set-aside.

The legislation also works to restrict the process of bundling contracts, making them larger in scale and more difficult for small businesses to get. American Small Business League Chairman Lloyd Chapman criticized the bill because it does not require annual recertification for companies that already have small business contracts.

Benson has been among critics of the Small Business Administration, which has come under fire for giving contracts to companies that get bought out by large contractors.

“Basically, there are so many existing government contracts, that they could go for the next 20 years without having to enter into any new ones,” Chapman said.

The bill, however, does require annual recertification for all new small business government contracts.

The SBA also opposed the bill in a statement released Tuesday.

“H.R. 1873 ... would impose broad, burdensome statutory restrictions on federal agencies’ ability to conduct acquisitions and establish unrealistic small business procurement goals,” the agency said.

SBA recently introduced its own reforms, which would require firms to recertify that they meet the definition of a small business every five years.