The US Senate has been accused of "snubbing" small businesses in forthcoming talks to reform Federal contracting practices. The allegation was made yesterday by the American Small Business League (ASBL), which claims that small businesses are not being fairly represented on the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Referring to a scheduled roundtable discussion regarding contracting reform for small businesses, ASBL noted that it had not been invited to testify: "The American Small Business League (ASBL) is raising concerns regarding the lack of small business voices that will be present at the committee-run roundtable event."

"We don't expect to be invited to these types of meetings because the Senate Committee on Small Business has no interest in contracting reform," ASBL president Lloyd Chapman said.

"Since 2003, over a dozen federal investigations have found that billions of dollars in contracts earmarked for small businesses have been diverted to Fortune 500 firms. This issue has been featured on every major television network and in every major newspaper in the country, yet the committee has failed to lift a finger to stop it for seven years. 2009 represents the tenth anniversary of the diversion of federal small business contracts to large corporations."

ASBL claims that Information in the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS - NG) indicates that the Obama Administration included billions of dollars in contracts awarded to Fortune 500 firms and even some of the largest corporations in the world towards its fiscal year (FY) 2008 small business goals.

The pressure group alleges that firms such as: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Dell Computers, British Aerospace (BAE), Rolls-Royce, French giant Thales, Ssangyong Corporation headquartered in South Korea and the Italian Finmeccanica SpA, received billions of dollars in federal small business contracts during FY 2008.

Source:  http://www.procurementleaders.com/news/latestnews/247-us-senate-snubs-small-firms/