We've been hearing about it a lot recently--large companies receiving contracts from the federal government that were designated for small businesses. In fact, many studies have shown that hundreds of government contracts meant for small business have gone to large corporations. According to this NYTimes.com article, one small business owner, Joseph Cooper, saw this practice first-hand when he received a contract from the SBA back in 1995. Today, Cooper has been left bankrupt and out of work after years of legal battles with the government.

His contract, worth over $8 million, allowed him to do public relations for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. But shortly after he began working for them, his deal was rescinded and instead awarded to three multimillion dollar companies. The companies were listed as disadvantaged in contract documents, but after Cooper filed a false-claims lawsuit against the companies, the court ruled that the companies didn't qualify as small businesses. Sounds good for Cooper, right? Not exactly. The court said that fraud had not been committed, because the INS knew that they weren't small businesses when they awarded them the work. With that, the case was dismissed.

Other small businesses in this situation have had the same outcome: Even if they prove that federal agencies are handing out small business contracts to large companies, most of the time, the corporations get to keep the contracts, with no penalties or questions asked.

But two critics of these practices will be entering into leadership positions and say they're ready to make some changes. When Congress reconvenes January 4, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) will become the chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) will step in as chairwoman of the House Small Business Committee. Both say they want to make the protest process more honest, by creating and enforcing penalties on large corporations receiving contracts meant for small business.

As for Cooper, he says his personal and professional life have suffered from this experience, and regrets ever receiving the contract in the first place, "I wish I'd never done business with the federal government."