Petaluma, Calif. - A bill that would give some of the nation's wealthiest investors billions of dollars in federal small business contracts is set to move through the House of Representatives in record time. Last week, Nydia M. Velázquez (D - NY) the Chair of the House Committee on Small Business, introduced H.R. 5819, the SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act.

The bill went into mark-up and passed through the House Committee on Small Business on Thursday, April 17th.  According to the Weekly Leader, H.R. 5819 could be debated on the floor of the House as early as Wednesday of this week.  This is the second time in less than a year that Rep. Velázquez has proposed legislation that could devastate federal programs designed to assist small businesses.

Since becoming the Chair of the House Committee on Small Business, Velázquez has established a record of talking about preventing the diversion of federal small business contracts to large corporations, but not acting on it. During her tenure she has failed to introduce legislation to address the problem.  Last week, Velázquez shocked and disappointed small business owners across the country when she began pushing legislation that would allow some of the nation's wealthiest venture capital firms to compete for federal small business contracts.

"The American Small Business League and its members worked for months to help the democrats take over Congress. At the time we thought democrats were going to bring positive change for small businesses," President of the American Small Business League, Lloyd Chapman said.  "Our members and small businesses around the country are just stunned that Congresswoman Velázquez and her committee would pass legislation that will be so detrimental to small businesses. No matter what she says, the bottom line is that this bill is going to allow billionaires to take contracts away from legitimate small businesses in every state.  We are going to do everything we can to let the Speaker of the House Pelosi know that Velázquez is no friend to small business.  I want to see someone chairing the House Small Business Committee who is more concerned about promoting the interests of small businesses than in helping billionaire venture capitalists masquerade as small businesses."

In September of 2007, the House passed H.R. 3567, which contains a similar provision to H.R. 5819.  However, the bill failed to pass through the Senate when it received opposition from the ASBL, U.S. Small Business Administration, the White House, National Small Business Association and the U.S Chamber of Commerce.

The ASBL (www.asbl.com) encourages concerned citizens and small business owners to contact their congressional representatives and ask them to oppose changing the definition of a small business in the Small Business Act. Small businesses should remain "independently owned" and operated.

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