Petaluma, Calif. - According to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, firms with fewer than 20 employees comprise over 90 percent of all U.S. firms and are responsible for more than 97 percent of all new jobs in America. Over half of all Americans work for small businesses. (http://www.inc.com/news/articles/200708/data.html) 

Congress realized the vital importance of small businesses to our national economy when it passed one of our nation's first economic stimulus plans in 1953, the Small Business Act. Today, federal law based on the Small Business Act of 1953 requires a minimum of 23 percent of all federal contracts and sub-contracts be awarded to small businesses.

Since 2003, over 15 federal investigations have been released, which found hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts that by law should be going to hardworking American small businesses have been diverted to Fortune 500 firms.

Every major newspaper in the country has reported on the problem and several of the largest television networks such as ABC, CBS and CNN have aired stories on the issue.

President Obama seemed to agree it was time to stop the fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs when, in February of 2008, he released the statement, "Small businesses are the backbone of our nation's economy and we must protect this great resource. It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." (http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/26/the_american_small_business_le.php)  

Since making that statement almost a year ago, President Obama has consistently refused to make good on his campaign promise, and support legislation to stop Fortune 500 firms from hijacking federal contracts designated for America's nearly 27 million small businesses.

Not only has President Obama refused to propose even a single policy to address the problem, but he actually changed his website to remove the appearance that he had ever made the statement, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." (http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/sbhome/)

Just three weeks before the election, President Obama dropped a plan developed by his small business advisory council that would have halted the diversion of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to "corporate giants" and created millions of jobs. (https://www.asbl.com/documents/BOsmallbusinesspolicy.pdf) 

The American Small Business League (ASBL) is encouraging journalists to ask President Obama if he will allow Fortune 500 firms to continue to take federal small business contracts during his administration.

-###-