Petaluma, Calif. - Today, President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law small business “jobs legislation” that is unlikely to create any substantial number of net new jobs, while the most significant economic stimulus proposed to date sits idle in the House Committee on Small Business. 

H.R. 2568, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act, would address the small business community’s greatest need: the demand for products and services.  Yet the bill has received little fanfare from the administration or Congress. H.R. 2568 would stop the diversion of billions of dollars a year in federal small business contracts to large corporations, and significantly increase the volume of federal contracts awarded to small businesses.

Recent reports from the Congressional Oversight Panel, and the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) have concluded that the small business community’s greatest need is demand for its products and services. H.R. 2568 would inject billions of dollars directly into the small business community.  President Obama’s H.R. 5297, the Small Business Jobs Act, will not direct federal spending to small businesses.
(http://www.nfib.com/Portals/0/PDF/sbet/SBET201006.pdf ; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/13/federal-oversight-panel-s_n_574781.html)  

The Small Business Act requires a minimum of 23 percent of the total value of all prime contracts be awarded to small businesses.  The American Small Business League (ASBL) has estimated that the government is currently awarding less than 5 percent to small businesses.  H.R. 2568 would increase the percentage of government contracts awarded to small businesses by more than 18 percent.

In April of 2010, U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair, Mary L. Landrieu (D-LA), estimated that increasing contracts to small businesses by just 1 percent would create more than 100,000 new jobs.  Based on this estimate, H.R. 2568 could create more than 1.8 million new jobs. (www.smallbusinessmajority.org/_docs/resources/SBC_Jobs_Package.pdf)  

In November of 2009, Former Secretary of Labor, and noted economist Robert Reich stated, “Right now there is only one buyer left, the government.  The only way to get jobs back right now is for the federal government to spend even more on the roads, bridges, schools, parks, public transport and everything else we need.” H.R. 2568 would direct more than $100 billion a year in existing federal infrastructure spending to the nation’s 27 million small businesses.
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/how-and-why-obama-imusti_b_347095.html)  

“H.R. 2568 is the most efficient way to create jobs and stimulate the economy.  It’s reasonable, logical, cost effective and deficit neutral,” ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. “Considering the current state of our economy, I can’t imagine why President Obama and Congress would not support legislation to stop giving small business contracts to large and Fortune 500 firms.”

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