Petaluma, Calif.- The House Small Business Committee has unanimously passed H.R 1873, titled " Small Business Fairness in Contracting Act."  Iowa Representative, Bruce Braley introduced the bill which lacks a re-certification provision to stop the flow of federal small business contracts to Fortune 1000 companies and their subsidiaries.

Small business groups like the American Small Business League say that the bill does not contain any provisions that will stop the flow of federal small business dollars to the hundreds of Fortune 1000 firms that currently have federal small business contracts.  As early as 2003, the Small Business Administration, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, the Office of Management and Budget and the SBA Office of Inspector General all supported the annual recertification of all firms claiming small business status for federal small business contracts. In 2006, the Senate Small Business Committee voted unanimously in favor of annual re-certification for all firms claiming small business status.

An annual re-certification policy that would halt the flow billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to firms like Lockheed, Boeing, Halliburton, IBM, Rolls Royce and AT&T is not included in H.R 1873.

 "This bill has absolutely no provisions of any kind that would stop hundreds of Fortune 1000 firms that have received federal small business contracts from continuing to receive billions in federal small business contracts for years to come," American Small Business League President Lloyd Chapman said. "Congressman Braley needs to answer one question; will current small business contracts awarded to Fortune 1000 firms still be counted as small business contracts if this legislation passes?"  The correct answer is, yes they will.

The ABC, CBS and CNN networks have all recently aired investigative reports on a federal investigation released in 2006 that found over $12 billion in federal small business contracts actually went to a "who's who" of Fortune 1000 firms in America.  To date, over 12 federal investigations have all found billions of dollars in government small business contracts actually ended up in the hands of some the largest corporations in America.  Two investigations found fraud as one of the many reasons large businesses have received government small business contracts.

The SBA's own Inspector General referred to the diversion of billions in federal small business contracts to large corporations as, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal Government today."

The absence of an annual re-certification policy that includes re-certification by all firms with existing small business contracts will allow large firms to continue to receive billions of dollars in federal small business contracts.