Petaluma, Calif. - A recent Washington Post story found the Bush Administration has diverted over 40 percent of all federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms. (https://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=1179) Based on the Washington Post's sampling of federal contracts, during the eight years of the Bush Administration, nearly $500 billon in federal small business contracts have been diverted to Fortune 500 firms, their subsidiaries, and hundreds of other clearly large businesses.

The Washington Post found that firms such as Lockheed Martin, Dell, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, SAIC, L-3 Communications, CACI and British Aerospace (BAE) received billions of dollars in government small business contracts.

In February, Senator Barack Obama said, "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) However, since February Senator Obama has not commented publicly regarding the issue.  Additionally, he has not released any specific plans to stop the diversion of federal small business contracts to large businesses in either his small business plan or his small business emergency rescue plan. The Obama campaign has not issued any statements in response to the Washington Post story.

Recently, CNN's American Morning ran a story criticizing Senator Obama's small business rescue plan for ignoring the issue, as well as more than a dozen federal investigations that have found Fortune 500 firms as the actual recipients of government small business contracts. Again, the Obama campaign has not issued any statements in response to the CNN story.

Since 2003, over a dozen federal investigations have found fraud and abuse in virtually every federal program designed to assist small businesses, including firms owned by women, minorities and veterans. (https://www.asbl.com/documentlibrary.html) In addition to finding that the Bush Administration has diverted billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms, several of the investigations found large businesses had committed fraud in order to illegally receive federal small business contracts. (http://www.sba.gov/IG/05-16.pdf) 

Major networks such as ABC, CBS and CNN have all released investigative stories on this issue. (https://www.asbl.com/media2.php) 

To date, no journalist has asked Senator Obama about the diversion of billons of dollars in government small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms. Based on recent polls, it is likely Senator Obama will become President Obama without ever addressing what the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General referred to as, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the entire Federal Government today."
(http://www.sba.gov/IG/05-15.pdf) 

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