PETALUMA, Calif., - In a recent appearance on CNBC, U.S. Chamber spokesman Giovanni Coratolo acknowledged the U.S. Chamber does support a Small Business Administration (SBA) policy that will allow Fortune 500 firms to keep billions of dollars in government small business contracts until the year 2012. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWtLshGVEss)

Coratolo acknowledged the U.S. Chamber's support for the SBA Grandfathering/Five-year recertification policy when asked by American Small Business League (ASBL) President Lloyd Chapman, if the Chamber would back a new bill in Congress to halt the flow of federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms and other clearly large businesses.

A YouTube video released by the ASBL points out over a dozen Fortune 1000 firms that have received federal small business contracts are currently represented on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Board of Directors. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwj26mHDjcY)

On Thursday, June 18th Coratolo released an article on the Chambers blog, titled "Business United or Business Divided - What's at Stake?" attacking Lloyd Chapman for his position that Fortune 500 firms should not be allowed to receive federal small business contracts. In the article, Coratolo accused Lloyd Chapman's campaign of ending the diversion of small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms as pitting "rich against poor." (http://www.chamberpost.com/2009/06/business-united-or-business-divided-whats-at-stake.html)

Coratolo's article acknowledged the U.S. Chamber would not support legislation to halt the diversion of federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms. Lloyd Chapman wrote the original draft of the bill, now titled H.R. 2568, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act.

Coratolo also repeated the U.S. Chambers support for the SBA Grandfathering policy that will allow Fortune 1000 firms to keep government small business contracts until 2012.

The SBA originally put the Grandfathering policy out for public comment in 2004. The ASBL coordinated a national campaign to oppose the SBA's Grandfathering policy. The SBA received one of the highest levels of opposition to the proposed policy in SBA history. Over 90 percent of the respondents strongly opposed the Grandfathering policy.

The SBA officially adopted the Grandfathering/Five-year recertification policy in 2007, despite the record number of public comments from small business owners and small business groups across the country opposing the policy.