Washington Post Finds Bush Cheated Small Businesses Out of Over Half a Trillion Dollars...

Washington Post Finds Bush Cheated Small Businesses Out of Over Half a
Trillion Dollars in Contracts

PETALUMA, Calif., Oct. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A recent story by the
Washington Post concluded that over 40 percent of the contracts federal
agencies were supposed to give to small businesses actually were diverted to
Fortune 500 firms.

The Washington Post reviewed a sample of $13 billion in federal contracts that
were reported as going to small businesses. In that sample, the Washington
Post found over $5 billion or approximately 40 percent had actually been
awarded to Fortune 500 firms such as Lockheed Martin, Dell Computer, L-3
Communications, SAIC, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and British Aerospace
(BAE).

The information reviewed by the Washington Post was the most accurate data the
government has produced since 2000. In 2002, the General Accounting Office
(GAO) launched an investigation based on information provided by American
Small Business League (ASBL) President Lloyd Chapman
(http://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=10), which found thousands of large
businesses were receiving federal small business contracts.

The ASBL projects that the volume of federal small business contracts that
were diverted to Fortune 500 firms was much larger in the earlier years of the
Bush Administration, before the problem was exposed in investigative stories
by CBS, ABC and CNN. (http://www.asbl.com/media2.php)

The most recent estimates from the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office
of Advocacy reported that approximately $140 billion in government contracts
and subcontracts had been reported as going to small businesses each year.

The 40 percent figure uncovered by the Washington Post was just for Fortune
500 firms and other clearly large businesses. The Washington Post did not look
at other large businesses that were not household names, but still would not
qualify as small businesses. If all firms that did not qualify as legitimate
small businesses were considered, the percentage could be much higher.

Several government officials have put the percentage of federal small business
contracts that were diverted to large businesses between 50 percent and 86
percent.

Using the conservative 40 percent number uncovered by the Washington Post,
during the eight years of the Bush Administration, approximately $448 billion
in federal small business contracts would have been diverted to Fortune 500
firms and other large businesses.

Based on information obtained in a series of successful Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) law suits the ASBL has won against the Bush Administration, the
ASBL projects that during the eight years of the Bush Administration over $600
billion and possibly as much as $800 billion in government small business
contracts were diverted to corporate giants in the United States and Europe.

In February, Senator Obama stated, "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.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=1002)

SOURCE American Small Business League

Christopher Gunn, Communications Director, American Small Business League,
+1-707-789-9575, cgunn@asbl.com