Questions for SBA Administrator Karen Mills from the American Small Business League

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 2, 2009

Questions for SBA Administrator Karen Mills from the American Small Business League

Petaluma, Calif. - In February of 2008, President Obama released the statement, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." Every year since 2006, the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA OIG) has released a report, which listed the agency's #1 management challenge as, "Procurement flaws allow large firms to obtain small business awards and agencies to count contracts performed by large firms towards their small business goals."
(http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/26/the_american_small_business_le.php, http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba/oig_reports_tmc_fy09.pdf)

Since 2003, over 15 federal investigations have found that billions of dollars a year in federal small business contracts are diverted to some of the largest corporations in the world. The most recent statistics released by the Obama Administration indicate that hundreds of Fortune 500 corporations, their subsidiaries and other large businesses were included in the government's fiscal year (FY) 2008 small business contracting data. (http://www.asbl.com/documents/20090825TopSmallBusinessContractors2008.pdf)

Firms that received federal small business contracts included: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, GTSI, L-3 Communications, British Aerospace (BAE), Northrop Grumman, Booz Allen Hamilton, Thales, General Dynamics, 3M, Hewlett-Packard, AT&T, Rolls-Royce and Dell Computer.

Despite the fact that the diversion of federal small business contracts to large corporations is the SBA's #1 challenge, Administrator Karen Mills has refused to mention the issue or adopt any policies to address it. The American Small Business League (ASBL) believes it is time for someone in the media to question Ms. Mills about the Obama Administration's refusal to address this pressing issue.

- Will the Obama Administration support federal legislation or policy that would allow wealthy venture capitalists to participate in federal small business contracting programs?

- Considering the fact that America is in the midst of its worst economic downturn in 80 years, why is the Obama Administration continuing to allow contracts to Fortune 500 firms to be counted as small business awards?

- Will any contracts to Fortune 500 corporations and their subsidiaries be included in the government's small business contracting statistics for FY 2009?

- Why hasn't the Obama Administration adopted polices or legislation to end the diversion of federal small business contacts to corporate giants?

- In February of 2009, the Obama Administration awarded a $128 million contract to Bechtel as a small business, how would you justify that to the millions of small businesses who are struggling to keep their doors open? (http://www.asbl.com/documents/20090806BechtelSB_DOE.pdf)

- Is there any truth to the rumor that the Obama Administration may try to close the SBA by combining it with the U.S. Department of Commerce?


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