By Lloyd Chapman
President, American Small Business League
I can already hear the empty pandering to the middle class in President Obama's State of the Union speech. He will be reading one of the most well written speeches of his presidency since he and his handlers realize their reign in Washington could be on the ropes.
President Obama has a documentable track record of broken campaign promises and policies that have virtually ignored the middle class.
In my perfect world, every network carrying President Obama's State of the Union address would be required to run a scrolling banner of my up to the minute commentary on the bottom of the screen.
When President Obama starts to roll out his impassioned B.S. about his concern for small businesses and the middle class, I could throw-up some of the actual data on his policies to date.
As people watch President Obama on the screen, I want them to see that small businesses in the middle class are responsible for over 97 percent of all net new jobs in America. To date, President Obama and the democratically controlled Congress have allocated approximately 2 percent of the stimulus funds to small businesses.
When he starts to talk about small businesses, I would run some of the latest government data that shows every day of his administration, hundreds of millions in federal contracts that by law are earmarked for small business have been diverted to Fortune 500 firms.
I would love to run the names across the bottom of the screen as he spoke of some of the firms the Obama Administration is currently giving small business contracts. I wonder how President Obama's most ardent supporters would feel when they saw billions of dollars in federal small business contracts going to Bechtel, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman.
The largest recipient in the latest government small business data was Textron, a Fortune 500 corporation with 43,000 employees, and $14 billion in annual revenue. That's a small business right? Textron received nearly $780 million in federal small business contracts in a single year.
I wonder what affect it would have on his poll numbers if every American knew the Obama Administration was giving U.S. government small business funds to some of the largest corporations in England, France, Italy and even South Korea.
After all the shocking statistics ran, I would run a statement President Obama released almost two years ago in February of 2008, "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)
I think most people would be much more informed if they skipped President Obama's State of the Union address and spent that time looking up some of the stories on what he has actually done instead. Google "Lloyd Chapman Barack Obama small business" [Do not search with the words in quotes] and see what you find.
There is a staggering abyss between what Obama says and what Obama does.
One of the best examples is President Obama's campaign promise to enact a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry. On every campaign stop for two years, President Obama promised to enact a windfall profits tax on oil companies. If you want to find out how much you can trust what Barack Obama says, try and find his excuse for completely dropping the windfall profits tax.
So when you watch the State of the Union address or any Obama speech, realize that the man gives $2 billion a week in federal small business funds to some of the largest companies in the world. Realize that his two top campaign contributors, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase are making record profits in the middle of the worst economic meltdown in 80 years, while bankruptcies for small businesses are up 44 percent over last year.
People need to begin to realize that President Obama should have received an Oscar for best actor instead of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Wednesday night he will read his lines with passion and conviction, but Thursday morning his policies will continue to ignore the middle class and the small businesses where most Americans work and that create over 97 percent of all net new jobs.
The only change the middle class going to get from President Obama will be the pocket change that's left in their bank accounts at the end of the month.
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Contact:
Christopher Gunn
Communications Director
American Small Business League
cgunn@asbl.com
(707) 789-9575
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Obama Administration Obscures Federal Contracting Data
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 25, 2010
Petaluma, Calif. - The Obama Administration has removed a critical field from the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS - NG) that has been used by federal contractors to indicate their status as a small or large business. Obama officials at the General Services Administration (GSA) removed the "small business flag" on all future and historical data.
Over a dozen federal investigations and numerous investigative stories by organizations such as ABC, CBS and CNN have used the small business flag to uncover billions of dollars in federal small business contracts that were fraudulently diverted to large businesses. (Report 5-15, http://www.asbl.com/documents/05-15.pdf; ABC, http://www.asbl.com/abc_evening_news.wmv; CBS, http://www.asbl.com/cbs.wmv; CNN, http://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=1170)
The removal of the "small business flag" will make it difficult if not impossible for any future federal investigations to uncover large businesses that have fraudulently claimed to be small businesses prior to 2009.
In addition to removing the small business flag, the GSA has forced all firms that obtain federal contracting data from the GSA for dissemination to the public, to sign an agreement, which severely restricts their release of the data. The GSA's "GETLIST RULES OF BEHAVIOR" warns, "parties failing to sign the agreement and comply with the terms will be denied access to this service."(http://www.fpds-ng.com/downloads/FPDS-NG%20getList%20Rules%20of%20Behavior.pdf)
In one example, the agreement stipulates a firm would be in violation of the agreement if they create a report that "show[s] socio-economic information but which contains none of the requisite SBA rules of exclusion."
The American Small Business League (ASBL) has challenged the SBA's "rules of exclusion" since there is no basis in the law for the practice. The Small Business Act stipulates a minimum of 23 percent of the "total value of all prime contract awards for each fiscal year" shall be awarded to small businesses. (http://www.sba.gov/regulations/sbaact/sbaact.html) The ASBL believes the SBA has arbitrarily created the "rules of exclusion" to artificially inflate the percentage of federal contracts awarded to small businesses by removing billions of dollars in major prime contracts from their calculations.
The GSA's "GETLIST RULES OF BEHAVIOR" would prevent firms from releasing accurate data on the actual percentage of all federal contracts awarded to small businesses. In the past, information released by private firms on the percentage of all federal contracts awarded to legitimate small businesses has been significantly lower than the percentage claimed by the Small Business Administration.
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Contact:
Christopher Gunn
Communications Director
American Small Business League
cgunn@asbl.com
(707) 789-9575
January 25, 2010
Petaluma, Calif. - The Obama Administration has removed a critical field from the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS - NG) that has been used by federal contractors to indicate their status as a small or large business. Obama officials at the General Services Administration (GSA) removed the "small business flag" on all future and historical data.
Over a dozen federal investigations and numerous investigative stories by organizations such as ABC, CBS and CNN have used the small business flag to uncover billions of dollars in federal small business contracts that were fraudulently diverted to large businesses. (Report 5-15, http://www.asbl.com/documents/05-15.pdf; ABC, http://www.asbl.com/abc_evening_news.wmv; CBS, http://www.asbl.com/cbs.wmv; CNN, http://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=1170)
The removal of the "small business flag" will make it difficult if not impossible for any future federal investigations to uncover large businesses that have fraudulently claimed to be small businesses prior to 2009.
In addition to removing the small business flag, the GSA has forced all firms that obtain federal contracting data from the GSA for dissemination to the public, to sign an agreement, which severely restricts their release of the data. The GSA's "GETLIST RULES OF BEHAVIOR" warns, "parties failing to sign the agreement and comply with the terms will be denied access to this service."(http://www.fpds-ng.com/downloads/FPDS-NG%20getList%20Rules%20of%20Behavior.pdf)
In one example, the agreement stipulates a firm would be in violation of the agreement if they create a report that "show[s] socio-economic information but which contains none of the requisite SBA rules of exclusion."
The American Small Business League (ASBL) has challenged the SBA's "rules of exclusion" since there is no basis in the law for the practice. The Small Business Act stipulates a minimum of 23 percent of the "total value of all prime contract awards for each fiscal year" shall be awarded to small businesses. (http://www.sba.gov/regulations/sbaact/sbaact.html) The ASBL believes the SBA has arbitrarily created the "rules of exclusion" to artificially inflate the percentage of federal contracts awarded to small businesses by removing billions of dollars in major prime contracts from their calculations.
The GSA's "GETLIST RULES OF BEHAVIOR" would prevent firms from releasing accurate data on the actual percentage of all federal contracts awarded to small businesses. In the past, information released by private firms on the percentage of all federal contracts awarded to legitimate small businesses has been significantly lower than the percentage claimed by the Small Business Administration.
-###-
Contact:
Christopher Gunn
Communications Director
American Small Business League
cgunn@asbl.com
(707) 789-9575
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Bechtel Denies Landing Government Small Business Contract
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 20, 2010
Petaluma, Calif. - On December 17, 2009, the American Small Business League (ASBL) issued a press release reporting that Bechtel Corporation had received a $128 million federal contract, which had been coded as a small business contract in the government's socio-economic field in the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS-NG). http://www.asbl.com/documents/20090806BechtelSB_DOE.pdf
In response, Bechtel Corporation prompted a January 7, 2010 story on ProcurementLeaders.com titled, "Bechtel hits back at ASBL over $128m federal contract win." In the article, Bechtel Bettis spokesman Francis Canavan denied the fact that Bechtel has received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts coded as small business. Additionally, Canavan attempted to explain that Fedmine had erroneously tagged the socio status as small business. ASBL points to the fact that Fedmine obtains all of its information directly from FPDS-NG and does not modify the data. Fedmine.us is a database driven web application that aggregates data from FPDS-NG. http://www.fedmine.us/fedmine/Home.html
The ASBL has uncovered data in FPDS-NG that indicates that dozens of contracts awarded to Bechtel were coded as a small business in the socio-economic field. The largest of which is a $230 million contract awarded to Bechtel Bettis during FY 2008 by the Department of Energy (DOE). http://www.asbl.com/documents/20100119BechtelSB_DOE2.pdf
A series of federal investigations have found that billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts have been diverted to Fortune 500 firms. Investigative stories by ABC, CBS and CNN have found billions of dollars in federal small business contracts have been diverted to firms such as General Dynamics, Xerox, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, British Aerospace (BAE), Dell Computer and French giant Thales Communications.
(ABC, http://www.asbl.com/abc_evening_news.wmv; CBS, http://www.asbl.com/cbs.wmv; CNN, http://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=1170)
"This situation with Bechtel is really just the tip of the iceberg. It is time for President Obama to make good on his campaign promise to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants. http://bit.ly/4fRrGq The best way to do that is with H.R. 2568, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act." ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. "That bill will redirect more money into the hands of the middle class than anything President Obama has proposed to date." http://www.asbl.com/documents/hr2568.pdf
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Contact:
Christopher Gunn
Communications Director
American Small Business League
cgunn@asbl.com
(707) 789-9575
January 20, 2010
Petaluma, Calif. - On December 17, 2009, the American Small Business League (ASBL) issued a press release reporting that Bechtel Corporation had received a $128 million federal contract, which had been coded as a small business contract in the government's socio-economic field in the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS-NG). http://www.asbl.com/documents/20090806BechtelSB_DOE.pdf
In response, Bechtel Corporation prompted a January 7, 2010 story on ProcurementLeaders.com titled, "Bechtel hits back at ASBL over $128m federal contract win." In the article, Bechtel Bettis spokesman Francis Canavan denied the fact that Bechtel has received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts coded as small business. Additionally, Canavan attempted to explain that Fedmine had erroneously tagged the socio status as small business. ASBL points to the fact that Fedmine obtains all of its information directly from FPDS-NG and does not modify the data. Fedmine.us is a database driven web application that aggregates data from FPDS-NG. http://www.fedmine.us/fedmine/Home.html
The ASBL has uncovered data in FPDS-NG that indicates that dozens of contracts awarded to Bechtel were coded as a small business in the socio-economic field. The largest of which is a $230 million contract awarded to Bechtel Bettis during FY 2008 by the Department of Energy (DOE). http://www.asbl.com/documents/20100119BechtelSB_DOE2.pdf
A series of federal investigations have found that billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts have been diverted to Fortune 500 firms. Investigative stories by ABC, CBS and CNN have found billions of dollars in federal small business contracts have been diverted to firms such as General Dynamics, Xerox, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, British Aerospace (BAE), Dell Computer and French giant Thales Communications.
(ABC, http://www.asbl.com/abc_evening_news.wmv; CBS, http://www.asbl.com/cbs.wmv; CNN, http://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=1170)
"This situation with Bechtel is really just the tip of the iceberg. It is time for President Obama to make good on his campaign promise to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants. http://bit.ly/4fRrGq The best way to do that is with H.R. 2568, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act." ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. "That bill will redirect more money into the hands of the middle class than anything President Obama has proposed to date." http://www.asbl.com/documents/hr2568.pdf
-###-
Contact:
Christopher Gunn
Communications Director
American Small Business League
cgunn@asbl.com
(707) 789-9575
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Still No Windfall Profits Tax From Obama After Oil Tops $80 Per Barrel
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 6, 2010
Petaluma, Calif. – In the two years running up to the 2008 presidential election, President Barack Obama routinely promised to enact a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry to fund a $1000 per household energy rebate. Shortly after being elected, President Obama quietly dropped the promise from his agenda. An anonymous transition team staffer tried to justify the decision by stating, "President-elect Obama announced the policy during the campaign because oil prices were above $80 per barrel. They are currently below that now and expected to stay below that." http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE4B206W20081203
On Monday, the price of crude oil topped $80 per barrel, reaching $81.39, according to a Bloomberg energy report. Many experts are predicting that oil could top more than $100 per barrel in the first half of 2010. http://www.bloomberg.com/energy/
"I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills," President Obama said in a statement released in June of 2008. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSWAT00963020080609
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJPo5IGTd0A
Prior to the 2008 presidential election, President Obama's promise to implement the tax was displayed prominently at the top of the "Economy" section of the Obama-Biden campaign website. On November 6, President-elect Obama rolled out his transition website, Change.gov, which also displayed the promise. However, within 48 hours of being elected the campaign promise was quietly removed without explanation. (Pre-change, http://www.asbl.com/documents/Economy_Change.pdf ; Post-change, http://change.gov/agenda/economy_agenda/)
Proponents of the tax maintain that the oil and gas industry has gouged the public at the pump to reap excessive profits for nearly a decade, even with barrel prices in the $20 range. In 2003, when the average price of a barrel of oil was $30.06, big oil companies reaped record profits. http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/crude2.html In January of 2004 the Associated Press (AP) reported that Exxon-Mobil earned $21.51 billion in profits during fiscal year (FY) 2003. At the time the mark nearly doubled the company's profit during FY 2002. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60862-2004Jan29_2.html
Responding to the abrupt and unexplained disappearance of President Obama's campaign promise, in a December 2008 blog, columnist David Sirota wrote, "If oil prices are down and oil industry profits are truly down, what's the harm in passing a windfall profits tax?" http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008124903/mandate-watch-obama-backs-promise-pass-windfall-profits-tax-big-oil
"Implementing a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry is a reasonable, efficient and effective means of keeping energy costs down and helping American businesses and families," American Small Business League (ASBL) President Lloyd Chapman said. "Now that oil has topped $80 per barrel, it will be interesting to see what President Obama's new excuse is going to be for not honoring his campaign promise."
-###-
January 6, 2010
Petaluma, Calif. – In the two years running up to the 2008 presidential election, President Barack Obama routinely promised to enact a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry to fund a $1000 per household energy rebate. Shortly after being elected, President Obama quietly dropped the promise from his agenda. An anonymous transition team staffer tried to justify the decision by stating, "President-elect Obama announced the policy during the campaign because oil prices were above $80 per barrel. They are currently below that now and expected to stay below that." http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE4B206W20081203
On Monday, the price of crude oil topped $80 per barrel, reaching $81.39, according to a Bloomberg energy report. Many experts are predicting that oil could top more than $100 per barrel in the first half of 2010. http://www.bloomberg.com/energy/
"I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills," President Obama said in a statement released in June of 2008. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSWAT00963020080609
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJPo5IGTd0A
Prior to the 2008 presidential election, President Obama's promise to implement the tax was displayed prominently at the top of the "Economy" section of the Obama-Biden campaign website. On November 6, President-elect Obama rolled out his transition website, Change.gov, which also displayed the promise. However, within 48 hours of being elected the campaign promise was quietly removed without explanation. (Pre-change, http://www.asbl.com/documents/Economy_Change.pdf ; Post-change, http://change.gov/agenda/economy_agenda/)
Proponents of the tax maintain that the oil and gas industry has gouged the public at the pump to reap excessive profits for nearly a decade, even with barrel prices in the $20 range. In 2003, when the average price of a barrel of oil was $30.06, big oil companies reaped record profits. http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/crude2.html In January of 2004 the Associated Press (AP) reported that Exxon-Mobil earned $21.51 billion in profits during fiscal year (FY) 2003. At the time the mark nearly doubled the company's profit during FY 2002. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60862-2004Jan29_2.html
Responding to the abrupt and unexplained disappearance of President Obama's campaign promise, in a December 2008 blog, columnist David Sirota wrote, "If oil prices are down and oil industry profits are truly down, what's the harm in passing a windfall profits tax?" http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008124903/mandate-watch-obama-backs-promise-pass-windfall-profits-tax-big-oil
"Implementing a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry is a reasonable, efficient and effective means of keeping energy costs down and helping American businesses and families," American Small Business League (ASBL) President Lloyd Chapman said. "Now that oil has topped $80 per barrel, it will be interesting to see what President Obama's new excuse is going to be for not honoring his campaign promise."
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Monday, December 21, 2009
House Jobs Bill Falls Short of Real Solutions
House Stimulus Bill Criticized for Being a Sham
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 21, 2009
Petaluma, Calif. - Leaders from the U.S. House of Representatives have narrowly passed a, "Jobs for Main Street Bill," and once again failed to heed strong recommendations from America's 27 million small businesses. The bill has drawn strong criticism from both Republicans and Democrats:
"As the old axiom goes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing twice and expecting different results. With that in mind, it's astounding Speaker Pelosi would repeat the same mistakes with her second stimulus as she did with her first."
- Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL), December 16, 2009
"I believe Congress must continue taking strong action to create jobs, but any jobs package should have significant support for small businesses. I have been arguing for months that expanding small business lending is critical to getting our economy moving again, and this bill should have had far more small business support."
- Congressman Gary Peters (D-MI), December 16, 2009
Congress' jobs bill, H.R. 2847, allocates $75 billion in redirected TARP funds for "targeted investments." However, the bill fails to address the diversion of more than $100 billion a year in government small business contracts away from legitimate small businesses and into the hands of corporate giants. The American Small Business League (ASBL) maintains that the House's bill does little to address widespread fraud, abuse and loopholes in small business contracting programs, which continue at the cost of countless jobs every year.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, small businesses are responsible for more than 50 percent of America's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 50.2 percent of the non-farm private sector work force and more than 97 percent of all net new jobs. A recent study from the Kauffman Foundation found that firms less than five-years-old are responsible for nearly all net new jobs. http://www.kauffman.org/research-and-policy/where-will-the-jobs-come-from.aspx
"If Congress wanted to pass a jobs bill, it would pass H.R. 2568, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act of 2009. That bill would redirect more than $100 billion a year in federal infrastructure dollars to small businesses directly," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. "Congress' latest blunder is a one time hit, and a repeat of an already failed attempt to stimulate the economy. The Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act is the simplest and most effective stimulus proposed to date and would continue to help small businesses year-after-year." http://www.asbl.com/documents/hr2568.pdf
The House's, "Jobs for Main Street Bill," allocates less than 2.5 percent of the total volume of stimulus dollars invested by the government to small businesses which create virtually 100 percent all net new jobs.
-###-
Contact:
Christopher Gunn
Communications Director
American Small Business League
cgunn@asbl.com
(707) 789-9575
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 21, 2009
Petaluma, Calif. - Leaders from the U.S. House of Representatives have narrowly passed a, "Jobs for Main Street Bill," and once again failed to heed strong recommendations from America's 27 million small businesses. The bill has drawn strong criticism from both Republicans and Democrats:
"As the old axiom goes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing twice and expecting different results. With that in mind, it's astounding Speaker Pelosi would repeat the same mistakes with her second stimulus as she did with her first."
- Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL), December 16, 2009
"I believe Congress must continue taking strong action to create jobs, but any jobs package should have significant support for small businesses. I have been arguing for months that expanding small business lending is critical to getting our economy moving again, and this bill should have had far more small business support."
- Congressman Gary Peters (D-MI), December 16, 2009
Congress' jobs bill, H.R. 2847, allocates $75 billion in redirected TARP funds for "targeted investments." However, the bill fails to address the diversion of more than $100 billion a year in government small business contracts away from legitimate small businesses and into the hands of corporate giants. The American Small Business League (ASBL) maintains that the House's bill does little to address widespread fraud, abuse and loopholes in small business contracting programs, which continue at the cost of countless jobs every year.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, small businesses are responsible for more than 50 percent of America's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 50.2 percent of the non-farm private sector work force and more than 97 percent of all net new jobs. A recent study from the Kauffman Foundation found that firms less than five-years-old are responsible for nearly all net new jobs. http://www.kauffman.org/research-and-policy/where-will-the-jobs-come-from.aspx
"If Congress wanted to pass a jobs bill, it would pass H.R. 2568, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act of 2009. That bill would redirect more than $100 billion a year in federal infrastructure dollars to small businesses directly," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. "Congress' latest blunder is a one time hit, and a repeat of an already failed attempt to stimulate the economy. The Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act is the simplest and most effective stimulus proposed to date and would continue to help small businesses year-after-year." http://www.asbl.com/documents/hr2568.pdf
The House's, "Jobs for Main Street Bill," allocates less than 2.5 percent of the total volume of stimulus dollars invested by the government to small businesses which create virtually 100 percent all net new jobs.
-###-
Contact:
Christopher Gunn
Communications Director
American Small Business League
cgunn@asbl.com
(707) 789-9575
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Obama Administration Gives Bechtel Bettis $128 Million Small Business Contract
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 17, 2009
Petaluma, Calif. - The American Small Business League (ASBL) has uncovered a $128 million small business contract awarded to Bechtel Bettis by Obama officials. Bechtel, a Fortune 500 corporation, did $31.4 billion in sales during fiscal year (FY) 2008 and maintains more than 44,000 employees. In the government's database under the category "socio status," the contract was reported as, "small business."
http://www.asbl.com/documents/20090806BechtelSB_DOE.pdf
During the 2008 presidential election cycle, President Barack Obama promised to, "end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." Yet to date, the Obama Administration has refused to adopt any policy or legislation to honor that campaign promise. As a result, every month the Obama Administration diverts billions of dollars in federal small business contracts away from legitimate small businesses where most Americans work and into the hands of corporate giants.
http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/26/the_american_small_business_le.php
Since 2003, twenty-five federal investigations have uncovered the diversion of billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts to some of the largest corporations in the world. The ASBL estimates that every year this issue diverts more than $100 billion in federal small business contracts away from legitimate small businesses and into the hands of multinational corporations. http://www.asbl.com/documentlibrary.html
The most recent data available from the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS-NG) indicates that a majority of small business contracts awarded by the Obama Administration have gone to Fortune 500 firms and thousands of large businesses in the United States and Europe. In addition to Bechtel, Obama officials have awarded small business contracts to: General Dynamics, Xerox, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, British Aerospace (BAE), Dell Computer and French giant Thales Communications. http://www.asbl.com/documents/20090825TopSmallBusinessContractors2008.pdf
In May of 2009, Congressman Hank Johnson (D-4-GA) introduced H.R. 2568, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act of 2009. To date the bill has bipartisan support from 19 co-sponsors. The ASBL maintains that H.R. 2568 is the simplest and most efficient way to stimulate the American economy by redirecting more than $100 billion a year in federal infrastructure spending to America's chief job creators, its small businesses. Firms with 20 or fewer employees are responsible for over 97 percent of all net new jobs, according to recent U.S. Census Bureau data. http://www.inc.com/news/articles/200708/data.html
"This issue is going to continue until journalists from the mainstream media begin to ask President Obama to explain why he is allowing billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts to be intentionally and in many cases, illegally diverted to Fortune 500 firms and large businesses worldwide," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. "If you want to know who the real President Obama is, take a look at this issue."
-###-
December 17, 2009
Petaluma, Calif. - The American Small Business League (ASBL) has uncovered a $128 million small business contract awarded to Bechtel Bettis by Obama officials. Bechtel, a Fortune 500 corporation, did $31.4 billion in sales during fiscal year (FY) 2008 and maintains more than 44,000 employees. In the government's database under the category "socio status," the contract was reported as, "small business."
http://www.asbl.com/documents/20090806BechtelSB_DOE.pdf
During the 2008 presidential election cycle, President Barack Obama promised to, "end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." Yet to date, the Obama Administration has refused to adopt any policy or legislation to honor that campaign promise. As a result, every month the Obama Administration diverts billions of dollars in federal small business contracts away from legitimate small businesses where most Americans work and into the hands of corporate giants.
http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/26/the_american_small_business_le.php
Since 2003, twenty-five federal investigations have uncovered the diversion of billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts to some of the largest corporations in the world. The ASBL estimates that every year this issue diverts more than $100 billion in federal small business contracts away from legitimate small businesses and into the hands of multinational corporations. http://www.asbl.com/documentlibrary.html
The most recent data available from the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS-NG) indicates that a majority of small business contracts awarded by the Obama Administration have gone to Fortune 500 firms and thousands of large businesses in the United States and Europe. In addition to Bechtel, Obama officials have awarded small business contracts to: General Dynamics, Xerox, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, British Aerospace (BAE), Dell Computer and French giant Thales Communications. http://www.asbl.com/documents/20090825TopSmallBusinessContractors2008.pdf
In May of 2009, Congressman Hank Johnson (D-4-GA) introduced H.R. 2568, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act of 2009. To date the bill has bipartisan support from 19 co-sponsors. The ASBL maintains that H.R. 2568 is the simplest and most efficient way to stimulate the American economy by redirecting more than $100 billion a year in federal infrastructure spending to America's chief job creators, its small businesses. Firms with 20 or fewer employees are responsible for over 97 percent of all net new jobs, according to recent U.S. Census Bureau data. http://www.inc.com/news/articles/200708/data.html
"This issue is going to continue until journalists from the mainstream media begin to ask President Obama to explain why he is allowing billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts to be intentionally and in many cases, illegally diverted to Fortune 500 firms and large businesses worldwide," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. "If you want to know who the real President Obama is, take a look at this issue."
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