Petaluma, Calif. - After receiving significant campaign contributions from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), and special interests representing the biotechnology industry, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D - CA) has ramrodded legislation through the House of Representatives that will allow billionaire venture capitalists to hijack federal small business contracting programs. Thousands of legitimate small businesses across America could be forced to close their doors if the legislation becomes law.
Both bills, H.R. 3567 and H.R. 5819 will require the average American small business to compete head-to-head with firms owned and controlled by the nation's wealthiest investors for even the smallest federal small business contracts.
In its original form, H.R. 3567 would have allowed firms that are completely controlled by wealthy investors to be considered small businesses. Despite opposition from the nation's largest small business organizations and the Small Business Administration (SBA), Speaker Pelosi exerted enough pressure on her colleagues to get the bill passed in record time. The bill was pushed through the House so quickly, that many members of the House complained that they did not have adequate time to even read the bill before they were strong-armed by Pelosi into voting for it.
In H.R. 5819, Pelosi went so far as to allow some of the nation's largest and wealthiest venture capital firms to own up to 98 percent of a company and still be considered a small business. The full senate will be considering its version of the bill, S.3362, when they return from summer recess.
"I truly think that it is unfair for firms owned by venture capital companies to be considered small businesses. The inclusion of venture capital firms in government small business programs will leave legitimate small businesses out in the cold when it comes to getting federal work," said ASBL member Daryl Corley, President and CEO of the Clinton, Maryland based MSDS Consultant Services.
In a January 5, 2007 press release, Speaker Pelosi stated, "Honest leadership is not just a partisan goal. It is the key to putting the interests of all Americans ahead of the special interests. It is what the American people sent us here to do, and House Democrats are proud to have taken serious and substantive steps to ensure Congress governs with the highest ethical steps." Pelosi's words are a stark contrast to her actions regarding H.R. 3567 and H.R. 5819, which support the interests of Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and the NVCA, as opposed to the interests of America's nearly 27 million legitimate small businesses.
Speaker Pelosi has received significant contributions from several groups, which stand to substantially benefit from venture capital participation in federal small business programs. According to MAPLight.org, from January 2005 to May 2008, Speaker Pelosi received a combined $108,400 from venture capital giant, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; pharmaceutical giant, Amgen Inc; and lobbyist, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.
According to Opensecrets.org, in addition to its contributions to House Speaker Pelosi, the NVCA made major contributions to 17 members of the House Committee on Small Business to ensure that its two bills passed that committee. The largest recipient of their generous contributions was Committee Chair, Nydia M. Velázquez.
"I think Speaker Pelosi has forgotten that America is a Democracy. You will not find anyone outside the National Venture Capital Association who thinks billionaires and venture capital firms should be allowed to participate in federal programs to assist small businesses," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. "Our government is supposed to represent the will of all the people not just the wealthy people. Speaker Pelosi has clearly gone back on her campaign promises to end corruption in Washington. She is turning our government into a plutocracy and is selling legislation to wealthy investors that will cheat small business in the middle class economy out of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts."
Chapman added, "It is starting to look like small business in America might have been better off with a Republican controlled Congress."
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Contact:
Christopher Gunn
Communications Director
American Small Business League
cgunn@asbl.com
(707) 789-9575
www.asbl.com
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
Washington Post: Blackwater Worldwide: Small Business?
Today, the Washington Post's, "Government Inc." blog by Robert O'Harrow Jr. stated:
"Like companies across the land, Blackwater sought to be designated as a small business to win contracts more easily from the State Department or other agencies. But is it also possible that government procurement officials wanted to apply the designation to Blackwater to make it easier to award the contracts?
Don't laugh. It happens all the time."
The re-emergence of this issue brings us back to a press release distributed by the American Small Business League (ASBL) on July 30th, which found that from 2004 to 2008 Blackwater received upwards of $1.07 billion in federal contracts coded as small business contracts. Additionally, the ASBL reported that if the SBA had made the determination that Blackwater's 1000 "independent contractors" were employees, the firm would have exceeded the small business size standard for its industry by 250employees. To read more please click here http://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=1113.
To read the entire Washington Post blog, please click here: http://voices.washingtonpost.com
"Like companies across the land, Blackwater sought to be designated as a small business to win contracts more easily from the State Department or other agencies. But is it also possible that government procurement officials wanted to apply the designation to Blackwater to make it easier to award the contracts?
Don't laugh. It happens all the time."
The re-emergence of this issue brings us back to a press release distributed by the American Small Business League (ASBL) on July 30th, which found that from 2004 to 2008 Blackwater received upwards of $1.07 billion in federal contracts coded as small business contracts. Additionally, the ASBL reported that if the SBA had made the determination that Blackwater's 1000 "independent contractors" were employees, the firm would have exceeded the small business size standard for its industry by 250employees. To read more please click here http://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=1113.
To read the entire Washington Post blog, please click here: http://voices.washingtonpost.com
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Huffington Post: Blackwater Gets a Billion in Small Business Contracts with Help from SBA Loophole
A new report from the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General found Blackwater Worldwide had received "at least 100 small business set-aside contracts, worth over $144 million, since 2000." Additionally, the report pointed to the SBA's highly controversial ruling regarding Blackwater's size as a major contributing factor to the inclusion of Blackwater in federal small business contracting statistics.
In November of 2006, the SBA ruled that Blackwater was a small business by considering a substantial number of the firm's employees to be independent contractors. According to the SBA Inspector General report, more than 1000 employees were considered independent contractors and were not counted towards the company's size determination by the SBA. As a result, Blackwater was able to avoid the 1,500-employee size threshold for their industry and qualify for federal small business contracts. The SBA's interpretation helped Blackwater circumvent normal federal small business size standards. Without the SBA's loophole specifically created for Blackwater, the company would exceed the small business size standard by more than 250 employees and would not be eligible for federal small business contracts.
Please click here to read more: www.huffingtonpost.com
In November of 2006, the SBA ruled that Blackwater was a small business by considering a substantial number of the firm's employees to be independent contractors. According to the SBA Inspector General report, more than 1000 employees were considered independent contractors and were not counted towards the company's size determination by the SBA. As a result, Blackwater was able to avoid the 1,500-employee size threshold for their industry and qualify for federal small business contracts. The SBA's interpretation helped Blackwater circumvent normal federal small business size standards. Without the SBA's loophole specifically created for Blackwater, the company would exceed the small business size standard by more than 250 employees and would not be eligible for federal small business contracts.
Please click here to read more: www.huffingtonpost.com
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Lloyd Chapman on the Huffington Post: SBA Goes After Its Harshest Critic
Petaluma, Calif. - The American Small Business League (ASBL) has uncovered an extensive campaign by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to impugn the organization's credibility and defame its President, Lloyd Chapman.
A number of journalists have informed the ASBL that after quoting Chapman in stories on the diversion of federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms, they received aggressive phone calls and e-mails from the Director of the SBA's Press Office, Mike Stamler attempting to discredit Chapman and the ASBL.
In one case, after quoting Chapman in a story, the Long Island Business Journal (LIBJ) received a series of aggressive correspondence from Stamler, which was so profane in nature that editors of the paper responded by publishing a blog entitled, "Expletives the SBA's Forte." (http://libizblog.wordpress.com/2008/02/22/expletives-the-sbas-forte/)
The ASBL has responded to the SBA's actions by using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request all e-mail correspondence to and from Mike Stamler during the years 2006 and 2007.
Although the SBA has refused to release all of Stamler's correspondence, the SBA has released some correspondence, which clearly demonstrates a pattern of libelous communication between Stamler and journalists regarding Chapman. The emails went as far as to attack the credibility of the ASBL's contracting data, which actually was data the SBA was forced to release to ASBL after losing four FOIA lawsuits to them.
Click here to read more: www.huffingtonpost.com
A number of journalists have informed the ASBL that after quoting Chapman in stories on the diversion of federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms, they received aggressive phone calls and e-mails from the Director of the SBA's Press Office, Mike Stamler attempting to discredit Chapman and the ASBL.
In one case, after quoting Chapman in a story, the Long Island Business Journal (LIBJ) received a series of aggressive correspondence from Stamler, which was so profane in nature that editors of the paper responded by publishing a blog entitled, "Expletives the SBA's Forte." (http://libizblog.wordpress.com/2008/02/22/expletives-the-sbas-forte/)
The ASBL has responded to the SBA's actions by using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request all e-mail correspondence to and from Mike Stamler during the years 2006 and 2007.
Although the SBA has refused to release all of Stamler's correspondence, the SBA has released some correspondence, which clearly demonstrates a pattern of libelous communication between Stamler and journalists regarding Chapman. The emails went as far as to attack the credibility of the ASBL's contracting data, which actually was data the SBA was forced to release to ASBL after losing four FOIA lawsuits to them.
Click here to read more: www.huffingtonpost.com
Monday, July 28, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
POGO: Small Business Contractors Get a 'John Deere' Letter
This week, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) blogged about the recent Department of Interior (DOI) Office of Inspector General investigation into the diversion of federal small business contracts to large corporations. In the Blog, POGO staffer Neil Gordon stated,
"Last month, we blogged about the American Small Business League's (ASBL) claim that the Bush administration, through the Small Business Administration (SBA), has lied to Congress and the public about the extent to which federal small business contracts end up going to some of the world's largest companies. With the release of this DOI-IG report, the ASBL reiterates that claim. According to the ASBL, the SBA is misleading the public in press statements that characterize the $5.7 million cited in the report as the total amount of small business contracts that went to large companies, neglecting to point out that the figure comes from a survey of just a tiny fraction of all small business contracts awarded by the DOI.
The report reviewed just 0.3% of the $4 billion DOI bureaus awarded to small business entities during fiscal years 2006-2007. The ASBL, however, decided to investigate further. It conducted a review of the DOI's top 100 recipients of federal small business contracts for 2006 and 2007. Between the two top 100 lists, the ASBL found more than $430 million in federal small business contracts had been awarded to 31 large corporations, most of which are Fortune 500 companies. Based on the DOI-IG report's methodology, the ASBL estimates the total amount of small business contracts awarded to large corporations by the DOI could exceed $1.7 billion for 2006 and 2007.
Some may scoff at the ASBL's findings and somewhat heated rhetoric. However, a glance at Appendix 3 in the DOI-IG report, which lists numerous other recent government reports that highlight serious problems in the small business contracting program, indicates the ASBL is probably on the right track."
To read the full post, please click on the following link:
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2008/07/small-business.html
The first congressional hearing on the diversion of federal small business contracts to large corporations was held in May of 2003. Since then, there have been more than a dozen federal investigations that have found Fortune 500 corporations as the actual recipients of federal small business contracts.
This latest DOI report is further proof that the federal government is counting small business contract awards to large businesses towards its small business procurement goals. Clearly, there are major problems in federal small business contracting programs and it is time to address these problems. Click here to learn more about what you can do to stop this problem: http://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=645
"Last month, we blogged about the American Small Business League's (ASBL) claim that the Bush administration, through the Small Business Administration (SBA), has lied to Congress and the public about the extent to which federal small business contracts end up going to some of the world's largest companies. With the release of this DOI-IG report, the ASBL reiterates that claim. According to the ASBL, the SBA is misleading the public in press statements that characterize the $5.7 million cited in the report as the total amount of small business contracts that went to large companies, neglecting to point out that the figure comes from a survey of just a tiny fraction of all small business contracts awarded by the DOI.
The report reviewed just 0.3% of the $4 billion DOI bureaus awarded to small business entities during fiscal years 2006-2007. The ASBL, however, decided to investigate further. It conducted a review of the DOI's top 100 recipients of federal small business contracts for 2006 and 2007. Between the two top 100 lists, the ASBL found more than $430 million in federal small business contracts had been awarded to 31 large corporations, most of which are Fortune 500 companies. Based on the DOI-IG report's methodology, the ASBL estimates the total amount of small business contracts awarded to large corporations by the DOI could exceed $1.7 billion for 2006 and 2007.
Some may scoff at the ASBL's findings and somewhat heated rhetoric. However, a glance at Appendix 3 in the DOI-IG report, which lists numerous other recent government reports that highlight serious problems in the small business contracting program, indicates the ASBL is probably on the right track."
To read the full post, please click on the following link:
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2008/07/small-business.html
The first congressional hearing on the diversion of federal small business contracts to large corporations was held in May of 2003. Since then, there have been more than a dozen federal investigations that have found Fortune 500 corporations as the actual recipients of federal small business contracts.
This latest DOI report is further proof that the federal government is counting small business contract awards to large businesses towards its small business procurement goals. Clearly, there are major problems in federal small business contracting programs and it is time to address these problems. Click here to learn more about what you can do to stop this problem: http://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=645
Thursday, July 17, 2008
For Fed Work, Big Biz Trumps Small Firms
This is a great story, which ran across Associated Press media outlets today regarding the unequal distribution of small business contracts in the Washington D.C Area and the diversion of federal small business contracts to large corporations.
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