In the wake of the FY2008 $30B shortfall in federal contracting with small businesses, the National Association of Small Business Contractors, representing America’s more than 300,000 small business contractors, announced today a strong call to Capitol Hill leaders to act swiftly on much needed contracting reforms.
“No amount of positive spin by the Small Business Administration can make up for the over $30B lost in FY2008 due to the federal government’s failure to meet small business contracting requirements,” says Cris Young, President of the National Association of Small Business Contractors. “This is not a single year accident. The federal government has failed to meet their small business contracting requirements for the past five years,” continues Young. “We have called for fair access to contracts for years. Instead we get promises and press releases.”
The National Association of Small Business Contractors calls for serious reform including: total and immediate transparency in contracting with monthly real-time status reports on contracting with small businesses; penalties to federal agencies for failure to meet contracting requirements; increased budgets for contracting personnel to provide adequate staff, training and preparedness; greater flexibility for the use of targeted programs to enable contracting staff to better reach to all small business markets; implementation of the nine-year old Women’s Procurement Program; ending the exclusions of overseas contracts and certain GSA contracts from small business goaling reports, increase funding for Procurement Technical Assistance Centers, establish stronger guidelines to end contract bundling and consolidation; enforce fines and legal consequences for large businesses misrepresenting their use of small business sub-contractors and representing their status erroneously as “small,” “women-owned,” or “minority-owned.”
“Press releases won’t end this problem. Outreach events provide some assistance. But, the real need is for contracting reform and leadership from President Obama to make very clear to members of his Cabinet that he expects their total commitment to bringing an end to this injustice,” adds Cris Young. “Each year, our American tax payer dollars are paid to the federal government to support our country. And, each year, these same dollars are sent directly into the hands of big business. The National Association of Small Business Contractors will not rest until this economic injustice ends.”
The National Association of Small Business Contractors is America’s leading trade association supporting small business access to government and prime contracts. The NASBC is a non-profit 501(c)6 organization founded in 2003. Its headquarter offices are located in Washington, DC.
CONTACT:
For more information, see http://www.nasbc.org/ or call 888-861-9290. National Association of Small Business Contractors.
