Kerry Holds Bush Administration Accountable for Failed Federal Contracting Policies for Small Businesses

Today Senator John Kerry

(D-Mass.) chaired a hearing before the Committee on Small Business and

Entrepreneurship to examine the challenges and solutions for small

businesses in the federal contracting arena. The hearing focused on

barriers to success for small business, such as a maze of complicated

regulations, contract bundling, size standards with loopholes for big

businesses, a lack of protections for sub-contractors, and a General

Services Administration schedule that's difficult to navigate.

"The federal contracting deck is pretty heavily stacked against small

businesses," said Kerry. "The Bush Administration keeps telling us they're

making progress, but we're not seeing the results. And that means small

firms are having a more difficult time staying competitive and doing

business with the government. We can do better, and today's hearing is a

first step towards developing comprehensive contracting legislation that I

will introduce later this year."

According to Eagle Eye Publishers, the federal government spent more

than $412 billion in contracts last year. Yet only about 20 percent went to

small businesses, falling short of the federally mandated 23 percent. That

means that more than $12 billion dollars didn't go to small businesses that

should have.

Kerry pressed the Bush Administration to implement the Women's

Procurement Program which became law in 2000 and to make a real effort to

contract with service disabled veterans, noting the Committee's January

2007 hearing on veterans entrepreneurship issues "lit a fire" within the

Department of Defense to do more. Kerry also questioned why the Small

Business Administration only requested nine Procurement Center

Representatives (PCRs) this year to oversee more than $400 billion in

federal contracts while he and Ranking Member Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) have

pushed for 100 additional PCRs. Currently there are only about 40 full-time

PCRs.

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