Federal policies established during the Bush Administration are still allowing billions of dollars a month in federal small business funds to be diverted to thousands of the largest companies in the world.
Information from the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS-NG) compiled by the American Small Business League (ASBL) found that during the last two years, Bush era policies have allowed as much as $180 billion a year in federal small business funds to be diverted to many of the largest corporations in the world. Some of the firms that have received small business contracts include Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Dell Computer, Xerox, SAIC, General Dynamics, Bechtel and John Deere. Textron, a Fortune 500 defense contractor with 43,000 employees and over $14 billion a year in annual sales received over $775 million in federal small business contracts in a single year.
In addition to a "who's who" of corporate giants in America, Bush policies are still allowing many of the largest firms in Europe and Asia to receive U.S. government small business contracts. Ssangyong Corporation headquartered in Seoul, South Korea landed more than $250 million in U.S. small business contracts. Finmeccanica SpA located in Rome, Italy received over $280 million in small business funds. Other European corporate giants that have landed federal small business funds include British Aerospace (BAE), Rolls-Royce and French defense giant Thales Communications.
Since 2003, over a dozen federal investigations have found hundreds of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts that have been diverted to thousands of large businesses around the world. In 2005, the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General described the problems as, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal government today." (http://www.asbl.com/documents/05-15.pdf)
President Obama recognized the magnitude of the abuses and promised American small businesses he would end them when he stated, "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)
Research by the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship found that every one percent increase in federal contracts to small businesses would create over 100,000 new jobs. Research by the ASBL indicates ending the diversion of small business contracts to large businesses could increase federal contracts to small businesses by over 18 percent and could create over 1.8 million net new jobs.