My staff at the American Small Business League (ASBL) and I have spent a week on the phone sounding the alarm about an anti-minority small-business policy proposed by the Obama administration.
Friday, Sept. 9, one day after President Obama announced the American Jobs Act, his administration quietly announced plans to dismantle one of the nation's most successful programs to create jobs in minority communities from coast to coast. The announcement, entered into the Federal Register, stated that the Pentagon, NASA and the U.S. Coast Guard were no longer required to hit a 5-percent contracting goal with small businesses owned by minorities.
This is the kind of typical, non-transparent Washington move that is beginning to define President Obama. It is why I have been telling people for years to stop listening to what President Obama says and start watching what he does. This latest anti-minority small-businesses policy will devastate the minority business community.
Minorities face a difficult enough time as it is. The Labor Department reports that the jobless rate for African Americans alone is 16.7 percent. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 27 percent of African Americans live below the poverty level. Approximately 35 percent of the population is made up of ethnic minorities, and almost 6 million American businesses are owned by minorities.
The ASBL staff and I are going to fight this policy with everything we've got. We've launched a national campaign to inform the media, the public and Congress. We are consulting with our attorneys about possible legal action. Unfortunately, not a single group thought to be representing minority-owned or other small businesses is publicly opposing the policy, though it's not surprising that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has done nothing.
In addition to dismantling federal contracting programs for minorities, the Obama Administration has been diverting hundreds of billions of dollars in federal small-business contracts to the largest companies worldwide. It's possible that the logic behind dismantling small business contracting programs is that it will make it easier for large companies to receive all federal contracts. Should we expect the Obama Administration to abolish contracting programs for businesses owned by women and service-disabled veterans next?
These programs are the most effective method to create jobs in America. They direct existing federal infrastructure spending to the small businesses that create virtually all net new jobs. The U.S. Census Bureau tells us that small businesses create 90 percent of all net new jobs. Small businesses employ half of the private sector workforce, generate more than half of GDP and are responsible for 90 percent of U.S. exports.
The Obama Administration knows that small businesses aren't sitting around reading the fascinating legal crud that comes out in the back channels of the Federal Register. Small businesses have enough problems dealing with decades of poor economic policies formulated by high-powered, high-funded corporate lobbyists. President Obama owes these businesses (the same ones that helped him get elected) more than a line in the Federal Register.
If I were Barack Obama, the President who promised to lead the most transparent administration in U.S. history, and I had to announce a policy that would put minority-owned companies out of business and cost millions of jobs, I would tell them face-to-face, not in the Federal Register on a Friday.
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(Houston Chronicle) — The Obama administration has proposed, as a FORMALITY, eliminating a federal contracting program benefiting ethnic minority-owned businesses after courts ruled that the PROGRAM WAS UNCONSTITUTIONAL. If the Federal Acquisition Regulation program is eliminated later this year, as expected, it will close the door on a successful reverse-discrimination lawsuit filed by a San Antonio company that two years ago effectively halted a program conducted by the Department of Defense, the General Services Administration and NASA to award 5 percent of contracts to minority-owned
If the Federal Acquisition Regulation program is eliminated later this year, as expected, it will close the door on a successful reverse-discrimination lawsuit filed by a San Antonio company that two years ago effectively halted a program conducted by the Department of Defense, the General Services Administration and NASA to award 5 percent of contracts to minority-owned companies...
Goal: 5 percent of deals (CONTINUED)
All I know is I can't keep wasting my precious time on stressing out and worrying over what has always been determined to drive Any chance for Trust and All hope for Love away.
I have 2 amazing little girls, 4 yrs. and 19 months old who make better decisions on their worse days than what Obama and his buddies do at their best.
Rothe Development filed suit in 1998, claiming the 10 percent preference and the 5 percent set-aside program were unconstitutional, after Rothe lost a bid for a contract renewal despite being the lowest bidder, said David Barton, the San Antonio lawyer who represented Rothe.
Rothe Development spent $1.6 million on attorney fees, expert witnesses and travel expenses over the course of the 11-year lawsuit, said Barton, of the Gardner Law Firm.
Makes it official
BECAUSE THE PREFERENTIAL CONTRACTING PROGRAM WAS ENDED TWO YEARS AGO, the main effect of the proposed regulation change is that "it gets the burr out of my client's saddle. It's finally getting done," Barton said.
The END Of PREFERENTIAL PROGRAM HAD LITTLE EFFECT ON SMALL BUSINESS OWENED BY MINORITIES OR WOMEN, Barton said, because the SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION'S 8(a) CERTIFICATION PROGRAM ALSO OFFERS PREFERENCES TO SUCH COMPANIES USING DIFFERENT PROCEDURES.
The American Small Business League in California issued a news release Thursday stating it would be seeking an injunction to preserve the federal program.
"THERE'S NOTHING THEY CAN DO," Barton said, because of the ROTHE DEVELOPMENT COURT RULINGS.
What a joke! The government can’t create jobs. Our only hope is to support small businesses, which create the majority of new jobs.
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The management of these already successful and succeeding businesses should be left on the path it is already growing and succeeding on. It's already hard enough to find work and obtain sufficient income to survive paycheck to paycheck. So the decision was to stick us with this anti-minority small-businesses policy seemingly to purposely devastate the minority of the business community. It makes no sense what so ever to alter exactly what creates 90 % of all net new jobs. The Government of the United States of America seems to be trying to knock our Global Ranking down to second place and put us at the mercy of a richer stronger country. The time has come when America has to fight for what we know is the most logical means to our very survival. I think decisions such as the most recent Obama strategy should be a decision made by those of us who are actually out here doing all the work that has made the U.S.-as successful as we are today. Not by the close nit circle who can't seem to see beyond their own selfish acts. It's time the bets against their buddies through out the Government circle stopped. Decisions made for the interest of America should not be treated as a game against it's self. This behavior will be the ultimate ruin of the United States as we know it.
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post links but you can google these first words of a place other than the Federal Register which you might be able to understand more easily than the Federal Register. The words are
DoD, GSA, and NASA are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to address the impact of the decision in Rothe Development Corporation vs. the DoD and the U.S. Department of the Air Force (USAF) on small disadvantaged business concerns and certain institutions of higher education. Reference Federal Register Volume 76, Number 175 (Friday, September 9, 2011).
Your mother-in-law.
With so many people feeling the same way about how President Obama has been slinging promises around only to contradict his every word behind the scenes, why... being that America is bigger than President Obama and Washington, why haven't we stood up and nipped this unethical, unacceptable behavior in the bud by now? How many more times are/can America allow publicly promised lies to sweep across every broke, still struggling and wore out hope-filled heart in the nation before these deceitfully irresponsible decisions purposely bring the rest of the United States of America to it's knees? At the mercy of the richer country. Pardon my language but that just sucks. I wish I were president. But I wish even more that most of America wasn't sitting there wishing our Presidential Government would just be true to their word and stick with the business plan that was working. Fix what is broke starting with the list President Obama repeatedly rattled off with, resulting in election. Those now stale promises that landed Mr. Obama the job is what should be the primary focus.
"However, in 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals found that favoring minority-owned businesses violated the Fifth Amendment and was therefore unconstitutional.
The original suit against the provision was brought by the Rothe Development Corporation, a consortium of federal contractors which curiously presents itself as a 'Women Owned Small Business.' "
So, Mr. Chapman, show us that it was continuing to work as intended and wasn't just a pointless gimme to those who could work the system and make a better case for the program and I'll gladly support you..but not until you do more than just yell something is 'anti business' or 'job-killing', we hear enough unsubstantiated noise already.
So how do you suggest fixing that? Is it even fixable with the current processes so that the money goes to a legitimate small business rather than just being an added cost that serves no real purpose?
In any event, it is always good to end these kinds of artificial stimulus deals that upset the function of the free market. Normally, Obama is against the free market, but here just the opposite. One point for Obama.
President Obama is failing that test, and the powers that be in Washington need to be exposed as puppets for the largest, greediest corporations in the planet.
There is nothing wrong with turning a healthy profit, but it cannot come at the expense of what made this country great.......A robust economy led by small businesses, on a level playing field, where the best idea won. Not the biggest wallet.
I'm down for the fight, where do I sign up Lloyd?
Government contracts, just as contracts in the private sector are, should be awarded to the most capable bidder at the lowest possible price. Period. Factors, such as minority status should not enter into the mix.
I strongly disagree! When you have groups that were excluded from having a chance to compete, you can't just say "but that's in the past now so it's all fair" and call it good. Something must be done, over a period of time, to close the pre-existing gap or there is no chance that any measurable equality of opportunity will result.
The question should be for how long and under what conditions, not that it shouldn't be done or you end up with those who had the head start due to actions of the government always being able to use that advantage to stop others from having that chance.