Obama's Change.gov Website Drops Small Business Promise

Petaluma, Calif. - President-elect Obama's pre-election promises to end dramatic and well-documented abuses in federal small business contracting programs are conspicuously absent from the "Agenda" on the new Obama-Biden Change.gov website.

In February Senator Obama released this statement, "It's time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." The Obama statement was in response to a series of federal investigations and mainstream media stories that found the Bush Administration had diverted billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms.

Some of the federal investigations found "false certifications" and "vendor deception" were responsible for large businesses receiving government small business contracts.

The Department of Interior Office of Inspector General released a report on July 1st that found they had awarded millions of dollars in government small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms such as Dell Computer, John Deere, Home Depot and Sherwin Williams.

A recent Washington Post investigative story discovered as much as 38.5% of $89 billion in federal small business prime contracts were actually awarded to Fortune 500 firms.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General released the results of an extensive investigation into the Bush Administration's diversion of government small business contracts to large businesses in 2005. It stated, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal government today is that large businesses are receiving small business procurement awards and agencies are receiving credit for these awards."

Based on the federal investigations and information obtained from a series of successful law suits against the Bush Administration, the American Small Business League (ASBL) projects as much as $100 billion a year in federal small business contracts are diverted from middle class firms to Fortune 500 companies and hundreds of other large businesses.

"We are very disappointed that President-elect Obama appears to have already gone back on his campaign pledge to millions of American small business owners. They supported him expecting the 'change' he promised. Considering the dire state of our nation's economy, I cannot imagine why President-elect Obama has not offered any specific plan to end the dramatic abuses in existing federal programs to assist small businesses and firms owned by women, minorities and veterans," stated ASBL President Lloyd Chapman.

Comments

[ajnewman]

I'm afraid that with Obama in office my small business will be hurt. I did not vote for Obama because i can't stand Joe Biden, so i didn't vote. I want to see this housing mess fixed but i'm afraid that it will only take time. My small business www.gorgeousgarage.com is doing well despite how bad everything else is getting. The town i live in is not effected yet but i fill when or if the big 3 go down the job losses will cause a domino affect of unemployment accross this country.

[kevlar0076]

It is interesting the discussion that Lloyd has raised due to his comments. I have to say that anyone who has followed Lloyd Chapman and the American Small Business League for some time knows what is going on with these issues. The bottom line is that the ASBL and Lloyd endorsed Obama back in February when Obama had made the statement about protecting small businesses and removing corporate giants from small business contracting. Any small business person who has worked in the federal contracting arena can tell you that small businesses get screwed out of billions of dollars in contracts every year, a practice that has proliferated under the current Bush regime. President-elect Obama has made a pledge, and now it seems he may not follow through, which should be a legitimate concern for small businesses.
Llloyd and the ASBL have been the only legitimate crusaders for small businesses over the years, working hard as a watchdog to stop the abuses going on with federal contracting. I think that before attacking Lloyd's position, it would be best to read up on what he has done to protect small businesses and be happy that he and the ASBL are watching the backs of small businesses.

[kristycu]

Also, If you go to Obamas website-it looks more like that info was transfered from there. So what is this guy trying to say, Like i said earlier he does not mention once that he tried to contact the Obama team in order to clarify his hypothesis, but he sure didn't waist any time asking everybody but obama what they thought

[cparry61]

NO!!! That is not true....I have been to the site and you need to look for it.. It is there!

[kristycu]

One just because it is not there does not mean that he has given up on it. I'm sure not every thing he plans on doing is on that website. It would be different if it actually stated, he wasn't going to do it. I guess you could see it either way, but i also think that because it is absent doesn't mean he forgot about it. does anyone notice they did not have one comment in that article of whether or not they contacted the Obama transition team for comment. Not one. so you mean to tell me not one person called the Obama team to clarify. they just assumed what was so was so With out actually asking. ever think, they were updated that information to add more things, the current stuff on there now is part one with part 2 to come. No everyone is just assuming. HEY i have a novel idea how about asking. that usually works

[denicci1977]

It's amazing to me how the man is not even been sworn in yet, but people are so negative looking for bad things to happen. Can't you at least wait a few months and give time and a half a chance to get the things he said he would get going ? Be optimistic for a while and if there is something you don't like there are plenty of ways to let him know on change.gov how you feel and what you want to see.

[ferky123]

The small buisness section is nou in the urban planning section http://www.change.gov/agenda/urbanpolicy_agenda/

[pkelly]

Actually, under urban policy strengthening the sba is mentioned and help for women and minorities. There is no mention of making sure our small businesses get their fair share of government contracts and no mention of the billions of dollars meant for small business went to Fortune 500 companies.
There is no small business section as there used to be. Small business is mentioned in passing in fiscal, economic, defense sections. As it is an agency and there are widespread problems, and everyone used it as a buzz word for rebuilding the ecomony, we wonder why he eliminated the section.

[kristycu]

I went to the website and read that link. and what i noticed is it is basically an outline- I'm sure there is more to it than on this page. He can't put everything on there(well he could, but it will take more that two weeks to do. it. we need to chill some what. it seems like everybody is willing to hold him responsible for things that and he is not even on the job yet, but i don't see many reports talking about how bush needs to get off his butt and govern

[NationalTreasure]

Obama needs to reach out Ralph Nader and have Nader run consumer and reglatory affairs or be an ombudsman