Thompson Hails Small Business Efforts
October 30, 2007 (WASHINGTON) – Today, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, issued the following statement hailing the passage of H.R. 3867, the Small Business Contracting Program Improvements Act:
“This bill is important to all Americans, because small business keeps this nation working. The federal government has numerous programs to assist America’s small businesses, but problems remain, and this bill addresses several of them.
In particular, I support the bill’s efforts to crack down on large firms that masquerade as small businesses. It is a great first step. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we learned about a particular multi-national corporation that listed itself as a small business and gained disaster recovery contracts set aside for small businesses.
When we checked further, we found that this firm had 17 divisions and had generated $4.5 billion in revenue in its North American operation alone. That surely doesn’t look like any small business I’ve ever seen.
Moreover, we learned that this was not the first time that this multinational company had been awarded contracts that were set aside for small businesses. In fact, another government agency had given them award for outstanding ‘small business performance’.
H.R. 3867 creates penalties for companies that misrepresent themselves as being owned by ‘a service-disabled veteran.’ This is a good first step at cracking down on companies that misrepresent themselves to improperly gain government contracts.
At the same time, the Small Business Administration needs to step up and do more. SBA must full its responsibility to enforce the laws and allow small businesses the opportunities that Congress has said they should have. Until the laws we pass are truly enforced, small businesses will never be able to fulfill their economic promise.”
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