WASHINGTON – 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.