PETALUMA, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/13/12 -- The following is a statement by the American Small Business League President Lloyd Chapman:

Several years ago, I wrote the basic outline for the congressional bill titled the "Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act." This bill was concocted to stop the federal government from diverting billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts to some of the largest companies in the world. In 2003, I provided information to the General Accounting Office (GAO) that prompted an investigation into the diversion of federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms.

The investigation found more than 5,000 large businesses worldwide receiving federal small business contracts. There was a congressional hearing and the Associate Press wrote a story on the rampant abuses that ran in dozens of newspapers across the country. I thought the whole ordeal was over -- I was wrong. That was almost 10 years ago and the abuses still continue to get worse.

Federal law defines a small business as being independently owned and having no more than 1500 employees. Independently owned means not publicly traded. Once a company is so huge its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, they are no longer a small business. My bill would stop the federal government from diverting small business contracts to publicly traded and foreign-owned firms.

In 2005, the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA OIG) issued Report 5-15 describing the diversion of federal small business contracts to large businesses as, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the entire federal government today."

To date, more than a dozen other federal investigations have turned up similar findings.

Without adding additional taxes and spending, my bill would end this 10-year contracting scandal once and for all and redirect billions of dollars in existing federal infrastructure spending to the 27 million small businesses in America.

U.S. Census Bureau data tells us these small businesses are responsible for more than 90 percent of net new jobs in America, 50 percent of the private sector work force, more than 50 percent of the GDP and make up more than 90 percent of all U.S. exporters.

In February of 2008, Barack Obama released the following statement: "It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." My bill would help him keep that campaign promise.

To date, President Obama has refused to support the "Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act."

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