American Small Business League criticizes Congress on federal contract awards

Small businesses owners are fed up with Congress and tired of watching the majority of aid go to Fortune 500 companies, according to a letter from the American Small Business League.

Written by league president Lloyd Chapman, the letter criticizes Congress for not meeting federal requirements when it comes to handing out government contracts. Under the Small Business Act of 1953, 23 percent of the total value of all government contracts must be awarded to small businesses.

However, Chapman says that more than a dozen investigations continue to find that most of these contracts are being given to larger corporations, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Dell Computer and General Electric.

By redirecting these contracts back to small businesses, the middle class economy would receive a boost of $100 billion per year. "This would be the most powerful economic stimulus to date and can be used to drive demand directly into the hands of our nation’s small businesses," Chapman writes.

Statistics from the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy underscore how small businesses are the basis of the U.S. economy. It reports that businesses with fewer than 20 employees make up 90 percent of all U.S. firms and account for more than 97 percent of all new jobs.