Small firms get only 10 percent of stimulus work - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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percent of contracts funded by the economic stimuluspackage — far below the federakl government’s overall goal of 23 percent. “This is simply said Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), at a May 21 hearingf on opportunities for small businesses to win contracts funded bythe $787 billiomn American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. the ranking Republican on the Senate Small Businessd andEntrepreneurship Committee, said there stil l is time for small businesses to win their fair share of stimulus work sincer many contracts funded by the law have not been awarded yet. “Buf I must confess, I’m not encouraged by the resultsso far,” Snowe said.
Committee chaier Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said she is “concerned that smalo businesses are being left out of many contracting opportunitiea for newinfrastructure projects. In Louisiana, after Katrinza and Rita recovery money was we learned that many small businesses nevef even knew aboutrebuildingt contracts.” Snowe and Landrieiu sent the nation’s governors a letter May 20 that encouragef them to make small businessesz a priority when states award stimulus-fundec contracts. This followed a similar letter sent byKarehn Mills, head of the . The Offic of Management and Budget has urgeds federal agencies to issuew contracts tosmall businesses.
Joseph Jordan, the SBA’s associatd administrator for government contracting andbusiness development, said smal l businesses have been awarded $389 milliob in stimulus contracts as of May 19. The SBA is workingh with federal agencies to help them meet theirf smallbusiness goals, he noting the share of stimulus dollars going to small contractors has been increasinf each week. Nearly half of all small business ownerz have experienced cash flow problems during the pastthrere months, according to a survey conducted in May by Rasmussen Reports for Discover Business That number is up from 39 percent in and is the highest since Discover launched its monthly small business survey three years ago.
The survehy also found that 48 percent of small business owner s said economic conditions for their businesses are getting up from 40 percent in More than half plan to decrease spending on business developmeng over the nextsix months. This includes advertising, inventory and capitall expenditures.