NYtimes article on Small Biz quotes Sen. Kerry

[TayTay]

December 27, 2006
Small Businesses Fight Fickle Rules
By RON NIXON

In 1995, Joseph N. Cooper won a multiyear contract worth up to $8 million to do public relations for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. He received the contract through a Small Business Administration program established to increase opportunities for small companies.

But not long after the work was under way, the deal was awarded instead to three multimillion-dollar companies, which were listed as disadvantaged in contract documents. After years of trying to win the contract back, Mr. Cooper filed a false-claims lawsuit against the companies, asserting that they had committed fraud by saying they were small businesses.

This year, to Mr. Cooper and his lawyer’s surprise, the court ruled that although evidence showed the companies were indeed not small businesses, fraud had not been committed because the I.N.S. knew their true status when the work was awarded to the companies — J. Walter Thompson, the Bernard Hodes Group and Cass Communications.

The case was dismissed.

SNIP

Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts and the incoming chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, has proposed giving the S.B.A. more time to complete size determinations and to help prevent big businesses from slipping under the radar of a bureaucratic contracting process.

The S.B.A. recently required businesses to report their size every five years. Mr. Kerry’s proposal would make the reports annual.

“The protest process is supposed to keep the system honest, but what’s the point of protesting a contract if nothing happens?” Senator Kerry said.

http://tinyurl.com/y52d3c

Just what small businesses need, someone in a position of power who can actually help them. Smeone who understands that Mr. Cooper's company is a Small Biz and that J. Walter Thompson is not.

[wisteria]

1. I agree. Senator Kerry chairing the S.B.A. should get him some positive recognition. n/t