John Kerry: Crusading for Small Business

[LittleClarkie]

By Jeffrey Gangemi

John Kerry (D-Mass.), the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, has been working with the committee's chair and ranking Republican member, Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), to introduce legislation designed to help small businesses get a fair shake in government contracting.

Along with Snowe, Senator Kerry is drafting this year's Small Business Administration reauthorization, the formal review of that agency's policies and programs, to which he hopes to add language helping small businesses get their share of government contracts. He's working on the Small Business Federal Contractor Safeguard Act, designed to curb contract "bundling" and add other protections for small businesses.

Senator Kerry has also been working to expose what he says is inaccurate reporting by the SBA when it states that 25.4% of government contracts were set aside for small businesses in the 2005 fiscal year. Kerry says that number does not account for a whole set of categories, known as exclusions, that could be awarded to small businesses.

Kerry recently spoke with BusinessWeek.com reporter Jeffrey Gangemi about the challenges currently faced by small businesses looking to get into government contracting and how he's trying to ease them through policy change. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow:

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jul2006/sb20060726_786902.htm

[LittleClarkie]

1. Kickin' for the day crowd

and because surely there is some love for small business.

[karynnj]

2. Thanks for posting this

Interesting article