WASHINGTON - Sen. John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, released the following statement regarding the Bush Administration's failure to meet its small business contracting goal. This comes after the release of the Small Business Administration's (SBA) annual contracting scorecard:

 

"For the second year in a row the Bush Administration has short-changed America's small businesses. But the fact that the government missed its contracting goal isn't even the worst of it, like the administration itself, the numbers just can't be trusted. They don't count the millions of small business contracts that have slipped through the cracks and gone to corporate giants," said Sen. John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. "Eight years of budget cuts and lax oversight show that the Bush Administration thinks small equals less important. Given the impact entrepreneurs have on our economy, we need leadership that is more aggressive in giving small businesses the chance to succeed in the federal contracting arena."