Small businesses won a record $96.8 billion in federal prime contracts in fiscal year 2009, an increase of more than $3 billion from fiscal year 2008, but still fell somewhat short of the federal governments 23 percent goal for small business contracting.
The U.S. Small Business Administrations fourth annual small business procurement scorecard showed that the dollar amount represented 21.89 percent of all federal spending an improvement over FY2008. Additionally, performance in each of the governments socioeconomic subcategories increased for FY2009.
Small businesses received a record $96.8 billion in federal contracts in 2009, SBA Administrator Karen Mills said in a statement. There was an increase in both dollars and contracting share for every small business category. This represents real progress, but not enough. We must reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that the 23 percent goal is met and exceeded.
The American Small Business League, which advocates for small business contracting, disputed the SBAs report. The group maintains that a recent evaluation of FY 2009 small business contracting data showed that the actual percentage of contracts awarded to small businesses is closer to 5 percent. In June, the ASBL conducted a
The ASBL also identified a series of Fortune 500 corporations and other large firms in the governments 2009 contracting data. Recipients of small business contracts included Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, L-3 Communications, British Aerospace, Northrop Grumman, General Electric, Booz Allen Hamilton, Thales Communications, General Dynamics and Dell.
