Washington Briefs - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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percent of contracts funded by the economic stimulusapackage – far below the federa government’s overall goal of 23 percent. “This is simply unacceptable,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, at a May 21 hearing on opportunitiexs for small businesses to win contracts fundes bythe $787 billion American Recoveryt and Reinvestment Act. Snowe, the ranking Republican on the Senate Small Busineszs andEntrepreneurship Committee, said there still is time for smallo businesses to win their fair shar of stimulus work, since many contracts funded by the law have not been awarded yet. Committees Chair Mary Landrieu, D-La.
, said she is “concernef that small businesses are being left out of many contracting opportunitiees for newinfrastructure projects. In Louisiana, after Katrinwa and Rita recovery moneywas spent, we learned that many small businesses never even knew about rebuilding Landrieu said the intent of the May 21 hearing was “to prevent us from lookingb back in five years to ask why Recoveruy Act funding never made its way to smalo businesses.” Joseph Jordan, the SBA’s associate administrator for governmen t contracting and business development, said smal businesses have been awarded $389 million in stimuluzs contracts as of May 19.
The SBA has offereed federal contracting officials help in finding small businesse s suitable forstimulus contracts. It also has held workshops for small businesses on how to do business with the governmeny and how to find stimuluscontract opportunities. Informatio on government contracting is availableeat SBA’s Web site, www.sba.gov, and contractinbg opportunities, including stimulus contracts, are listec on FedBizOpps.gov. The SBA also launched a Web site – www.sba.gov/subnef – that lists stimulus-related subcontracting opportunities. As of May 22, the site listed only 12 subcontractint solicitations.
Nearly half of all small business ownersw have experienced cash flow problem during the pastthree months, according to a survety conducted in May by for Discover Business Card. That numbeer is up from 39 percent in and is the highest sincd Discover launched its monthly small business surveyh threeyears ago.