Small businesses disappointed with contracting share

Officials of small businesses, asserting that the government has repeatedly failed to meet its obligation to set aside work for them, are demanding that the Obama administration dramatically increase federal contracts awarded to their firms.

Federal law requires that the government set aside 23 percent of its contracts to small businesses. But small businesses in fiscal 2008 received 21.5 percent of those contracts, the shortfall representing a loss of $30 billion in work to the firms, according to the National Association of Small Business Contractors.

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