I am Congresswoman Nydia Vel zquez of New York, the Ranking Democrat on the House Small Business Committee. Make no mistake.
Small business is big business in America.
It employs the majority of our workforce, is responsible for almost half of sales in the country while at the same time representing over half of America's gross domestic product. We chose these agencies because they account for more than 96 percent of all federal procurement. The goals were then compared with how well agencies fulfilled their promises. And our final analysis reveals a situation far worse than initially believed. The study clearly shows that small business contracts with the federal government have seen a huge drop in the last three years.