Democrats Grade Agencies "D" For Small Business Efforts Democratic members of the House Small Business Committee gave the federal government a grade of “D” for its performance in small business contracting in fiscal 2004. The grade was the lowest in the six years the Scorecard has been compiled. “This is simply unacceptable,” said committee’s ranking Democrat, Nydia Velázquez (NY). “It indicates the situation is not getting better for small businesses — it is getting worse.” The Scorecard gives failing grades to the departments of Education and Energy, NASA, the Office of Personnel Management and the Agency for International Development. The Defense Department, the largest federal buyer, got a “D.” Five departments earned “B” grades: Homeland Security, Interior, Transportation, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs. No agency received an “A.” Reflecting the unreliability of official procurement figures, the Scorecard adjusts the official numbers in an attempt to account for errors. While the official figures show small businesses won 23.1% of prime contract dollars in 2004, the Democrats estimate the figure was 22.4%. The congressionally mandated goal is 23%. The Democratic staff collected procurement figures individually from 22 agencies, and found that 19 of them reported different totals than those recorded in the governmentwide Federal Procurement Data System. Velazquez charged the Bush administration failure has hurt small businesses by failing to enforce its bundling rules. The number of contract actions to small companies dropped by 43% from the year before, while overall federal spending rose, evidence that individual contracts are getting larger. Velazquez and other Democrats have introduced legislation aimed at ensuring that small firms get a share of the money spent on hurricane recovery. The REBUILD Act would reserve one-third of the contracts for local small businesses, give a preference to small firms for contracts under $1 million, and set a 30% subcontracting goal.