Washington, D.C. —  Senator John Thune today announced that the Senate Small Business Committee accepted his amendment to the Small Business Contracting Revitalization Act at today’s markup of the bill. Senator Thune’s amendment would explicitly state the federal government’s policy to avoid competition with the private sector, including small businesses.

“Private sector job growth is the key to our nation’s economic recovery,” said Thune. “The federal government should not crowd small businesses out of the market by providing similar services and taking away private sector jobs. My amendment is a common sense approach to make government more efficient and allow small businesses to grow.”

Last year, Senator Thune introduced the Freedom from Government Competition Act, which would require federal agencies to rely on the private sector when providing goods and services that are readily available. That legislation would codify the "Yellow Pages" test, which says that if the federal government is doing something that can be found in the Yellow Pages, the product or service should be subject to market competition to ensure better value for the taxpayer. Studies have shown that taxpayer savings as a result of competition are estimated to be as much as $28 billion annually.

Senator Thune is a member of the Senate Small Business Committee.