With small businesses all over Minnesota struggling to stay afloat, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) urged Senate appropriators to fully fund a program that allows small businesses in Minnesota to learn about and compete for contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
 
The Procurement Technical Assistance Program (PTAP), which is funded and administered by DOD's Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), establishes Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs) to help small businesses obtain information and training on new DOD contracts. The result is greater competition for contracts and, ultimately, higher quality goods and services for service members at a lower cost to U.S. taxpayers. In 2011, Minnesota's PTAC assisted in securing 1,845 contracts to 171 Minnesota companies, totalling $503 million dollars.
 
"Given the challenges our nation's small businesses continue to face during this economic downturn, and the program's demonstrated success in providing assistance to small businesses, we respectfully write to request your support [for the PTAP program]," Sen. Franken wrote in a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. "Given the value of the PTAP to our nation's small businesses and the goods and services they provide to the warfighter, we thank you for your consideration of our request."
 
The full text of the letter, which was also signed by a bipartisan group of 17 other U.S. Senators, is available here.