Raul Espinosa: David against the Goliath of government contracting

Raul Espinosa deserves a pat on the back. He has been fighting an uphill battle with three size protests to the Small Business Administration over six years and has finally won. The problem now is that his victory against Unisen may not result in any change with the contract.
A recent article from the Fairness in Procurement Alliance highlights his struggle with size protests and the toothless state of the Small Business Administration's rulings, with him saying, "...size protests are ignored by Federal Agencies; mishandled by bureaucrats; trounced by corporate attorneys... Winning a size protest is no gaurantee to get back the contract". Unisen, the large company that won the contract from the Air Force will not be punished as a result of the ruling.
This is nothing new to the small business community though, last year 47 businesses with more than 500 employees were on the government's small business contract database. This type of fraud allowed them to pull in over three billion dollars in contracts reserved for small businesses.
I agree with the FPA in saying that we need to put the bite back in the dog by allowing for large fines or some other form of harsh punishment for "size misrepresentation". In addition, the illegal exemptions from the Federal Acquisition Regulations that large businesses use to cheat out small business contracts, such as the GSA and foreign exemptions, are really hurting the small business community.
Through his continued efforts, Espinosa has convinced the SBA's Office of advocacy to pursue the removal of these exemptions to the FAR. We are starting to see the ball start rolling and hopefully this is a harbinger of good things to come. But for now someone needs to shake Espinosa's hand for me.