Santanu K. Baruah, acting administrator for the Small Business Administration, discusses the changes the agency is making to help small companies weather the economic downturn.

The Small Business Administration said that $83.2 billion of government contracts went to small businesses in the last fiscal year, a record amount.

Whether because banks won’t lend to them, or because they don’t want to take risks in a difficult market, small businesses have been sitting still.

The effort to obtain more contracts for female-owned businesses comes as increasing numbers of women are running their own companies.

Whether because banks won’t lend to them, or because they don’t want to take risks in a difficult market, small businesses have been sitting still.

Whether because banks won’t lend to them, or because they don’t want to take risks in a difficult market, small businesses, which employ 40 percent of Americans, have been sitting still.

The effort to obtain more contracts for female-owned businesses comes as increasing numbers of women are running their own companies.

Amid the current economic turmoil, many entrepreneurs and small-business owners are debating whether it makes sense to seek safety in the corporate life — and deciding that it does.

Opponents of Santanu K. Baruah, the acting administrator of the Small Business Administration, have been focusing on a rule narrowly defining the women’s government contracting program.

The Small Business Administration has terminated a contract awarded to a former Bush administration official after the agency’s inspector general found false documents.