Ninth Circuit To Hear Pentagon Case Over Sikorsky Data

PETALUMA, Calif., Jan. 28, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Federal Judge William Alsup has granted a motion from Sikorsky Aviation Corporation to allow Sikorsky to intervene in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case for data they submitted to the Pentagon's Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program (CSPTP).

On Nov. 23, Federal District Court Judge William Alsup ordered the Pentagon to release data Sikorsky Aviation Corporation submitted to the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program (CSPTP). The American Small Business League (ASBL) requested the data under the Freedom of Information Act to test the Pentagon's refusal to release any data on the CSPTP in over 25 years.

"The purpose of the Freedom of Information Act is so the public can see how our government works. Congress passed this law to make the small businesses have access to some of these projects, and here is the United States covering it up," stated Judge Alsup in his November 6, 2014 hearing.

ASBL President Lloyd Chapman has been a long time critic of the Pentagon's CSPTP. Chapman has maintained the CSPTP was designed to create a loophole that has allowed the Pentagon and many of it's largest prime contractors to circumvent federal law and cheat small businesses out of up to $2.5 trillion in subcontracts.

The Pentagon adopted the CSPTP in 1990 under the pretense of "increasing subcontracting opportunities for small businesses." In reality the program eliminated all transparency for the public and eliminated any penalties for prime contractors that failed to comply with their small business subcontracting requirements.

In a December 31, 2014 story in the Washington Post, Pentagon spokeswoman Maureen Schumann finally acknowledged the CSPTP has reduced subcontracting opportunities for small businesses as Chapman suspected. She admitted that the program "has led to an erosion of [the agency's] small business industrial base," and that "there is no evidence that the CSPTP has benefited small companies."

In September 2014, Professor Charles Tiefer, one of America's leading experts on federal contracting law released a legal opinion on the CSPTP. He stated, "The program is a sham and its extension will be seriously harmful to vital opportunities for small business... There is no doubt in my mind the CSPTP has significantly reduced subcontracting opportunities for small businesses. It should not have gotten its 25 years of extension as a never-tested 'Test Program.' Let it expire."

On Dec. 19, President Obama signed legislation renewing the CSPTP into its 28th year of testing.

"The 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 1994 the Pentagon could not withhold small business subcontracting data under the Freedom of Information Act. We will prove the Pentagon has cheated American small businesses out of trillions of dollars in subcontracts. I plan to seek criminal prosecutions for all guilty parties," stated Chapman.

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SOURCE American Small Business League