ASBL's Lloyd Chapman Challenges SBA Over Anti-Small Business Policies
PETALUMA, Calif., Oct. 28, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Small Business Administration (SBA) has proposed some sweeping new policy changes that have small business owners across the country up in arms.
American Small Business League (ASBL) President, Lloyd Chapman, has launched a national campaign to oppose a specific policy change the SBA is proposing that could devastate over 12,000 small businesses in the Information Technology (IT) industry.
In 2002 the SBA proposed a new small business size standard for small businesses in the IT industry that would have raised the federal definition of a small business from a maximum of 100 employees to 500 employees.
Chapman launched a national campaign that garnered a record number of comments opposing the SBA's 500-employee size standard. Up to that point in time the SBA normally received less than 50 comments on any proposed policy change. Chapman's campaign rallied a record 1400 comments opposing the new SBA 500 employee size standard that would have forced thousands of legitimate small IT firms out of business. Based on U.S. Census Bureau data the average number of employees for small businesses in the IT industry has remained constant for the last two decades at less than 20 employees.
Computer Reseller News published a story chronicling Chapman's successful national campaign to force the government to drop the Information Technology Value Added Reseller size standards from 500 to 150 employees. The 150 employee size standard has allowed thousands of small IT firms to grow and flourish in the federal marketplace.
Now the SBA is once again trying to increase the federal definition of a small business in the IT industry back up to 500 employees which is more than 25 times higher than the overwhelming majority of small businesses in the industry. Chapman has assembled a top-notch legal team to challenge the SBA. In addition to their attorney Robert Belshaw, the ASBL has also retained the services of Professor Charles Tiefer, one of the nation's leading experts on federal contracting law.
In January of 2014 several journalist agreed with Chapman that President Obama was attempting to close the SBA.
"A long series of federal investigations and investigative reports in the mainstream media have uncovered rampant fraud and abuse in federal small business programs. The SBA's justifications for changing these small business size standards are absurd and completely inconsistent with all available economic data. This is just the latest attempt by Washington bureaucrats to dismantle the SBA to cover up the rampant fraud that has been uncovered in every SBA managed program," Chapman stated.
The SBA will be taking public comment on increasing small business size standards until Nov. 10.
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SOURCE American Small Business League
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