Federal Judge Cancels Hearing in ASBL vs. SBA Injunction Case

The ASBL was pursuing a federal injunction to stop the SBA from diverting billions of dollars a year in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms and thousands of other large businesses. In 2003, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) uncovered the SBA had included billions of dollars in federal contracts to over 5,300 large businesses to falsify the governments compliance with the 23% small business contracting goal. Every year since 2005, the SBA Office of Inspector General has named the diversion of federal small business contracts to large businesses as the number one problem at the SBA. In 2008, President Obama released the statement, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants."

In 2015, the SBA reported contracts to 151 Fortune 500 firms and their subsidiaries as small business contracts. Firms the SBA reported as small business included, Apple, General Electric, IBM, UPS, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Verizon, Bank of America, Target, Wells Fargo, Pepsi, CVS, Oracle, Raytheon, Microsoft and Procter & Gamble. 

The ASBL was also asking the court to grant an injunction to stop the SBA's longstanding policy of excluding the majority of the total federal acquisition budget to falsify compliance with the 23% small business contracting goal. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the total federal acquisition budget in 2015 was $1.2 trillion, which would mean small businesses should have received a minimum of $276 billion. The SBA used a number of less than $370 billion to claim small business received 24.9% of all federal contracts in 2015. The ASBL estimates that as opposed to the $276 billion legitimate small businesses should have received in 2015, they likely received between $35 to $40 billion or just 3% of all federal contracts.   

ASBL attorney Robert Belshaw stated, "I'm disappointed that we won't get a chance to present an oral argument in front of the court. The issues in the case are of critical importance to the nation's 28 million small businesses. It would be unfortunate if the case was dismissed based on a procedural technicality from the SBA. The merits of our case are very strong and we are looking forward to a favorable ruling based on the strength of our briefs."

The ASBL and their supporters will be holding a protest in front of the Federal Building starting at 9:00a.m. Thursday, October 6^th.

Judge Chhabria's ruling in the case is expected within the next two weeks.

Contact: Steve Godfrey
[email protected]
707-789-9575

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SOURCE American Small Business League