Washington Small Business Groups Silent on Federal Anti-Small Business Policies

PETALUMA, Calif., Nov. 3, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Over the last few months a barrage of federal investigations and proposed changes to federal small business programs that could be devastating to small businesses have been released. No Washington, D.C. based organization that claims to represent small businesses has publicly offered any objection.

In September it was uncovered the SBA had included billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms and hundreds of other firms that were ineligible. The American Small Business League (ASBL) was the only organization that publicly objected to the diversion of federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms.

The ASBL has been the only group to publicly oppose the Pentagon's 25-year-old anti-small business Comprehensive Subcontracting Test Program (CSPTP). The CSPTP allowed the Pentagon's largest prime contractors to completely circumvent federal small business subcontracting goals. Small businesses lost hundreds of billions of dollars in subcontracts. The ASBL hired national expert Professor Charles Tiefer to write a legal opinion on the CSPTP that referred to it as a "sham" and that "its extension will be seriously harmful to vital opportunities for small business to get government contracting work."

As a result of the ASBL's efforts several journalists published articles on the CSPTP that prompted a hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Pentagon has since requested the program not be renewed into its 28^th year of testing.

The ASBL was also the only national small business organization to oppose a new policy proposed by the SBA that would create a "safe harbor from fraud penalties" for large businesses that commit fraud to illegally hijack federal small business contracts. The ASBL launched a national campaign to oppose the plan and issued a number of national press releases against it.

The ASBL was also the only organization to oppose the plan to essentially close the SBA by combining it with the Department of Commerce. Several journalist published articles agreeing with ASBL President Lloyd Chapman that the plan was actually designed to shutter the agency.

Now the ASBL is the only national organization to oppose a new SBA policy that could force 12,000 small businesses in the Information Technology (IT) industry out of the federal market place. If the proposed SBA policy takes effect, any IT Value Added Reseller, NAICS code 541519, with annual sales in excess of $27.5 million would be considered a large business while the SBA would continue to report some awards to firms such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon as small business awards.

The ASBL has also the only small business advocacy organization to oppose dramatic changes in federal small business size standards that have allowed thousands of large businesses to suddenly be reclassified as small businesses. The Washington Post published a story on the issue titled, "How 8,500 large companies will become small businesses overnight."

The increased small business size standards will essentially dismantle federal small business programs and make it much more difficult for legitimate small businesses to receive federal contracts.

Please take a moment to watch Lloyd's trailer for his new documentary.

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SOURCE American Small Business League