Exxon Mobil Corporation announced that its first quarter profit earnings were up 38 percent, totaling $6.3 billion in profits due mainly to the high price of oil, which is now over $85 per barrel. To date, President Obama has still not fulfilled his campaign promise of enacting a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry. (http://bit.ly/9CrGHf)

In the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, President Obama routinely promised to enact a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry to fund a $1000 per household energy rebate.  Within 48 hours of being elected, President Obama dropped the promise from his agenda. An “unnamed transition team staffer” tried to justify the decision by stating, “President-elect Obama announced the policy during the campaign because oil prices were above $80 per barrel. They are currently below that now and expected to stay below that.” (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE4B206W20081203)  

“I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help   families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills,” President Obama said in a statement released in June of 2008. (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSWAT00963020080609)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJPo5IGTd0A) 

Prior to the 2008 presidential election, President Obama's promise to implement the tax was displayed prominently at the top of the “Economy” section of the Obama-Biden campaign website. On November 6, President-elect Obama rolled out his transition website, Change.gov, which also displayed the promise, before it disappeared two days later. (Pre-change, https://www.asbl.com/documents/Economy_Change.pdf ; Post-change, http://change.gov/agenda/economy_agenda/) 

The Obama administration has not made good on its campaign promise to enact a windfall oil profits tax, even with the price of oil consistently staying above $80 per barrel, couple that with the fact that Exxon Mobil paid zero dollars in federal income tax for 2009. (http://www.oil-price.net/) (http://www.oil-price.net/en/articles/How-Exxon-paid-zero-tazes-in-2009.php)

Proponents of the tax maintain that the oil and gas industry has gouged the public at the pump to reap excessive profits for nearly a decade, even with barrel prices in the $20 range. In January of 2004 the Associated Press (AP) reported that Exxon-Mobil earned $21.51 billion in profits during fiscal year (FY) 2003. Nearly doubling the company’s profit from the previous fiscal year. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60862-2004Jan29_2.html)  

“A windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry would help keep the prices at the pump low, help reduce the deficit and most Americans would much rather see that than a value-added Tax.” ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said.

On Wednesday, April 28, the American Small Business League (ASBL) filed suit against NASA in Federal District Court, Northern District of California.  The case was filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) after NASA refused to release subcontracting reports for contracts awarded to General Dynamics C4 Systems Incorporated. (https://www.asbl.com/documents/complaint_GD_NASA.pdf)

The ASBL requested information from NASA on a contract awarded to General Dynamics after discovering that a contracting officer reported the award as a small business contract.

Wednesday's suit is the second lawsuit filed by the ASBL against NASA.  In February of 2007, the ASBL prevailed in its first suit against NASA, forcing the agency to provide detailed information proving the agency falsified its small business contracting statistics by including contracts to a variety of Fortune 500 firms and other large businesses.

Since 2003, over a dozen federal investigations have found billions of dollars a month in federal contracts earmarked for small businesses have been diverted to Fortune 500 firms and some of the largest companies in the world.  The large recipients of federal small business contracts include: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Dell Computer, British Aerospace (BAE), Rolls-Royce, French giant Thales Communications, Ssangyong Corporation headquartered in South Korea, and the Italian firm Finmeccanica SpA. (https://www.asbl.com/documents/20090825TopSmallBusinessContractors2008.pdf)   

The ASBL plans to file a series of FOIA requests to NASA as a means of uncovering more federal small business contracts that were diverted to Fortune 500 firms.  Specifically, the ASBL intends to uncover contracts awarded to large corporations that were coded as small business contracts by contracting officers. 

Section 16(d) of the Small Business Act states, "whoever misrepresents the status of any concern or person as a 'small business concern'...to obtain for oneself or another," any prime contract or subcontract with the government shall be subject to penalties of $500,000, 10 years in prison and/or debarment from federal contracting programs. (http://www.sba.gov/regulations/sbaact/sbaact.html)  

Attorneys for the ASBL believe federal contracting officials, and possibly even employees of prime contractors, could be held liable for penalties prescribed under section 16(d) of the Small Business Act for fraudulently misrepresenting large firms as small businesses.

"This issue has gone on unabated for over decade.  I don't think these abuses are going to stop until people start going to prison," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said.

-###-

Please click here to watch a clip about the ASBL's suit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx-SyChw06I