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Small Business Group Launches Campaign Opposing Obama's Plan To Wind Down Federal Small Business Programs

by | Jan 16, 2012 | ASBL News, Press Release

Press Release

Small Business Group Launches Campaign Opposing Obama's Plan To Wind Down Federal Small Business Programs

American Small Business League
January 16, 2012

Today the American Small Business League (ASBL) is launching a national campaign to educate the media, the public and members of Congress about the negative ramifications of President Obama’s plan to combine the Small Business Administration with the Department of Commerce, which will ultimately lead to the elimination of federal small business programs.


On September 16, 2008, in November 2010 and August 2011, ASBL president Lloyd Chapman predicted that Obama would try to eliminate federal small business contracting programs by combining the SBA with the Dept. of Commerce.

Combining agencies is a typical Washington technique to eliminate an agency that you could not get public support to eliminate— the budget for the agency that you want to get eliminated will slowly be zeroed out and the staff quietly laid off. This avoids any direct confrontation with the public, media or Congress, and allows Washington bureaucrats to eliminate agencies that the public and Congress might not normally agree to get rid of.

The ASBL believes that saving $3 billon over the next decade is infinitesimal — a drop in the ocean — especially when it involves winding down the only agency that exists to support small businesses.
“I can’t believe anybody in the media bought this,” Chapman said. “I can’t remember any president in recent history holding a national press conference talking about $3 billion in savings over 10 years. To put that in perspective, that’s approximately .0005 percent of what the Pentagon is projected to spend over the next decade. If President Obama were serious about streamlining government, he wouldn’t start with one of the smallest agencies in Washington. He’d start with one of the largest agencies, where the majority of federal dollars are spent.”

The ASBL is calling on the public, members of Congress and the media to try to bring attention to what they believe is the Obama administration’s real goal with the proposal to merge six federal agencies, which is to eliminate federal small business contracting programs.


Reauthorization of Federal Program Reduces Opportunities for Small Business Contractors

by | Jan 10, 2012 | ASBL News

News

Reauthorization of Federal Program Reduces Opportunities for Small Business Contractors

By Resources for Entrepreneurs Staff
Resources for Entrepreneurs
January 10, 2012

Reauthorization Of Federal Program Reduces Opportunities For Small Business Contractors
Written by Resources for Entrepreneurs Staff
Published: 1/10/2012
According to the American Small Business League, the recent reauthorization of a federal program allows defense contractors to continue to skirt the Small Business Act.
The American Small Business League (ASBL) is crying foul over the Obama administration's reauthorization of the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program (CSPTP), a program initially established in 1990 to reduce the administrative workload of monitoring SMB federal contracting goals.
Buried in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, CSPTP allows large, federal defense contractors to circumvent key aspects of the Small Business Act, requiring that at least 23% of all federal contracts -- and subcontracts -- be awarded to small businesses.
Large contractors participating in CSPTP are not required to submit subcontracting reports -- essential compliance monitoring tools for small business subcontracting quotas. The benefit for large contractors is that the exclusion allows them to dodge the payment of damages and penalties if they fail to meet small business subcontracting requirements.
"If President Obama thinks eliminating reporting requirements for large defense contractors and exempting them from penalties is a good idea, then the IRS should adopt the same policy so the public wouldn't be required to submit income tax returns and there would be no penalty for not paying your taxes," said ASBL President Lloyd Chapman. "This is another Obama administration anti-small business policy that you won't read about in the national media."
A 1994 report obtained through the Freedom of Information Act revealed a decline in the awarding of federal subcontracts to small businesses since the implementation of CSPTP. Although several Congressional leaders called for an investigation of the program's impact on small businesses in 2010, the GAO has yet to act on their request.