PETALUMA, Calif., July 2, 2015/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An analysis by the American Small BusinessLeague (ASBL) has uncovered 179 Fortune 500firms and their subsidiaries received federal small business contracts infiscal year 2014. The study was based on the most recent information availablefrom the Federal Procurement Data System.

The largest recipient of federal small business contracts wasVerizon. Some of the other firms that received federal small business contractsin recentyears include: Chevron, Apple, General Electric, AT&T, CVS, HewlettPackard, UPS, Bank of America, Home Depot, Target, Microsoft, Wells Fargo,Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Boeing, Oracle, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics,Northrop Grumman, Honeywell International, BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Sears andJohn Deere.

The ASBL research is consistent with the recent investigative report released by Public Citizen titled "Slighted:Accounting Tricks Create False Impression That Small Businesses Are GettingTheir Share of Federal Procurement Money, and the Political Factors That MightBe at Play."

ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News and RTTV alongwith dozens of stories in many of the largest newspapers in the country have all reported on the fraudand abuse in federal small business contracting programs.

As early as 2003, the Government Accountability Office uncoveredover5,300 large businesses were receiving federal small business contracts.

On June 26, the Pentagon and the SBA ignored the results ofthe May 6 Public Citizen report and held a jointmeeting to claim 24.99 percent of all federal contracts were awarded to smallbusinesses. Billions in contracts to Fortune 500 firms and their subsidiarieswere included in that number.

The research by ASBL, Public Citizen and federal investigatorshas found the SBA's data to be significantly inflated in two ways. The SBA uses a rulethey fabricated called the "exclusionary rule" to use a much lower federalacquisition budget in calculating the percentage of awards to smallbusinesses. The SBA also unlawfully created a "five yearrule" to include billions of dollars in contracts to Fortune 500companies and their subsidiaries in their small business data.

Both the "exclusionary rule" and the "five yearrule" have no basis in law and are in direct conflict with the provisionsof the Small Business Act. The Small Business Act defines a small business ashaving no more than 1500 employees and requires small businesses receive "not less than 23 percent of the total value of all primecontract awards for each fiscal year."

The House Small Business Committee unanimously adopted an amendment to call for a new GAOinvestigation into fraud in federal small business contracting programs,based on research done by Chapman's ASBL.

Senate Small Business Committee Chairman, DavidVitter, has demanded that SBA Administrator MariaContreras-Sweet provide him with a complete list of all firms that receivedfederal small business contacts in fiscal year 2014 for an upcoming hearing onthe issue.

To view full press release, click here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/government-small-business-data-includes-billions-to-fortune-500-firms-300108165.html?tc=eml_cleartime

PETALUMA, Calif., June 24, 2015/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On May 19, Senate SmallBusiness Committee Chairman, David Vitter,sent a letter to Small Business Administration (SBA)Administrator, Maria Contreras-Sweet, requesting a complete list of all firms that had receivedfederal small business contracts in fiscal year 2014.

To date, the SBA has refused to turn over the controversial datato Senator Vitter. The Obama Administration had announced the fiscal year 2014 data would be released at amajor White House event schedule for May 8. Thelandmark White House event was to be led by SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet with the President'sCabinet and other senior Obama Administration officials in attendance.

The event was abruptly cancelled late May 7,after Public Citizen released a report on May 6 titled "Slighted: AccountingTricks Create False Impression That Small Businesses Are Getting Their Share ofFederal Procurement Money, and the Political Factors That Might Be atPlay." The investigative report exposed the fact the federal governmenthad inflated the true volume of federal contracts awarded to smallbusinesses by including billions in contracts to Fortune 500 firms andcorporate giants around the world.

In 2008, President Obama released the statement, "It istime to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporategiants." Despite this campaign promise, Fortune 500 firms have continued toland billions of dollars in federal small business contracts. Some of thefirms that have received federal small business contracts in recent yearsinclude, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, IBM, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, LockheedMartin, British Aerospace Engineering (BAE), Verizon, Apple and Chevron.

NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News and RTTV haveall reported on the abuses in federal small business contracting programs.Investigative reports began to surface as early as 2002 about the fact billions of dollarsin federal small business contracts were being diverted to corporate giants.

The Public Citizen investigative report featured data providedby the American Small Business League and interviews with the organization'sPresident Lloyd Chapman. Chapman's campaign to endabuses in federal small business programs have been featured in dozens of newspaper and magazinearticles.

In March, the House Small Business Committee unanimously adoptedan amendment to request aGovernment Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into fraud in federalsmall business contracting programs, based on research done by the ASBL.

"The Public Citizen investigative report obviouslyembarrassed the Obama Administration and caused them to cancel the May 8 White House event. I predict SBA Press OfficeDirector Terry Sutherland will go back to trying tokill media coverage of the falsified data by releasing it on a Fridayafternoon. I think we will see the data either this Friday or next Friday justbefore the Fourth of July weekend," statedASBL President Lloyd Chapman.

To view full press release, click here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/white-house-stalls-release-of-sba-data-to-senator-david-vitter-300103991.html?tc=eml_cleartime

PETALUMA, Calif., June 18, 2015/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pentagon is refusing to release any datathat has been submitted by General Electric to the Pentagon's 25-year-oldComprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program (CSPTP).

Under the Freedom of Information Act, the American SmallBusiness League (ASBL)requested the page out of GE Aviation's Small Business Subcontracting Plan thatwould indicate their company-wide small business subcontracting goal for fiscalyear 2014. The page the ASBL received from the Pentagon had beencompletely redacted.

This came just a few months after the ASBL prevailed in afederal case filed against the Pentagon in federal district court in San Francisco where Judge William Alsup ordered the Pentagon to release the complete copy of theSikorsky's subcontracting plan.

In April, the Pentagon eventually released to the ASBL the pages from Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation's company-widesmall business subcontracting plan that indicated their company-wide smallbusiness subcontracting was only 22.9 percent which is well short of the 37percent currently required under the law.

The Pentagon is still refusing to release a complete copy of theSikorsky subcontracting plan and is appealing the case to the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Since Sikorsky released their subcontracting totals, the ASBLplans to file an appeal on the Pentagon's refusal to release any data on GEAviation's subcontracting and file another case against the Pentagon if theirappeal is denied.

The CSPTP was adopted in 1989 under the guise of "increasing subcontracting opportunities for small businesses."

In reality, the CSPTP dramaticallyreduced opportunities for small business because of its two mainprovisions. First, it eliminated any publicly available documents that could beused to track a prime contractor's compliance with their subcontracting goals.Secondly, the program eliminated any and all penalties that had previouslyexisted for Pentagon prime contractors that failed to comply with their smallbusiness subcontracting goals.

Since the program's inception over 25 years ago, the Pentagon has never been able to provide any documentation of anykind that the program has actually helped small businesses in any way.

In September of 2014, Professor CharlesTiefer, one of the nation's leading experts on federalcontracting law, released a legal opinion on the CSPTP that stated, "The programis a sham and its extension will be seriously harmful to vitalopportunities for small business to get government contracting work... Let itexpire."

In late September, Pentagon spokeswoman MaureenSchumann even admitted that the program "has led to an erosion of our small business industrial base." 

Investigations by the General Accounting Office were also unable to uncover anyevidence the program has helped small businesses in any way.

"Based on all available evidence, it's clear theComprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program is a blatant sham that hasdefrauded American small businesses out of hundreds of billions in federalsubcontracts. Congress should repeal the program immediately," stated ASBLPresident LloydChapman.

To view full press release, click here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pentagon-refusing-to-release-general-electric-contracting-data-300101141.html?tc=eml_cleartime

PETALUMA, Calif., June 2, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/-- A major White House event to release the Obama Administration's SmallBusiness Procurement Scorecard was abruptly cancelled just hours before theevent was scheduled to begin on May 8.

It's now been over three weeks since the event was cancelledand neither the White House nor the Small Business Administration (SBA) hasannounced a new date for the event. The event was to be attended by members ofthe President's cabinet and other senior Obama Administration executives.

Washington Business Journal's Kent Hooverreported on the decision to cancel the event which cameapproximately an hour after he contacted the SBA Press Office, headed by Terry Sutherland, and asked for a list of thetop 100 recipients of federal small business contracts. Hoover also mentionedthat he told the SBA Press Office he intended to ask SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet what the SBA had doneto insure the accuracy of their small business contracting data.

Suspicions began to build that the SBA had falsified their smallbusiness contracting data after Washingtonbased government watchdog group Public Citizen released a report titled "Slighted."

The subtitle of the report was, "Accounting Tricks Create False Impression That SmallBusinesses Are Getting Their Fair Share of Federal Procurement Money, and the PoliticalFactors That Might Be at Play."

The Public Citizen investigative report was based on research from the American Small Business League(ASBL) and interviews with the organization's President Lloyd Chapman. The ASBL has begun to film a documentaryon their campaign to end fraud in federal small business contractingprograms. 

An article in Fortune Small Business titled "How the Feds Starve Small Contractors" reported on theproblem back in 2004. In 2005, Entrepreneur magazine published an articletitled "SizingThings Up" that reported on Chapman's campaign to end small businesscontracting fraud. 

On May 19, LouisianaSenator and Senate Small Business Committee Chairman, DavidVitter, sent a letter to SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet askingfor a complete list of all the firms the SBA reported asreceiving federal small business contracts in fiscal year 2014. Senator Vitteralso asked for the specific volume of contracts awarded to each firm and thefirm's current status as a small or large business.

Every year of the Obama Administration, SBA Inspector General Peg Gustafson, who was appointed by PresidentObama, has named the diversion of federal small business contracts to largebusinesses as the agency's number one problem.

The ASBL has begun an annualanalysis of the Federal Procurement Data System's statistics for fiscalyear 2014. So far, the ASBL has uncovered over one hundred Fortune 500 firmsthat have received federal small business contracts. Last year, the ASBL found over 70 of the top 100 recipients of federal small businesscontracts for fiscal year 2013 were actually large businesses.

Recent articles on Vox and the US Federal Contractor Registration found the SBA's policyof reporting awards to large businesses as small business contracts areunlawful.

To view full press release, click here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/white-house-still-silent-on-new-date-for-cancelled-sba-event-300092391.html?tc=eml_cleartime