The U.S. Treasury has opened up the bidding process for small businesses to offer their expertise in helping the agency manage the purchases of financial institutions' bad assets.

On Friday, Treasury issued a statement reporting how small companies can become financial agents or bid for procurement contracts under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, passed earlier this month. The bill gives Treasury the authority to lean on the private sector for help in implementing its Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Treasury suggests that small businesses register for updates on its EESA website, look at updates on the Federal Business Opportunities and the U.S. Small Business Administration websites, and register with the Central Contractor Registration database and the General Services Administration Schedules Program.

Last week, Neel Kashkari, who leads the newly established Treasury office tasked with buying up to $700 billion worth of troubled financial assets from banks, said his program will encourage the participation of small businesses, as well as companies owned by veterans, minorities, and women.

At the same time, he acknowledged that the work requires businesses to have experience managing large amounts of assets. "Treasury believes that it would not be fiscally prudent to ask a firm that only had experience managing only a few billion to manage $100 billion," he said. "It could put the taxpayers at unnecessary risk." As a result, the agency is asking the vendors it does hire to work with smaller businesses as subcontractors.

To the chagrin of small-business advocates, EESA gave Treasury the right to waive Federal Acquisition Regulation provisions that govern contracting rules. The American Small Business League has criticized that authority for allowing what it considers already abusive federal contracting practices to continue skirting rules meant to be inclusive of small businesses.

Treasury has already contracted with Simpson, Thacher, and Bartlett as legal adviser; Bank of New York Mellon for custodial, accounting, and auction management services; and EnnisKnupp and Associates as investment adviser. The agency had solicited financial agents at the beginning of the month, giving them two days to offer their services.

The United States Small Business Association (SBA) must reveal the names of businesses to which it provides government contracts, U.S. District Judge Marilyn H. Patel ruled Tuesday.

The American Small Business League (ASBL) requested lists of the companies classified by the SBA as “small businesses” in an attempt to prove that the Bush administration inflated the federal small business contracting reports for fiscal years 2005 and 2006 by including billions of dollars in contracts to Fortune 500 companies, according to ASBL spokesman Chris Gunn. The ASBL first requested the information under the Freedom of Information Act in September 2007.    

The ASBL estimates it has spent $100,000 in attorney fees on matters involving the SBA. In order to recover attorney fees under FOIA, they would need a separate judicial ruling for fees, Gunn said. In 2005, the ASBL was successful in recovering attorney fees in a similar suit against the SBA.    

“Our hope is to blaze a trail for other organizations because very few individuals have the resources to obtain this kind of information from the federal government,” Gunn said.

The ASBL most recently filed a FOIA request to gain access to the e-mail records of Mike Stamler, the director of the SBA press office, who the league believes may have contacted reporters to make false statements regarding the ASBL’s investigation, Gunn said. The ASBL said it received a “partial reply” to this request.    

Stamler said the agency is complying with the requests, though he said the classification information is available through another agency, the General Services Agency, and not something the SBA normally may access.    

“We’ve given more than 12,000 e-mails in installments,” he said. “We have the right to review them before we send them.”

Source:  http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php?i=6765

A California federal judge has ruled against the U.S. Small Business Administration and required it to reveal what companies have received small business contracts for 2005 and 2006.

The American Small Business League brought the lawsuit, which it filed under the Freedom of Information Act, and the judge ruled that the SBA has two weeks to provide the information to the league.

This is the fourth federal lawsuit the league has won against the SBA, according to the league. The league said once the information is public, it will show that the administration has inflated the federal small business contracting reports for 2005 and 2006 by including billions of dollars in contracts to Fortune 500 corporations.

The league is also preparing its fifth lawsuit against the SBA for refusing to release the emails of Mike Stamler, director of the SBA’s press office. The league believes the emails will show that the SBA launched a national campaign to stop prominent media outlets from running stories about fraud and abuse in the agency’s small business contracting programs.

During his election campaign, President Donald Trump promised the American people he'd slash federal spending and roll back duplicative programs. So when his administration released its proposed 2018 budget last month, it came as no surprise that cuts had been made. But it was the extent of those cuts – and the programs affected by those cuts – that sent shockwaves through the nation.If Trump's proposed budget is passed by Congress, there is no doubt that these cuts will have a devastating effect on efforts to drive economic development in America's inner cities.

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