PETALUMA, Calif., Nov. 10, 2014/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today is the last day to leave a public comment opposing the SBA's plan to eliminatethe 150 employee based size standard under NAICS code 541519 for InformationTechnology Value Added Resellers (ITVARs).

The nation's leading expert on federal contracting law,Professor Charles Tiefer, has teamed up with AmericanSmall Business League (ASBL) President and founder, Lloyd Chapman,to oppose a new SBA policy they believe will be devastating to thousands of small businesses. ProfessorTiefer has left an extremely powerful comment that refutes every argument theSBA has for removing ITVARs from NAICS code 541519.

The policy was derived from Congress's intent in the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 toincrease small business size standards "to allow small businesses tocompete in the current federal marketplace." This proposed rule does exactly the opposite by "eliminating" the highersize standard of 150 employees and using the lower size standard of $27.5 million in receipts. In fact, Professor Tiefermentioned that if the SBA adopts the final rule, "small businesses will besqueezed out of the federal marketplace."

One of the SBA's justifications for implementing this new changeis, "Over the years, SBA has received comments that its size standardshave not kept up with changes in the economy, in particular the changes in theFederal contracting marketplace and industry structure."

"It's curious the SBA would propose to change the sizestandard for 541519 based on an undisclosed number of anonymous comments andyet ignore a decade of reports from the SBA's own Office of Inspector Generaland the General Accounting Office on the rampant diversion of federal smallbusiness contracts to corporate giants," LloydChapman stated in his comment.

"I believe the most compelling argument against eliminatingthe 150 employee small business size standard for 541519 comes from the SBAitself," said Chapman referring to the SBA's 2003 final rule when they established the 150 employee sizestandard and stated, "An employee size standard is considered a bettermeasure of the size of ITVARs operation than receipts since a substantialproportion of their receipts merely reflect the dollar value of equipment andsoftware sold."

Many concerned ITVARs that believe this policy will hurt theircompany have already left compelling arguments as to why this rule should berejected. "Eliminating the 150 employee ceiling puts the 'high-employee-level'type of contractor out of business, because it cannot get down under $27.5 million without a kind of radical chopping itcannot handle – i.e., switching to a business model of fewer employees, and,laying off a third (50) or more employees," stated Professor Tiefer.

The SBA's only argument to support their proposal of removingthe exception from NAICS code 541519 is that, "it has created someinconsistencies, confusion, and misuse."

"The arguments the SBA puts forth simply do not have anytraction for questioning or changing the 2003 establishment of thecategory.  It should continue, not eliminate, IT-VAR," statesProfessor Tiefer in his final remarks.

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