PETALUMA, CA--(Marketwired - May 12, 2014) - The Pentagon is refusing tocomply with Freedom of Information Act requests for specific data on the volumeof subcontracts awarded by any of the nation's twelve largest defense contractorsparticipating in the 25-year-old Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan TestProgram.

The American Small Business League hasbeen attempting to obtain specific data on contractors participating in theComprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program under the Freedom of InformationAct since 2010. They plan to file suite against the Pentagon this week inFederal District Court in San Francisco.

The Pentagon website for theComprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program states, "The purpose of thetest is to determine whether comprehensive subcontracting plans will result inincreased subcontracting opportunities for small businesses while reducing theadministrative burden on contractors." (Link)

No results on the effectiveness of the25-year-old test program have ever been produced or released to the public.

The program was enacted 25 years ago andyet it is virtually unknown across government. No journalist has ever writtenabout the program.

The program had two provisions. The firstwas prime contractors participating in the test program no longer had torelease quarterly (SF 294) and annual (SF 295) subcontracting reports that hadbeen previously available to the general public. The second provision of thetest program was that prime contractors participating in the test program wereexempt from any and all penalties under the law for non-compliance with theirfederally mandated small and small disadvantaged business subcontracting goals.

The Comprehensive Subcontracting PlanTest Program was enacted in 1989, shortly before the 9^th CircuitCourt of Appeals in San Francisco issued a ruling against the Defense LogisticsAgency that found subcontracting reports submitted to the Pentagon from primecontractors were public information.

Prior to the implementation of theComprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program in 1989, all Pentagon primecontractors were required to submit quarterly (SF 294) and annual (SF 295)small business subcontracting reports. Federal law mandated that any primecontractor that failed to make a "good faith effort" to comply withtheir small and small disadvantaged business subcontracting goals could berequired to pay liquidated damages in the amount of the deficiency.

The American Small Business Leaguebelieves the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program is a significantloophole created by the Pentagon to allow prime contracts to ignore federal lawthat requires a minimum of 23% of all federal contracts and subcontracts beawarded to small businesses and avoid any penalties for noncompliance withthose goal.

The ASBL believes the data they obtainthrough their litigation will prove legitimate small businesses have beendefrauded out of trillions in federal small business contracts since the testprogram began 25 years ago.