Petaluma, Calif. - United States District Court Judge Marilyn H. Patel has ruled against the Small Business Administration (SBA) in a lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by the American Small Business League.  In the order, Patel gave the SBA two weeks to provide the ASBL with a complete list of the names of all firms that received federal small business contracts for fiscal years 2005 and 2006.

In documents filed with the court, the SBA tried to claim that they had no information in their possession that would indicate the actual recipients of federal small business contracts.

"It is simply not believable that the federal agency charged with administering every aspect of all federal small business programs has no idea who is actually receiving federal small business contracts. It is just not believable and Judge Patel obviously agreed," said Lloyd Chapman, President of the ASBL.  "It wouldn't surprise me if the SBA filed an appeal with the 9th Circuit Court since the release of this information will be so damaging to the Bush Administration."

This is the fourth federal lawsuit the ASBL has won against the SBA.  The ASBL filed suit under FOIA after the SBA refused to provide the information. The ASBL believes that the information it has requested will 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 corporations.

"The fact that we have to go to federal court to find out who is getting federal small business contracts is a clear indication that the Bush Administration has something to hide," Chapman said.  "At this point in time, I don't think that the SBA has any credibility on this issue. The SBA has a clear and documentable track record of making misleading statements on this issue.  For 5 years running, the SBA has claimed that Fortune 500 firms have gotten small business contracts because of data entry errors or what they like to call 'miscoding,' and in its Myth v. Fact press release, the SBA claimed it was a myth that large firms are taking away federal contracts intended for small businesses.  From now on when the media talks to the SBA about this issue, they need to consider the credibility of the source." (https://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=577) 

The ASBL is preparing to file its fifth federal lawsuit against the SBA for refusing to release the emails of Mike Stamler, Director of the SBA's Press Office.  The ASBL requested Stamler's emails in an effort to prove that the SBA had launched a national campaign to stop prominent media outlets from running stories regarding fraud and abuse in the federal small business contracting programs.

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