While government agencies snoop into the private lives of Americans,Congress maintains a stone wall around trillions of dollars in public contracts.

Just before their Christmas break, lawmakers quietly renewed theComprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program, a oxymorically titled law thatblocks disclosure of Pentagon spending.

The only thing "comprehensive" about the program is its blanket blockade ofsubcontractor data. With its latest renewal, the aging "test program" will turn27 years old in 2017.

"It eliminates transparency and eliminates penalties" for noncompliance,said Lloyd Chapman, president of the California-based American Small BusinessLeague.

Chapman, in an interview with Watchdog.org, estimated that "taxpayers werecheated out of $2.5 trillion over the last 25 years."

Chapman acknowledges that critics only have guesstimates because CSPTP is asdark as a black box.

"The public needs to know, but the government has not been forthcoming. Alot of money is not being reported," said Ashok Mehan, CEO of Fedmine, agovernment data collection company in Maryland.

In 2004, the U.S. Government Accountability Office zeroed in on foreignsubcontractors.

"Without accurate and complete information on subcontracts to firmsperforming outside the U.S., (the Department of Defense) cannot makeinformed decisions on industrial base issues," the GAO report said.

In 2011, U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., introduced H.R.3184 to redistribute $200 billion a year from large corporations thatreceive federal small-business contracts to small businesses that Chapman saysare supposed to receive the money. The measure went nowhere.

Congress first approved CSPTP in 1990, ostensibly to relieve contractors ofburdensome government record-keeping rules.

"I don't know that it's overly cumbersome," Mehan said of the accountingrequirements.

Despite a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that small-businesscontractor data on taxpayer-funded projects cannot be kept secret,subcontractor information on helicopter maker SikorksyAircraft Corp. was delayed before Congress renewed CSPTP last month.

Sikorsky is scheduled to release a report Thursday, but Chapman isn'tcounting on it.

With the test program extended, he said, "Loopholes will continue to allowthe government and prime Pentagon contractors to cover up."

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