The small but vocal American Small Business

League this week continued its long-standing

challenge to the Small Business Administration's claims that agencies

are meeting their statutory goals in awarding contracts to qualified small

businesses. 

In an appeal filed in the Ninth Circuit Court

in San Francisco, the group's attorney's challenged a May ruling in the case naming

SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet and seeking "injunctive and other

appropriate relief" to prevent the SBA from "continuing to misrepresent the

attainment of small business contracting goals to Congress and the American

public."

The league has long charged that definitions

used by the SBA have allowed many large Fortune 500 companies through

subsidiaries to win contracts intended as set-asides for qualified small firms.

"Small Businesses are legally entitled

to 23 percent of the total federal contracting acquisition budget, which

is currently $1.2 trillion," a league spokesman said. "However, the SBA is only

allotting small business 23 percent of $352 billion, resulting in a small

business loss of over $180 billion."

The league's president, Lloyd Chapman, argues

that using the total federal acquisition budget in calculating the correct

percentage of federal contracts awarded to small businesses would raise the

small business share to 23 percent of more than $1 trillion.

Asked for comment, an SBA spokesman said, "We

stand by the ruling of the United States District Court for the Northern

District of California." 

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