PETALUMA, Calif., Oct. 15, 2014/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A 2004 article in Computer Reseller News (CRN) documented thebeginning of what has become a 10-yearcampaign of a Small Business Administration (SBA) policy that will forcethousands of small businesses in the IT industry out of the federal marketplace.

Under the new 2014 policy small businesses that are currentlyconsidered Information Technology Value Added Resellers, NAICS code 541519,will lose their small business status if their annual salesexceed $27.5 million.

If the new policy is adopted, small businesses in the ITindustry will be redefined as large businesses and be forced to compete head tohead with Fortune 500 firms for even the smallest order for government ITproducts. Thousands of small businesses in the IT industry will be forced outof business.

The 2004 CRN article documented that the original size standardthe SBA proposed for Information Technology Value Added Resellers was 500employees. The 2004 CRN story also chronicles the successful efforts of currentAmerican Small Business League (ASBL)President, Lloyd Chapman, to generate a record number ofcomments opposing the SBA's 500 employee size standard and reducing it to amore small business friendly 150 employees. "For Chapman, who has appeared before Congress to testifyon behalf of small businesses and who has committed years of his time and muchof his own money to the cause, the fight goes on."

A 2003 article in CRN reported on Chapman's successful campaignto stop the federal government from diverting small business contracts tocorporate giants. "This industry is being decimated by fraud, abuse anddisorganization," Chapman says. "Some of the biggestcorporations, here in America and overseas, are stealing government contractsspecifically reserved for small and midsize VAR's."

Now, over ten years later, the SBA wants to eliminate the smallbusiness size standard of 150 employees that thousands of InformationTechnology Value Added Resellers have used to compete for federal contracts andsubcontracts.

The new size standard will make it much more difficult, if notimpossible for legitimate IT small businesses to land federal small businesscontracts. Small businesses will now be forced to compete with many of the largest firms in theirindustry for federal small business contracts. If the new policy isadopted, contractsto many Fortune 500 firms will continue to be reported as small businesscontracts while contracts to IT firms with sales in excess of $27.5 million will be considered large businesscontracts.

The American Small Business League has launched a nationalcampaign to oppose the new SBA policy. ASBL attorneys are preparing to file aninjunction to stop the implementation of what they consider to be anotherblatant anti-small business policy from the SBA.

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