PETALUMA, Calif., April 2, 2015/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Professor Charles Tiefer,one of America's leading experts on federal contracting law has issued an opinion slamming a new policy proposed by the Small Business Administration(SBA) that could force thousands of small businesses in the InformationTechnology industry out of the federal market place.

"The change would strike an unwarranted blow at theInformation Technology (IT) 'Solutions' industry." Professor Tiefer alsostates, "The rule change will mean thousands of small business concernswould be ineligible for government contracts."

Professor Tiefer appeared on Federal News Radio on Wednesday to voice his opposition tothe new SBA policy.

In 2014, the SBA proposed a similar new policy that would have reclassified over 13,000small businesses in the IT industry as large businesses. Professor Tiefer's opinion on that policy found the SBA lacked the Congressional authority to adopt such a rulethat would have been so harmful to thousands of small IT firms.

"Doing that, as the opinion showed, violates Congress'sstatutory intent in the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, and, withoutjustification, repeals the SBA's 2003 action recognizing this sub-industry. Itstruck a wholly unjustified hard blow at these struggling valuable modest sizedbusinesses. On the proposed rule change addressed here, the SBA is again wrongin trying to do this—and is wrong once again," Professor Tiefer stated inreferring to his opposition to the SBA's 2014 proposed policy that could havedevastated thousands of small IT firms.

The SBA has been widely criticized for adopting policies thatharm legitimate small businesses while adopting other policies that divertbillions of dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms.Several federalinvestigations and investigative reports in the media haveuncovered blatant fraud in virtually every program administered by the SBA.

In a recent hearing in the U.S. House Small Business Committee,new SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet was criticized bymembers of the committee for including billions of dollars in contracts toFortune 500 firms in the SBA's claim the government awarded 23.39 percent ofall federal contracts to small businesses in fiscal year 2013.

Just last week House Small Business Committee member Janice Hahn called for aGovernment Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into the diversion offederal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms based on researchconducted by the American Small Business League (ASBL).

"This new SBA policy will force thousands of smallbusinesses in the Information Technology industry out of the federal marketplace while the SBA continues to divert billions in federal small businesscontracts to corporate giants. It's time for Congress and the GAO to step inand find out exactly who is responsible for the continual flow of anti-smallbusiness policies coming from the SBA," stated ASBL PresidentLloyd Chapman.

The SBA will be taking public comment on the proposed policy until Monday,April 6, 2015.

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