PETALUMA, Calif., Nov. 5, 2014/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Over the last few months the Small BusinessAdministration (SBA) has proposed sweeping changes to the federal definition of a small business thathas allowed thousands of large businesses to suddenly qualify as small businesses.

The Washington Post published a story of the new colossal smallbusiness definitions titled, "How 8,500 large companies will become small businessesovernight."

The new greatly elevated size standards will allow firms thatare up to 150 times larger than the average American firm to be considered asmall business for the purposes of federal contracting. The American SmallBusiness League (ASBL)believes the new policies are part of a plan to quietly dismantle the SBA. Several journalists published articles that agreed. The ASBL believes by raising thesmall business size standards to such high levels, legitimate small businesseswill be unable to compete with the newly large firms for federal contracts andwill subsequently be forced out of the federal marketplace and out of business.

A new round of dramatically increased small business sizestandards was proposed on Sept. 10. Those size standards will allow firms that are upto three times larger than 98% of all U.S. firms to qualify as smallbusinesses. One particular proposal that has drawn the most criticism could bankrupt over 12,000 smallbusinesses in the Information Technology (IT) industry. Currently smallbusinesses that provide IT products to the federal government are defined asInformation Technology Value Added Resellers (ITVARs) and operate under NorthAmerican Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 541519. The current small business size standard for NAICS code 541519is 150 employees. If the new SBA policies take effect, anyITVAR operating under NAICS code 541519, with annual sales of over $27.5 million will be considered a large business andhave to compete with firms with up to 500 employees.

At the same time the SBA will continue to report billions of dollars in awards to manyFortune 500 firms and their subsidiaries as small business awards.

The House Small Business Committee chastisedthe SBA for diverting billions of dollars in federal small businesscontracts to Fortune 500 firms like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheonand Chevron.

NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, RTTV, Fox News, CNBC and MSNBC haveall released investigative reports on the diversion of federal small businesscontracts to Fortune 500 firms.

The American Small Business League has launched a nationalcampaign to opposethe new SBA policies they characterize as "anti-small business."In addition to their regular legal team the ASBL has retained nationallyrecognized expert on federal contracting law, Professor Charles Tiefer.

"This is obviously yet another attempt to dismantle federalsmall business programs. Think of the lunacy of continuing to report billionsin federal contracts to Fortune 500 firms as small business contracts whilesmall IT firms with as few as 10 employees will be redefined as largebusinesses," ASBL President Lloyd Chapmanstated.

To view full press release, click here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-controversial-sba-policies-favor-big-businesses-over-small-businesses-281594241.html