PETALUMA, Calif., Oct. 22, 2014/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Small Business Administration (SBA) has proposed sweeping changes in federal small business size standards based oninflation that could force thousands of small business that depend on federal contractsto close their doors.

Critics of the new SBA policies believe the changes are actually a plan todismantle federal small business programs after a plan bythe Obama Administration to close the SBA by combining it with the Department ofCommerce was exposed in the press.

The SBA is claiming small business size standards are beingrevised based on inflation. The American Small Business League (ASBL) is opposing thechanges since small business size standards based on the number ofemployees are completely unrelated to inflation.

"Think about your local butcher shop, dry cleaners orbakery. The price of meat, dry cleaning and bread has gone up significantlyover the last twenty years, but the number of employees in a local smallbusiness has remained unchanged. The SBA's claim that they are raising employeebased small business size standards based on inflation is ludicrous. The SBAwas established to help small businesses, but these new policies will bankruptthousands of small business and cost America countless jobs," stated byASBL President Lloyd Chapman.

U.S. Census Bureau data indicate 89% of all U.S. firms haveless than 20 employees.

In some examples, the SBA is increasing the definition of asmall business to include most of the largest businesses in a given industry.By raising the small business size standards to such highlevels, legitimate small businesses will be unable to effectively compete forfederal contracts with firms that are up to one hundred times larger than theaverage firm in that industry.

"Over the years the SBA has received comments that its sizestandards have not kept up with the changes in the economy," the SBA justified for their reason of increasing small businesssize standards.

The ASBL and their attorneys have made repeated attempts torequest that the SBA provide any examples of the comments they claim to havereceived regarding increasing size standards. To date, the SBA has refused toprove any such information.

Every year for a decade, the SBA Office of Inspector General hasnamed the diversionof federal small business contracts to large businesses as the numberone problem at the agency. While the SBA is proposing to adopt policiesthat will allow large businesses to qualify as small businesses based oncomments they refuse to produce, they have consistently refused to adopt anypolicies that address the billions in rampant fraudand abuse that has been uncovered by their own Inspector General for over adecade.

The SBA will be taking public comment on the proposed changes until Nov. 10.

Please take a moment to watch the trailerfor Lloyd's upcoming new documentary.

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