Press Release
Senate To Renew "Sham" Test Program Exposed By Whistleblower Lloyd Chapman
ASBL Opposes Renewal of "Sham" Pentagon Test Program in NDAA
By Lloyd Chapman
American Small Business League
December 11, 2014
PETALUMA, Calif., Dec. 11, 2014/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Senate will likely join the House of Representatives this week in renewing theembattled 25-year-old Pentagon Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program(CSPTP) into its 28thyear of testing.
American Small Business League (ASBL) President and Pentagon whistleblower, Lloyd Chapman, launched a national mediacampaign to halt the renewal of the CSPTP. Chapman challenged thePentagon's refusal to release any results of the "Test Program" inover twenty-five years using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). As a testcase Chapman requested the most recent report submitted by Sikorsky AviationCorporation under the CSPTP. The Pentagon refused to provide the data.
On Nov. 23, Federal District Court Judge William Alsup ordered the Pentagon to releasethe Sikorsky data to Chapman by Dec. 3. The Officeof Solicitor General intervened and asked for a 60-day stay of the release of the data. Law360 released a story on thecourts decision to grant the 60-day stay.
Chapman also retained Professor CharlesTiefer, one of the nation's leading experts on federalcontracting law to evaluate the CSPTP. In Professor Tiefer's legal opinion on the CSPTP he stated,"The program is a sham and its extension will be seriously harmfulto vital opportunities for small business to get government contracting work...Let it expire."
The Washington Post, The Blaze and GovExec published stories critical of the CSPTP. The Hillpublished a blog written by Chapman titled, "Pull the plug on Pentagon's 25-year-old testprogram."
With the House vote already in leaving it up to the Senate, bothwill vote to renew the program that has been widely described as an anti-smallbusiness "sham" even though no member of Congress has ever seen anytest results or data on the CSPTP in over a quarter of a century.
The Pentagon adopted the CSPTP in 1990 under the pretense of"increasing subcontracting opportunities for small businesses."The Pentagon's plan to allegedly help small businesses had two provisions.
First, the CSPTP eliminated all publicly available documents ona prime contractor's compliance with federally mandated small businesssubcontracting goals. The second provision eliminated any penalties such as"liquidated damages" that prime contractors hadpreviously faced for non-compliance with their small business subcontractinggoals.
"If Congress likes this ludicrous idea for increasingsubcontracting opportunities for small businesses at the Pentagon I think theyshould pass legislation to try the same idea at the IRS. Let's eliminate therequirement for tax payers to submit tax returns and eliminate any penaltiesfor not paying your taxes and then test that idea for twenty-five years to seeif that doesn't increase tax revenue," Chapman stated.
Chapman believes the Pentagon's move to stall the release ofdata on the CSPTP was designed to halt the release of potentially damaginginformation that could have jeopardized the renewal of the program by Congressbefore the Dec. 11 recess.
The Pentagon now has until January 22, 2015 to turn over the Sikorskydata or appeal the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The CSPTP will go into its 28th year of testing until 2017.
To view full press release, click here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/senate-to-renew-sham-test-program-exposed-by-whistleblower-lloyd-chapman-300008236.html
0 Comments