PETALUMA, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 2,2014) - According to the American Small Business League, every year for thelast ten years the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of InspectorGeneral has reported the number one problem at the agency has been the diversion of federal small businesscontracts to large businesses.

In 2012 the SBA included 235 Fortune 500 firms in their small businessstatistics, then 175 in 2013.

Now the SBA has proposed two separate new policies that willallow thousands more big businesses to be considered small businesses.

Firms with up to 1,500 employees arecurrently allowed to receive federal small business contracts. According to theU.S. Census Bureau data, 98% of all U.S. firms have less than 100 employees and89% have less than 20. The average American firm has approximately 12employees.

Current SBA rules already allow firmsthat are over one hundred times larger than the average U.S. firm of 12employees to be considered small businesses as well as firms fifteen timeslarger than 98% of all U.S. firms. Yet the SBA continues to increase smallbusiness size standards across the board.

The new SBA small business sizestandards have been widely criticized by the press. In a Washington Postarticle titled, "How 8,500 large companies willbecome small businesses overnight," J.D. Harrison states,"When the clock strikes midnight on Sunday, July 13, thousands ofrelatively large companies will -- poof -- suddenly become smallbusinesses."

The American Small Business League (ASBL)will be opposing the majority of the increases in size standards proposed bythe SBA. ASBL President Lloyd Chapman stated, "Every year for a decade theSBA Inspector General has named the diversion of federal small businesscontracts to large businesses as the number one problem at the SBA. They haverefused to adopt any policies to end that rampant fraud, but they continuallyincrease size standards to allow larger and larger firms to be considered smallbusinesses." 

The American Small Business League(ASBL) has launched a national campaign tooppose the new rules they believe will divert billions of dollars in federalsmall business contracts to big businesses. The ASBL has begun contactingChambers of Commerce across the country. To date the ASBL has contacted over onethousand chambers around the country and over 85% of the Chambers are joiningthe ASBL in opposing the new SBA polices they believe will harm legitimatesmall business and reduce the volume of federal contracts they receive.

The Interim Final Rule was announcedon June 12 and will take effect July 14. Ironically the SBA will be takingpublic comment of the proposed policy until August 11, 2014.

Individuals can comment on theproposed SBA policies by going to: http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=SBA-2014-0009-0001

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