Press Release
Washington Small Business Groups Silent on Federal Anti-Small Business Policies
ASBL Fights SBA Anti-Small Business Policies Alone
By Lloyd Chapman
American Small Business League
November 3, 2014
PETALUMA, Calif., Nov. 3, 2014/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Over the last few months a barrage of federalinvestigations and proposed changes to federal small business programs thatcould be devastating to small businesses have been released. No Washington, D.C. basedorganization that claims to represent small businesses has publiclyoffered any objection.
In September it was uncovered the SBA had included billions ofdollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms and hundredsof other firms that were ineligible. The American Small Business League (ASBL) was the only organizationthat publiclyobjected to the diversion of federal small business contracts to Fortune500 firms.
The ASBL has been the only group to publicly oppose the Pentagon's 25-year-old anti-smallbusiness Comprehensive Subcontracting Test Program (CSPTP). TheCSPTP allowed the Pentagon's largest prime contractors to completelycircumvent federal small business subcontracting goals. Small businesseslost hundreds of billions of dollars in subcontracts. The ASBL hired nationalexpert Professor Charles Tiefer to write a legal opinion onthe CSPTP that referred to it as a "sham" and that "its extension will be seriously harmful to vitalopportunities for small business to get government contracting work."
As a result of the ASBL's efforts several journalists published articles on the CSPTP that prompted a hearing in the Senate Armed ServicesCommittee. The Pentagon has since requested the program not be renewed into its28th year of testing.
The ASBL was also the only national small business organizationto oppose a new policy proposed by the SBA that would create a"safe harbor from fraud penalties" for large businesses that commitfraud to illegally hijack federal small business contracts. The ASBL launched anational campaign to oppose the plan and issued a number of national press releases against it.
The ASBL was also the only organization to oppose theplan to essentially close the SBA by combining it with the Department of Commerce. Severaljournalist published articles agreeing with ASBL President LloydChapman that the plan was actually designed to shutter the agency.
Now the ASBL is the only national organization to oppose a new SBA policy that could force 12,000 small businesses inthe Information Technology (IT) industry out of the federal market place. If the proposed SBA policy takes effect, any IT Value AddedReseller, NAICS code 541519, with annual sales in excess of $27.5 million would be considered a large business whilethe SBA would continue to report some awards to firms such as Lockheed Martin,Northrop Grumman and Raytheon as small business awards.
The ASBL has also the only small business advocacy organizationto oppose dramatic changes in federal small business sizestandards that have allowed thousands of large businesses to suddenly bereclassified as small businesses. The Washington Post published a story on theissue titled, "How 8,500 large companies will become small businessesovernight."
The increased small business size standards will essentiallydismantle federal small business programs and make it much more difficult forlegitimate small businesses to receive federal contracts.
Please take a moment to watch Lloyd's trailerfor his new documentary.
To view full press release, click here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/washington-small-business-groups-silent-on-federal-anti-small-business-policies-281279871.html
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