President Obama’s signature on the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will reauthorize a Department of Defense program that allows the federal government to cheat small businesses out of billions of dollars a year.

 The DoD program – known as the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program (CSPTP) – establishes anti-small business policies that exempt large defense contractors from disclosing whether they’ve met their small business subcontracting goals and also exempts large defense contractors from any penalties of non-compliance with congressionally mandated small business procurement goals.

 The American Small Business League (ASBL) has long maintained that the CSPTP allows large defense contractors to circumvent the Small Business Act, which requires that 23 percent of all federal contracts (including subcontracts) must be with small businesses.

 A three-year extension to the CSPTP was proposed in the 2012 NDAA. Obama recently announced his intentions to sign the 2012 NDAA, which will reauthorize the CSPTP.

 The CSPTP was established in 1990 as a test program with the stated mission of increasing the amount of federal contracts awarded to small businesses every year and reducing the administrative paperwork requirements imposed on large contractors by the DoD. This allowed the DoD to stop requiring large contractors to report which businesses received their subcontracts.

 In October 2010, five members of the House of Representatives, lead by Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY), sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), demanding an investigation into the CSPTP program’s effectiveness. Their concern– that the 21-year-old program has never been evaluated for its effectiveness.

 “Federal contracting data calls into question whether … participants in the CSPTP are actually meeting their small business subcontracting goals,” the Representatives’ letter to the GAO said.

 As of yet, the Representatives’ request for an investigation has been not honored.

 The Obama administration is opting to continue the CPSTP, which will allow the Pentagon to prevent disclosure of federal subcontracting reports to the public, the media and Congress, as well as eliminate all penalties for contractors that are non-compliant with subcontracting goals.

 “If President Obama and Congress were serious about job creation, they would end programs like the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program and ensure that federal contracts meant for small businesses actually go to middle class firms who create over 90 percent of all net new jobs,” ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. “Instead, the President will reauthorize the CSPTP and allow Pentagon officials to use its loopholes to violate longstanding federal law. This is classic Barack Obama.”