ASBL Had Made FOIA Request For Subcontracting Plan Test Program Data

The American Small Business League (ASBL) has filed suit against the Pentagon in Federal District Court in San Francisco, CA. The ASBL is suing the Pentagon under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Pentagon refused to respond to a FOIA request for subcontracting data on Sikorsky under the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program.

The 25 year old Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program allows fifteen of the largest Pentagon prime contractors to avoid submitting quarterly subcontracting reports that would otherwise be available to the public. The Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program also allows prime contractors to avoid any penalties for non-compliance with federally mandated small business contracting goals.

The ASBL believes the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program is an intentional loophole in federal contracting law that has allowed Pentagon prime contractors to cheat legitimate small businesses out of trillions of dollars in federal small business contracts since the program began in 1989.

The ASBL points to the fact that no results for the test program have ever been released or made available to the public. The program is virtually unknown throughout the government and no journalist has ever reported on it during the last 25 years.

ASBL President Lloyd Chapman stated, "This is the biggest scam in the history of federal contracting at the Pentagon and we plan to shut it down. You can just imagine what happened to the volume of subcontracts awarded to small businesses once these prime contractors no longer had to submit reports that were available to the public. There were no negative consequences for failing to achieve their small business contracting goals. I believe the level of fraud and corruption this lawsuit will expose will be unprecedented."

The ASBL expects to win the case easily since the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 1994 that subcontracting data submitted to the Pentagon by prime contractors does not constitute trade secret or proprietary information and is releasable to the public.

The ASBL believes the sudden appearance of Terry Sutherland, former Director of Corporate Communications for the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, to head the SBA Press Office is an indication the Pentagon has launched a major public relations campaign to limit media coverage of the ASBL's goal to dismantle the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program.

FMI: www.asbl.com