PETALUMA – The American Small Business League (ASBL) has filed for an injunction to halt the alleged falsifying of small business contracts by the federal government.
The ASBL filed the suit against the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) claiming that it is inaccurately showing that the federal government is in compliance with offering small businesses 23 percent of government contracts as outlined by federal law. ASBL alleges that the SBA is inflating these numbers and that the government is actually in default in excess of $2 trillion over the last 10 years in supplying these contracts to small businesses.
“There are 200 million small businesses in America,” Lloyd Chapman, president and founder of the ASBL, told the Northern California Record. “If we can win and force the government to redirect an additional $250 billion in this economy, that will be the largest economic stimulus program in the history of America. It will create about 3 million jobs a year.”
While the suit aims to put a stop to the alleged falsifying of the small business contract goals that have been enacted, Chapman doesn’t think his suit will be heard this time around.
“I think my case will be dismissed not because I don’t have a valid case, but because the government is going to want to cover up these abuses,” Chapman said. “I think it will be dismissed because the impact to the government will be so significant.”
If the case is dismissed, Chapman doesn’t plan to let it die. He has a strategy in place to appeal the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
“I will appeal it to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and then I’ll split it up into actually two lawsuits,” he said. “The government admitted in their filings that I did have the right to challenge the ruling.”
Helping the ASBL case is professor Charles Tiefer, an expert in federal contracting law and the former commissioner of wartime contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tiefer wrote a declaration that has been submitted to the courts supporting the claims made by the ASBL.
According to Chapman, the reason small businesses are being overlooked in Washington is because big businesses control the government.
“The defense and aerospace industry and Fortune 500 firms want every penny that the government spends to go to their pocket,” Chapman said. “The only way to do that is to shut down federal small business programs by creating loopholes that allow the government to give money to Fortune 500 firms. The big businesses have the power in Washington like you would imagine. They’re the ones that have the big lobbying firms. They’re the ones that contribute to presidential campaigns and Senate and House races. The big businesses want all the money.”
The ASBL expects a ruling in the case by Judge Vince Chhabria in the next few days. The ASBL is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to giving a voice to small businesses, which the organization says makes up 98 percent of businesses in America.