House Votes To Renew "Sham" Pentagon Test Program Into 28th Year

ASBL Opposes Renewal of 25-year-old "Sham"

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Dec 09, 2014, 07:23 ET

PETALUMA, Calif., Dec. 9, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The House of Representatives has voted to renew the embattled Pentagon Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program (CSPTP) into its 28th year of testing. The renewal of the CSPTP into 2017 was included in the House version of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act.

The American Small Business League (ASBL) launched a national campaign to halt the renewal of the 25-year-old "Test Program" in 2010.

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As a test case the ASBL requested the most recent data submitted under the CSPTP by Sikorsky Aviation Corporation under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The ASBL wanted to challenge the Pentagon's refusal to release any data on the "Test Program" for more than a quarter of a century. The ASBL filed suit in Federal District Court in San Francisco after the Pentagon refused to release the data.

On Nov. 23, Federal District Court Judge William Alsup ruled in favor of the ASBL and ordered the Pentagon to release the Sikorsky data by December 3, 2014.

On Dec. 2, the Office of Solicitor General intervened on behalf of the Pentagon and asked the court for a 60-day stay of the release of the information.

The release of the potentially damaging information on the 25-year-old "Test Program" on Dec. 3 would jeopardize the renewal of the CSPTP by both the House and Senate before the Dec. 11 recess.

The ASBL believes the request for the 60 day stay was also designed to halt the release of data that would prove the CSPTP had allowed the Pentagon to falsify small business subcontracting data and defraud small businesses out of hundreds of billions of dollars in subcontracts over the last 25 years.

The negative publicity on the CSPTP has been so damaging Pentagon spokeswoman Maureen Schumann admitted the Pentagon did not want the program renewed, "Although well-intended, the program has not produced quantifiable results. The Department of Defense position is to not have congress extend the CSP," she commented.

The Pentagon adopted the CSPTP in 1990 under the pretense of "increasing subcontracting opportunities for small businesses." In reality the CSPTP did just the opposite by eliminating all information that had previously been publicly available that could be used to confirm a prime contractor's compliance with their small business subcontracting goals. The CSPTP also eliminated all penalties prime contractors had previously faced such as "liquidated damages" for failing to comply with their small business subcontracting goals.

Professor Charles Tiefer, one of the nation's leading experts on federal contracting law released a legal opinion of the CSPTP that stated, "The program is a sham and its extension will be seriously harmful to vital opportunities for small business to get government contracting work... Let it expire."

The Pentagon now has until January 22, 2015 to release the Sikorsky data to the ASBL. By that time President Obama will have signed the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law renewing the CSPTP into its 28th year of testing.

"I predict the Senate will also vote to renew the 'Test Program' this week," said ASBL President Lloyd Chapman. "This is an unprecedented example of fraud, corruption and broken government."

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SOURCE American Small Business League