Pentagon Case May Mean Billions for Women, Minorities, and Veterans

The San Francisco 9th Circuit of Appeals will hear the American Small Business League's (ASBL) Freedom Of Information Act case case against the Pentagon on December 14, 2016. The trial is being held following the Pentagon's appeal to overturn the ruling that they disclose Sikorsky Aviation Corporations most recent subcontracting plan submitted to the Pentagon's Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program (CSPTP).

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The ASBL believes the CSPTP has allowed the Pentagon's largest prime contractors to circumvent small business subcontracting goals by eliminating all transparency and penalties for non-compliance. Professor Charles Tiefer, a leading expert on federal contracting law, agrees with the ASBL and has written a legal opinion calling the CSPTP a "sham" and "seriously harmful" to small businesses.

ASBL President Lloyd Chapman emphasizes that the benefits of winning this case would be prodigious for women, minority, and service disabled veteran owned small businesses as they are currently only receiving a fraction of the contracts they are legally entitled to.

"If the American Small Business League is Successful in revealing the Pentagons diversion of small business contracts to fortune 500 firms through the CSPTP, we would see an unprecedented increase in federal contracts for women, minority and veteran owned small businesses. Their volume of federal contracts will go up by $400 billion over the next 10 years."

The ASBL originally won their Freedom of Information Act case against the Pentagon in November of 2014. Federal District Court Judge William Alsup in San Francisco ordered the Pentagon to release the Sikorsky data to the ASBL after reviewing the information and determining nothing in the report constituted as trade secret, proprietary or confidential financial information.

In his ruling, Judge Alsup described the ASBL as being an underdog in a David and Goliath battle against the "big company" and against the "big government." He also accused the Pentagon of "covering it up" in reference to the information the ASBL requested. In a subsequent hearing, Judge Alsup accused the Pentagon and Sikorsky of trying to "suppress the evidence."

During the District Court case, Judge Alsup instructed the Pentagon and Sikorsky on two separate occasions to "highlight the parts that are supposedly confidential" or that they believed were proprietary and explain why they believed the information should be exempt. The Pentagon declined to comply with Judge Alsup's request.