A small-business advocate has won a day in court with Pentagon attorneys to argue whether the Defense Department should release shielded internal documents that the plaintiff argues will reveal a government bias against small defense contractors.

Lloyd Chapman, founder of the Petaluma, Calif.-based American Small Business League, for years has sought to expose the workings of the 28-year-old Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program designed to “determine if comprehensive subcontracting plans on a corporate, division or plant-wide basis [instead of for individual contracts] would lead to increased opportunities for small businesses.”

Chapman argues the program covers up ways in which large contractors get work intended for eligible small businesses, and even the Pentagon has expressed a desire for Congress to terminate the program as not effective in organizing contact awards.

On April 12, the small business league announced a new stage in its ongoing suit against the helicopter maker Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. (acquired by  Lockheed Martin in 2015) and the DOD. U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California, last week set December as the time for a full trial that will include discovery and as many as 10 depositions from the Defense Department on the mysterious program. “The ASBL believes the release of the information will prove the Pentagon has defrauded small businesses out of over two trillion dollars in subcontracts since the program was established in 1989,” the league said.

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