No 8(a) For Federal Employees

The Small Business Administration has decided to suspend Vernon Parker's company, VBP Group LLC, from the federal government's 8(a) contracting program for disadvantaged businesses. Parker is appealing that suspension, the Arizona Republic reports.

This kind of thing that happens on a regular basis in the federal contracting world. But here are two things that are unusual about this case:

• Parker is the mayor of Paradise Valley, Ariz.
• The reason the SBA suspended him is an inspector general's report concluded that he actually was a federal employee at the time he applied for 8(a) certification.

The IG concluded that payments Parker claimed to have received under contract from the Agriculture Department actually were earnings he had received when he served as USDA's assistant secretary for civil rights.

Parker says that's not true, and that he's just caught up in a political battle between SBA and Democratic members of Congress.