WASHINGTON
- The U.S. Small Business Administration today announced steps to increase federal
contracting opportunities for women-owned small businesses (WOSB). The agency
submitted this week a comprehensive new rule for interagency review and anticipates
its publication in coming months.
"Submitting the rule
for interagency review is an important step forward in the rule-making process,"
SBA Administrator Steve Preston said."The SBA continues to work to increase
federal contracting opportunities for women-owned small businesses through stronger
accountability and transparency for federal agencies, better technology tools
to help contracting agencies find the right women-owned business, and strong support
from the agency's district offices."
In April of this
year, SBA submitted for interagency review a draft final rule outlining the agency's
certification and protest procedures. In addition, SBA has completed analysis
of the RAND Corporation's report on the share of government contracts procured
by WOSBs in various industries.
The new proposed rule is
a necessary step, as SBA made substantial changes to the certification rule submitted
earlier. By including the RAND report analysis and amendments based on public
comments regarding the previous rule, the agency drafted a new, comprehensive
rule. As required under the Administrative Procedures Act and relevant Executive
Orders, the agency submitted the rule for interagency review prior to its release
for public comment as a proposed rule.
Meanwhile, SBA has
implemented significant new initiatives to increase small business access to government
contracts. This summer, it instituted a semi-annual Scorecard, which reports on
federal procuring agencies' progress toward small business contracting goals,
including the 5 percent goal for women-owned small businesses.
In
addition, there are many resources currently available nationwide to assist WOSBs
seeking contracts at federal agencies, such as Small Business Development Centers,
Women Business Centers, SCORE, Procurement Technical Assistance Centers and the
Office of Small Disadvantaged Business Utilization Centers.
SBA's
Executive team is committed to continuing to increase federal contracting dollars
to WOSBs. Over the last several years, WOSBs have been winning an increasingly
greater share of federal procurement dollars.Contracts to WOSB accounted for $11.6
billion in FY06 and 3.4 percent of federal procurement, an increase of $1.4 billion
or 0.3 percent from FY2005.
