Too little, too late is what a group of 16 Senate women now say to the controversial contracting plan announced by the United States Small Business Administration this past January 2008.
This plan attempted to mandate five percent of all federal contracting dollars every year to small businesses owned by women. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2005 Report on Women and Entrepreneurship, women represent more than 1/3 of all people involved in entrepreneurial activity. Yet, in 2006, women-owned businesses only received about 3.4 percent of the government contracts handed out to small businesses.
According to a letter sent to the SBA’s top administrator, Sandy Baruah, this bipartisan group of women Senators agreed that the plan was too restricted to fix the obvious underrepresentation of women-owned businesses awarded federal contracts. The plan applied to just four of 140 industry categories in the federal procurement market and excluded the majority of categories.
According to Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), “I find it inexcusable that after wasting well over seven years before issuing any proposal whatsoever, the SBA is now apparently seeking to finalize a defective rule with few, if any, improvements.”
Snowe said women business owners deserve a contracting plan that helps, not hurts their chances to receive federal contracts and they most certainly do not deserve the “sham proposal that would provide virtually no benefit.”
Senator. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said the plan fell well short of the goals set out in the Women’s Procurement Program, created by Congress in 2000 and overseen by the SBA.
“After a seven-year delay, the Administration proposed a flawed rule which flies in the face of Congress’ intent to give women an equal footing in partnering with the federal government,” Landrieu said.
In addition to Senators Snowe and Landrieu showing their support for women-owned small businesses were Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Maria Cantwell (D- Wash.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Elizabeth Dole (R- N.C.), Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Blanch Lincoln (D- Ark.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Patty Murray (D- Wash.) and Debbie Stabenow (R-Mich.).
To view the full letter, go to:
http://landrieu.senate.gov/news/08.09.22_Women_Senators_SBA_Letter.pdf
Stay tuned for more…
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Tags: government contracts, small business for women, women small business
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