Bill Giving More Small Businesses Access to Federal Contracts Heads to Congress

As a professional in this industry, I follow the advice I was given by one of my mentors years ago: “Try to learn something new every day.” Today I found an article regarding laws intended to help small businesses compete in the federal sector on “Small Business Trends” and thought I would share the highlights with you.

The Federal Government strives to assist small businesses through its policies and socioeconomic programs relating to Federal contracts. The laws affecting small business competition for federal business are constantly evolving and when combined with the complexity of understanding the markets, negotiating the competition and conducting a successful proposal effort, it can still be a struggle to win.

In my focus area, the Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Grounds (APG) does very well in meeting their small business goals but interestingly, the U.S. Federal Government overall has had a rather dismal record when it comes to awarding federal contracts to small businesses. That said, the situation has improved in the last couple of years. In 2014, the Government met its annual contracting goals for small businesses—for the first time in eight years.From “Small Business Trends”

From Small Business Trends:

Small businesses may soon have better opportunities to bid for federal contracts. The U.S. House Committee on Small Business has approved bipartisan legislation to expand and boost the prospects for smaller firms in the federal bidding process.

The measure, H.R. 4341, the Defending America’s Small Contractors Act of 2016, received unanimous committee support and has now advanced to the full House of Representatives for consideration.

Key highlights of the H.R. 4341 bill include:

Modernizing the Small Business Act, and the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) reporting requirements, to ensure the language used is clear and consistent across federal procurement programs
Boosting small business advocacy within the SBA and other federal agencies to promote competition and compliance
Improving opportunities to compete for subcontracts, and then to capitalize on that experience to compete as prime contractors, thereby boosting the industrial base
Strengthening coordination and data sharing between the SBA’s government-wide mentor-protégé program, civilian agency mentor-protégé programs, and the mentor-protégé program at the Department of Defense
Implementing “common sense” reforms to ensure integrity in small business programs, such as the agricultural size standards, veterans contracting programs, SBA operations and contracting officer training programs

Highlights from the press release from the Small Business Committee on 13 January 2016 include:

“As a Committee, we’ve worked tirelessly to ensure that federal contracts are awarded appropriately to small businesses in order to maximize competition, create jobs and foster innovation,” said Committee Chairman Steve Chabot (R-OH). “This bipartisan, common-sense legislation will allow America’s small businesses new and improved opportunities to provide value and quality to the taxpayer.” Specifically, the Defending America’s Small Contractors Act of 2016:

Modernizes the Small Business Act, and the SBA’s reporting requirements, to ensure that the language used is clear and consistent across federal procurement programs
Strengthens the small business advocates within SBA and other federal agencies so they can promote competition and compliance
Improves opportunities for small businesses to compete for subcontracts, and then to capitalize on that experience to compete as prime contractors, thereby strengthening the industrial base
Improves coordination and data sharing between the SBA’s government-wide mentor-protégé program, civilian agency mentor-protégé programs, and the mentor-protégé program at the Department of Defense. Implements common sense reforms to ensuring integrity in small business programs, such as the agricultural size standards, veterans contracting programs, SBA operations and contracting officer training programs
The measure was informed by the Committee’s ongoing efforts to improve contracting opportunities for small businesses across all federal agencies

Chairman Chabot noted that the first Committee markup of 2015 was also on contracting reform legislation and almost all of those provisions have since become law. See more here.

The H.R. 4341 bill would also ensure contracts awarded using a procurement method that limited competition to small businesses owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans, qualified HUBZone small business concerns, socially and economically disadvantaged individuals, women, or a subset of any such concerns are properly reported.

The Defending America’s Small Contractors Act of 2016 seeks to create a reporting requirement when a small firm engaged in one of the government’s business programs is purchased by another entity and is therefore no longer eligible.

Agility Development Group specializes in supporting companies seeking to win business with the United States Government. We use an integrated, ‘vested interests’ approach to deliver consulting, learning, and information services as members of your business development, opportunity capture, proposal, and post submission support teams.

Let us help you succeed!

-Dave Mock

Sources Cited:
Bose, S. (2016, January 18). Bill Giving More Small Businesses Access to Federal Contracts Heads to Congress. Retrieved January 27, 2016, from http://smallbiztrends.com/2016/01/h-r-4341-access-federal-contracts-heads-congress.html

Small Business Committee Approves Defending America’s Small Contractors Act. (2016, January 13). Retrieved January 27, 2016, from http://smallbusiness.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398757