Senators Offer Bill to Improve Small Business Government Contracting Program

Two senators this week who are members of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship introduced a bill that seeks to improve access to federal contracts for socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses by improving the Small Business Administration's much-beleaguered 8(a) contracting program.

Sens. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who chairs the committee, offered up S. 3458, the Section 8(a) Improvements Act, which is the third in a series of steps that the committee is taking "to address the disparities and inequalities that currently exist in the federal procurement process."

“As a nation, we need to create jobs and the way to create jobs is to help small businesses,” said Cardin. “Ensuring that small businesses have access to government contracts is one of the most effective ways to expand opportunities and create jobs. But many small firms have been locked out of competing for valuable federal contracts. Our legislation continues our efforts to level the playing field for small businesses so they can more fully participate in our economic recovery.”

According to the Federal Procurement Data System, the feds missed their 23 percent goal by .992 percent in fiscal year 2007 and 1.51 percent in fiscal year 2008. That represents more than $3.74 billion and 93,500 for 2007 and more than $6.51 billion and 162,700 jobs in 2008 lost for small businesses.

“The reality is that small businesses need all the help they can get when it comes to accessing federal contracts,” said Landrieu. “Despite the fact that the federal agencies have a statutory goal to spend 23 percent of their contract dollars on contracts to small firms, in recent years the government has fallen short. By increasing contracts to small businesses by just 1 percent, we can create more than 100,000 new jobs.”