Recently in the Public Policy Category

If you are a government contractor or want to be, you need to be aware of a problem with just one word that has thrown federal contracting into chaos. The difference in the small business law is over "shall" vs. "may."  That one word means that if you are a company located in a HUBZone, your program gets preference with respect to contracting.  And if you are a contractor in any of the socio-economic small business contracting programs, it spells "trouble" for you.  The issue is referred to as the parity in federal agencies, Capitol Hill and the White House.  Shaking your head?  Here's the background.

What is "parity" with respect to federal procurement?

Parity is the concept that all of the small business programs administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA) are equal to one another, with no one program will having precedence over the other. This policy, which was intended by original drafters of the law, has been upset by a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision. This decision found that the HUBZone program has precedence over all of the small business programs, due to the way the law was originally drafted.  WIPP, along with the SBA and the Obama Administration, and many other organizations, support changing the law to fix this problem.

What is the impact to you?

-          HUBZone contractors will have preference over other small business contracts.

-          The Court's reading of the Act could re-direct to HUBZone firms tens of billions in federal procurement dollars.

-          This could cause a flood of protests in any non-HUBZone procurement, paralyzing the procurement process.  

-          Render the new women's procurement program expected to be finalized this year dead on arrival.

What Can You Do To Help?

Now more than ever, legislation action is needed to restore parity to the SBA small business programs. Call or write to your Senators and Representatives and ask them to support passage of S.3190 and H.R. 3729. You can write directly to your Congressional Delegate by clicking here. You can find their phone numbers on www.senate.gov; or www.house.gov.  Click on the Senator/Representative you are trying to reach.

Legislation affecting the Small Business Administration's (SBA) small business programs is pending in the House and Senate, and WIPP needs your help getting these bills passed! One bill addresses the issue of parity among the small business programs. The other bill makes significant changes to the proposed Women's Procurement Program.

On the heels of the Small Business Administration's (SBA) proposed women's procurement program, I am thrilled to see that legislation introduced by Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) will strengthen the proposed program. The bill ensures that critical components included in other socioeconomic programs administered by the SBA will part of the women's procurement program. 

We have never had information before that relected the overall economic impact of women-owned firms.  Today we have it and it reveals the magnitude of importance that small business plays in the overall economy.

Women-owned firms produce employment for more than 23 million people in the United states, or 16% of our 2008 workforce.*.   This means that approximately 8% of the total labor force work directly for a woman-owned firm.  This is astonishing news.

But what really is remarkable, is that that 80% of the women businesses are NOT employer firms.

What would this mean to our national economic recovery if we increased the number of "employer" firms to 25%? To 30%?  How many more people would join the ranks of the employed?   

It is time to start focusing on strategies and policies to make this happen.  WIPP is asking these questions and addressing these issues directly.

*US Department of Labor, November 2008 national employment figures.