Recently in Government Contracts Category

A new website for small business owners, "Small Biz Reg Watch," launched today with the help of the House Committee on Small Businesses.

What's the purpose of this new corner of the web? It's a forum for small business owners to comment on proposed regulations that may affect their bottom line or the way they do business.

The website doesn't change the right of small business owners to comment on newly proposed rules; any citizen can do that. But it makes it easier for small businesses to compete with big business for the government's ear.

For small businesses, government contracts can be a lifesaver, especially in a struggling economy. What are the potential benefits and drawbacks, and how can business owners get a piece of the pie?

A wide range of government agencies -- local, state, and federal -- seek bids from private companies to handle a variety of tasks. These include construction projects, some administrative services, and the collection of fees like parking tickets.

On the "plus" side, government contracts can offer small business owners some advantages over "regular" customers. For example:

Small businesses are suffering from the latest government spending scandal. The General Services Administration (GSA) has come under heat recently for its spending practices and in its processes for awarding government contracts.

Many of the government contracts mandated for small businesses were instead diverted to larger businesses, according to The Washington Post.

The U.S. Senate voted this week to kill a bill to reauthorize the popular SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) program, reports the New York Times.

SBIR, a program to encourage small businesses to explore commercialization of technology, reserves 2.5% of federal research and development (R&D) funds for small businesses. Thus, says SBA, SBIR enables small businesses to compete for federal R&D funds with larger enterprises.

In an example of legislative perversity, the bill's author, Sen. Olympia Snow (R-Maine), flipped her vote this week to oppose cutting off debate. Thus she voted to kill her own bill, reports the Times.

So why does a senator administer a poison pill to her own bill? Especially a bill that passed Sen. Snowe's own Senate committee by a vote of 18-1?

The first overhaul of the Small Business Administration 8(a) Business Development Program has been completed, with revisions to the SBA 8(a) program taking effect on March 14, 2011.

The program, designed to improve the success rate amongst minority and other disadvantaged businesses, has changed for the better. New regulations are designed to combat waste, abuse and fraud, as well as clarify portions of the SBA certification process.

For women, small business may be a chance to work in a female-friendly workplace. But for many of those women, small business is also difficult to see to fruition.

Women-owned small businesses have a hard time in the market place, facing closed doors and glass ceilings. This is why many women in small business are praising the implementation of the Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contract Program.

Women owned businesses rule! Now, in more ways than one.  Known as the Women Procurement Program Rule, the Small Business Association recently filed the final rule on this program, which is aimed at increasing federal contract opportunities for female owned and operated businesses.

Small Business Trends quotes SBA Administrator Karen Mills: "Women-owned businesses are one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy, and even during the economic downturn of the last few years, have been one of the key job creation engines in communities across the country. Despite their growth and the fact that women lead some of the strongest and most innovative companies, they continue to be under-represented in the federal contracting marketplace. This rule will be a platform for changing that by providing greater opportunities for women-owned small businesses to compete for and win federal contracts."

While Congress is trying to ensure that Main Street gets some relief from the recession with some stimulus bills in the works, there are plenty of small business interest groups who complain that all of the bills fail to address one major issue: diversion of small business federal contracts to big business. They claim that government federal contracts that belong to small businesses have been awarded to big businesses that should not be receiving the contracts to begin with.  

The American Small Business League's press release calls the proposed legislation to help small businesses a "sham." The press release goes on to state that the $100 billion dollars a year in small business federal contracts have somehow been diverted to large corporations. It uses strong language to describe how the proposed legislation does little to stop the "widespread fraud, abuse and loopholes in small business contracting programs, which continue at the cost of countless jobs every year."

A statement released today by the American Small Business League criticizes the President's first year policies for small business.

The statement details how Obama made key promises for small business, but failed to live up to those promises. The statement does bring up valid points that every small business owner should be aware of.

Here are the key needs listed in the League's press release:

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has a host of programs and loan incentives targeted at small business.  So, the essential question: what is an SBA small business?

The SBA defines a small business as one that is:

• independently owned and operated
• is organized for profit
• and is not dominant in its field