The federal government has met its 23% small business procurement goal for the first time since 2005. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has released the FY2013 Small Business Procurement Scorecard, reporting that 23.39% of all contracts or $83.1 billion of all federal small business eligible contracting dollars were awarded to small businesses for fiscal year 2013. A deeper dive into the Women Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contract Program shows only a 0.32% increase in contract awarded to women-owned small businesses up from 4% in FY2012 to 4.32% in FY2013. This falls short of the government’s 5% contracting goal. The National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) released the following statement in response:
“It is promising news that the federal government has both met and exceeded the 23% small business contracting goal. It’s promising for the economy, and the many small businesses that benefit from the opportunity to do business with the federal government,” said NWBC Executive Director Amanda Brown. “Our challenge however is to make sure that the federal government meets the 5% goal specific to women-owned small business. Women are getting a small slice of the pie. We need to take actions – like passing the Women’s Small Business Procurement Parity Act and hosting procurement matchmaking events – to get more contracts, and more contracting dollars into the hands of women. It’s time, and 5% is another goal that the government should be meeting and exceeding.”
Access to the federal marketplace continues to be a challenge for many women-owned small businesses. The NWBC is a champion of the Women’s Small Business Procurement Parity legislation, granting sole source authority to SBA’s Women Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contract Program. The Women’s Small Business Procurement Parity Act would support additional contracting for WOSBs by removing the sole-source authority restriction on the WOSB procurement program to give it parity with other federal small business contracting programs and help meet the 5% women-owned small business contracting goal. The National Women’s Business Council continues to be a leading voice on economic issues impacting women entrepreneurs. For media inquiries, please contact: Krystal.Glass@nwbc.gov.
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Krystal Glass
Communications Director
National Women’s Business Council
Krystal.Glass@nwbc.gov
O: 202.205.6829