JOINT LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL
ON SMALL BUSINESS CONTRACTING
DISCUSSION DRAFT
To Expand Small Business Contracting Opportunities:
In reauthorizing the Small Business Act’s contracting programs, the Congress should include provisions to ensure small businesses receive the federal contract support that not only is deserved, but is required by law. While the federal contracting market has doubled in size since 2000, small businesses’ percentage share of that market has declined significantly due to:
- Bundling and consolidation of contracts that preclude award to most small businesses;
- Huge growth in emergency/overseas contracts that are not subject to small business contracting or subcontracting requirements;
- Disregard for or inapplicability of subcontracting plan requirements, and limited enforcement of such requirements; and
- Downsizing of the federal procurement workforce that has compounded the above problems as overworked contracting personnel must deal with higher volumes of contracting actions, pressures to meet deadlines and small business goals, and little time or insufficient training to monitor compliance with existing rules designed to prevent/reduce contract bundling/consolidation, and enforce subcontracting plan requirements.
To enable small businesses, particularly 8(a) companies, to capture more federal contracts with greater dollar values, the Congress must take immediate action to reverse the above trends and launch new ways to facilitate award of larger contracts to more 8(a) and other small businesses.
Three ways to accomplish this goal are:
- Strengthen provisions that police the bundling and consolidation of contracts and break up such contracts for award to small businesses, as proposed in Title I of the Senate draft bill.
- Provide opportunities to test new procurement approaches to enable teams of Native enterprises and other small businesses to pursue larger contracts, including requiring contracting agencies to issue Requests For Information (RFI) to small businesses so they have a chance to respond individually or form teams to pursue larger contracts (such as bundled and consolidated contracts). Title I, Sections 101 and 104 of the Senate draft bill take steps in that direction. Other suggestions are offered in Amendments 1 and 2, attached.
- As part of the Pilot Program proposed in Title II, Section 204, test the feasibility of requiring that if an 8(a) contractor is awarded a sole source contract with an anticipated award price expected to exceed $20 million annually, such 8(a) contractor must implement a subcontracting plan to provide contract work to other small businesses of all types, as proposed in Amendment #3, attached.
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