News From the
Committee on Small Business
Nydia M. Velázquez, Chairwoman

For Immediate Release                                                                               CONTACT:  Duncan Neasham
October 2, 2008                                                                                                        (202) 226-3636

SBA’s new Women Procurement Rules “Set Women Back Decades,” Says Rep. Velázquez

 

WASHINGTON – Twenty years after the Women’s Business Ownership Act, female entrepreneurs still struggle to win government contracts. The Bush Administration recently announced new regulations that would continue to lock women out of the federal marketplace.

“In the last eight years, the Small Business Administration has consistently failed to meet its contracting goals for women-owned businesses,” Chairwomen Velázquez said. “The administration’s new regulations promise to continue that culture of failure.”

While current law mandates a 5 percent federal contracting goal for women-owned businesses, the Bush Administration has never met that benchmark. In 2006, for example, only 3.4 percent of government projects were awarded to female entrepreneurs. The Women’s Procurement Program (WPP), which Chairwoman Velázquez introduced through the Equity for Contracting for Women Act in 2000, was intended to help women access the federal marketplace. But rather than allowing them to do so, the initiative has instead created yards of red tape and a series of unnecessary roadblocks.

"A combination of impractical regulatory measures and SBA’s dawdling has sent the WPP straight to bureaucratic limbo,” Chairwoman Velázquez said. “Eight years later, SBA is finally moving to implement the initiative. Unfortunately, its new regulations are going to set women back decades.”

The SBA’s latest regulations will make government contracts more elusive than ever for female entrepreneurs. For one, the new rules will exclude more than 100 different industries from the program, including key sectors like oil and gas exploration, as well as certain kinds of manufacturing. Worse yet, SBA’s new mandates would require participating federal agencies to admit to a history of discrimination against women-owned businesses. Chairwoman Velázquez says this measure is unrealistic.

“The SBA is really adding insult to injury here,” Chairwoman Velázquez said. “Not only is the administration going to close most industries to women, but it is essentially asking federal agencies to admit to gender discrimination.”

Last year, Chairwomen Velázquez helped pass the Small Business Contracting Program Improvements Act, which included a section calling for WPP’s immediate implementation in virtually every industry. But the bill continues to languish in the Senate, costing female entrepreneurs billions of dollars in lost opportunities.

“It is truly a shame to see the WPP in such disrepair,” Chairwomen Velázquez said. “Female entrepreneurs drive job growth and economic expansion. There is no excuse for holding them back.”

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