White House Opposes Small Business Measure

The White House announced its opposition today to a measure intended to increase the amount of federal contracts awarded to small businesses.

Bill supporters nonetheless expect the legislation (HR 1873) to pass with broad bipartisan support when it comes to the House floor tomorrow. The House Rules Committee was to meet at 3 p.m. to consider a rule for the bill

In a statement of administration policy, the White House said it supports efforts to boost contracting opportunities for small businesses, but opposes this bill because “it would impose broad, burdensome statutory restrictions on federal agencies’ ability to conduct acquisitions and establish unrealistic small business procurement goals.”

Sponsored by Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, the bill would increase the federal government’s small business procurement goal to 25 percent from 23 percent. That goal reflects an amendment adopted during the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee markup scaling back a higher bar of 30 percent approved by the Small Business Committee during its markup.

The bill would further clarify the definition of contract bundling, a change the White House criticized as “overly-expansive” and one that “would impose costly and time-consuming requirements on thousands of agency acquisitions.”

CQ Today Midday Update