WIPP CRITICIZES SBA FOR KILLING FEDERAL CONTRACTING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP), the nation’s largest bipartisan women’s business group, spoke out against a Small Business Administration proposed rule that reduces federal contracts protected status for women-owned businesses to only four of over 2,300 business categories. WIPP Procurement Committee member Gloria Berthold, President, TargetGov of Baltimore, Maryland joined the organization in commenting on the proposed rule.
“The SBA has effectively killed billions in business opportunities in federal contracts for women business owners,” said Gloria Berthold. “As a business leader and a government contractor, I believe this proposed rule demonstrates that women business owners are not important to this administration nor to the political process. After seven long years waiting to enact the law, this is a drastic step backwards in chipping away at the little progress that women made to gain a mere five percent of federal contracts, while half of all privately held companies have a woman owner. I am embarrassed to be a republican when things like this happen.”
The rule, if enacted, would drastically limit the number of federal government contracts awarded to women entrepreneurs by requiring women-owned businesses to show under-representation in thousands of industries and direct discrimination by a government agency to qualify for protected status. The new rule would only extend protected status to women-owned businesses in four categories listed by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS): kitchen cabinet manufacturing, engraving, other motor vehicles and intelligence.
Further raising the bar of entry for women entrepreneurs in the area of government procurement, the SBA has also proposed that in order for an agency to set aside a new contract under the proposed rule, the procuring agency would have to conduct an appropriate analysis of its own procurement history to show that there has been discrimination against women-owned small businesses in the past.
“One of our members is the nation’s only woman-owned munitions designer, and according to this new rule, SBA believes the munitions industry is over-represented by women and faces no discrimination in procurement,” said WIPP President Barbara Kasoff.
Passed by Congress in 2000, Public Law 106-554, was created to allow federal contracting officers to award up to five percent of all contracts to women-owned businesses. However, according to the most recent government report, that goal continues to fall short, with women entrepreneurs receiving only 3.3 percent of contracts in 2005. Many of these figures were supported by Rand Corporation study, released in April 2007. The study, conducted at SBA’s request, confirmed that women-owned small businesses are under-represented in 87% of industries. WIPP Maryland state leader Berthold remarked that “Five percent of $400 billion is $20 billion. Even the SBA says women-owned businesses are only getting about $13 billion in contracts annually, well below the targeted five percent. This cheats us out of $7 billion in contracts every year.”
“Access to government contracts is imperative for the survival and growth of women-owned businesses. As the figures demonstrate, at the heart of SBA’s proposed change is not the issue of preferred status for women entrepreneurs, it is the question of 10.4 million women-owned small businesses getting their fair share of federal business.” said Kasoff. “Each year, access to government contracts is identified by our member survey as one of the top challenges facing women business owners, and continues to be a high priority for WIPP.”
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About Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP):
WIPP is a national bi-partisan group comprising over half a million members. The non-profit organization is the public policy voice for 45 national Women in Business groups and is The Voice for Women in Business in Our Nation’s Capital. WIPP strengthens its members’ sphere of influence in the legislative process, creates economic opportunities for members and builds alliances with other small business organizations. Visit www.wipp.org.
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