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Women Who Own Small Businesses Get No Contracting Preference

According to GovExec.com:

The Small Business Administration is seeking public comment on a proposal to provide contracting preference to women-owned small businesses through a set-aside program similar to those in place for other disadvantaged business sectors.

The proposed Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Assistance Program, which was the subject of a successful lawsuit by the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce relating to implementation delays, was detailed in a Thursday Federal Register notice.

The Women's Chamber charged that the administration dragged its feet after Congress authorized a women's preference program in the 2000 Small Business Reauthorization Act. Last November, a U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia judge found in favor of the business group, and set a timetable for the SBA to comply with the act.

The program described in Thursday's notice answers that requirement, aiming to boost federal contracting and subcontracting by small businesses in which women own a controlling stake to meet a 5 percent target that has been in place since 1996. Agencies have never met that target, according to background information provided in the notice, with women-owned small businesses hovering around 3 percent of prime contract awards in recent years.

In 2005, Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Ranking Democrat of the House Small Business Committee, held a press conference announcing her support of the lawsuit. A champion for the rights of small businesses owned by women, Rep. Velazquez noted that at the time, the women's procurement program was not operating, despite having been signed into law four and a half years earlier.