1.5: Federal Opportunities for Small Business

Increase the effectiveness of Federal agencies to provide opportunities for small business

Other Information:

The following outcome measure will determine success in meeting this objective: 1.5.1 By 2008, small businesses, assisted by Federal agencies, benefiting from Federal contracts or international trade assistance, will achieve and maintain a higher than average survivability rate than that of a comparable control group. 1.5.2 By 2008, small businesses, assisted by Federal agencies, benefiting from Federal contracts or international trade assistance, will achieve and maintain a higher than average job creation rate than that of a comparable control group. 1.5.3 By 2008, small businesses, assisted by Federal agencies, benefiting from Federal contracts or international trade assistance, will achieve and maintain a higher than average revenue growth rate than that of a comparable control group. Strategy: The SBA’s role in procurement assistance is to help ensure that small businesses receive a fair share of Federal contracting opportunities. In so doing, the Agency promotes competitiveness in the small business sector, encourages formation and retention of domestic jobs, and strengthens and diversifies the Nation’s industrial base. These outcome measures are used because they support the fourth item of the PSBA, to ensure full and open competition to government contracts for small businesses. The Federal government annually buys over $200 billion in goods and services, and has a statutory goal of awarding at least 23 percent of its purchases to small businesses. As part of this effort, SBA assists agencies by negotiating Agency-specific procurement goals, monitoring performance and encouraging the use of small business sources. Agencies in the 1990’s increasingly grouped separate, and often unrelated, purchasing activities under a single contract. Effectively, this limited small businesses participation in the bidding process. As part of the Administration’s agenda to assist small businesses, OMB assembled an interagency working group tasked with developing a strategy to “unbundle” Federal contracts to the maximum extent practicable, which may help the government reach its 23 percent goal. The group proposed the following recommendations: 1) ensure timely and accurate reporting of contract bundling information through the President’s Management Council; 2) require contract bundling reviews for task and delivery orders under multiple award contract vehicles; 3) require SBA and Agency Offices of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization to review proposed acquisitions above certain individual Agency-specific thresholds (between $2 million and $7 million); and 4) require identification of alternative acquisition strategies for the proposed bundling of contracts above certain individual Agency-specific thresholds and written justification when alternatives involving less bundling are not used. In addition, the intragency working group promulgated regulations to implement the recommendations listed above.

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

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