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Set Aside or Waste of Effort?

Help for women-owned small businesses wanting federal contracts judged to be both good enough and not enough, depending on who you ask.

Federal News Network Staff

October 9, 2008 1:07 pm

3 min read

By Suzanne Kubota
Senior Internet Editor
FederalNewsRadio.com

The Small Business Administration has issued a new rule designed to help women-owned small businesses get more contracting opportunities with the federal government.

While the idea is for federal agencies to set aside more contracts for women-owned businesses, some say the effort doesn’t go far enough.

To get a view from both sides, FederalNewsRadio talked with Barbara Kasoff, President and CEO of Women Impacting Public Policy and Sandy Baruah, Acting Administrator at the Small Business Administration seperately about the new rule.

“We are pretty disappointed in it,” Kasoff says. “I think the first thing, in order to understand the disappointment is you have to take a look at the intent of Congress was when it actually passed the original law in 2000.”

Baruah says easier said than done. “When folks talk about legislative intent… there was no accompanying report language to this piece of legislation which is kind of an oddity these days because report language is so common, which kind of helps clarify for the agencies what the Congress was thinking, and in this case, there was no additional clarifying legislation.”

Kasoff: The sad and deal breaker part of the situation is that in the final rule, they kept a portion of the law which is an absolute deal breaker. That said that before federal agencies can restrict any federal contracts for women to bid on, that each agency would be required to conduct an analysis of its own procurement history to determine if there’s evidence of discrimination. I don’t know any federal agency that’s going to do that.

Baruah: We don’t want to put any federal agency in the position to have to say to itself, and say to the world at large, that we purposely discriminated against any group of Americans.

Kasoff: But what good is it if they’re open if the agency won’t set aside a contract because it has to do a study on discrimination.

Baruah: We kind of view this as a quality in-quality out situation. If we don’t do things right at the front end and set up the rule properly at the front end, it’ll only be open to continuing legal challenge at the back end, and that doesn’t serve anybody’s interest – it doesn’t serve the agencies’ interest and it doesn’t serve the women-owned business we’re all trying to help.

Kasoff: (Women-owned businesses are) …at least as bad, if not worse off, than before.

Baruah: (Encouraging comment on the rule) …and we’ll respond accordingly. If something needs to be changed because we get public comment that is relevant to what’s open to public comment, we’re going to respond to that.

To submit comments: go to regulations.gov or contact Linda Korbol, Assistant Administrator for Women’s Procurement, SBA Office of Government Contracting, (202) 205-7341.

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On the Web:

Federal Register – Final Rule: The Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Assistance Procedures

SBA – From the Hill – How to help women-owned small businesses By Steve Preston (pdf)

WIPP.ORG – Women Impacting Public Policy