WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a senior member of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, praised the Obama Administration for its continued commitment to small business contracting. U.S. Small Business Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet recently unveiled the 2014 Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard, which evaluates each federal agency on how well they meet agency-specific goals for small business prime and sub-contracting. This was the second straight year that the government wide goal of 23 percent was exceeded. In Fiscal Year 2013, $91 billion of all federal small business eligible contracting dollars were awarded to small businesses – an increase of more than $8 billion from FY13.
“We cannot stop the all-out effort to ensure small businesses get a fair share of the federal resources that are working on behalf of the American people. Small businesses make government work. We have made progress but cannot lose momentum in bringing the expertise of our service disabled veteran businesses, women-owned businesses, small disadvantaged business and those in HUBZones to the forefront for major departments of the federal government,” said Senator Cardin. “I’m especially impressed with the U.S. Agency for International Development, Department of Commerce and Department of Homeland Security that each elevated their performance to an A+ rating this year. The Department of Defense, which has more than $54 billion in small business contracts also deserves the spotlight for achieving an A rating after five straight years of B grades. The impacts of sequestration continue to take their toll on government contracting, but the dedication of most federal departments to support our small businesses has made this progress possible. I intend to keep pushing for more opportunities for our small businesses and will do all I can to encourage NASA and the Department of Health and Human Services to return to their previous high levels of small business contracting.”
Other agencies with a strong presence in Maryland received high marks, including the Social Security Administration (A) and Department of the Interior (A).
The annual Scorecard is an assessment tool that measures how well federal agencies reach their small business and socio-economic prime contracting and subcontracting goals and reports agency-specific progress. The prime and subcontracting component goals include goals for small businesses, small businesses owned by women, small disadvantaged businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, and small businesses located in Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZones). Senator Cardin has previously introduced legislation that would help more small businesses compete for federal contracts by raising the government-wide small business prime goal from 23 percent to 25 percent. Government-wide subcontracting goals would be increased from 35.9 percent to 40 percent.
Every two years, the SBA works with each agency to set their prime and subcontracting goals and their grades are based on the agreed upon goals. Each federal agency has a different small business contracting goal, negotiated biannually in consultation with SBA. SBA ensures that the sum total of all of the goals exceeds the 23 percent target established by law. Agency specific data from previous years can be found at: https://www.sba.gov/content/small-business-procurement-scorecards-0
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