Tuesday, June 5, 2012

House Passes Small Business Contracting Bills

 Eight bills meant to make it easier for small businesses to win federal contracts has won approval in the House of Representatives and has moved on the U. S. Senate. It's not clear what will happen to the bills even with Senate approval because the measures are attached to a defense spending bill that President Obama has threatened to veto.
The eight contracting bills were attached to the defense bill to guaranteed they would make it to the House floor, according to D.J. Jordan, spokesman for the House Small Business Committee, which sponsored the bills.
The contracting bills include:
—The Government Efficiency Through Small Business Contracting Act, which would raise from the current 23% to 25% the amount of federal contracting dollars that should go to small businesses.
—The Small Business Advocate Act, which would make it easier for the Offices of Small and DisadvantagedBusiness Utilization in federal agencies to advocate for small business contracts.
—The Subcontracting Transparency and Reliability Act, which makes it easier for the government to stop large businesses from winning contracts by using small companies to front for them and would allow more small businesses to team up to win contracts.
—The Small Business Opportunity Act, which would make small business advocates part of the federal contracting process.
—The Building Better Business Partnerships Act, which would Allow the Small Business Administration to oversee 13 current mentorship programs for small businesses.
—The Small Business Protection Act, which would revamp the SBA's size standards, or the measure it uses to determine what a small business is.
—The Contractor Opportunity Protection Act, which would overhaul the appeals process for contract bundling. Bundling is the process that brings a number of small companies together to provide goods or services to fulfill one large government contract.
—The Contracting Oversight for Small Business Jobs Act, which is intended to fight fraud in contracting.