Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Thanks to foot-dragging during the Bush administration, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is only now getting around to implementing rules to help women-owned businesses receive government contracts even though the relevant program was signed into law ten years ago.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton signed the Equity in Contracting for Women Act, which allowed federal agencies to set aside contracts for female small-businesses owners in industries where they were historically underrepresented.
The SBA did little during Bush’s first term to develop rules for the program, prompting a lawsuit in 2004 that forced the agency to get moving. But the rules it came up with in 2008 were criticized because SBA defined underrepresentation too narrowly and included only four such industries.
After Barack Obama took over the White House, the SBA started over and drafted a proposed rule identifying 83 industries in which women-owned small businesses were underrepresented. Karen Mills, head of the SBA, has promised to begin operating the program before the end of this year.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Women's Small Biz Program to Make Long-Awaited Debut (by Robert Brodsky, Government Executive)
TRENDS Small Steps (by Elizabeth Newall, Government Executive)
Office of Women’s Business Ownership (Small Business Administration)
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