Small Business Administration Expands Federal Contracting Opportunities For Women-Owned Small Businesses
The Small Business Administration (SBA) has published its final rule on federal contracting opportunities for women-owned small businesses (WOSBs), which goes into effect on February 4th. This rule was based on The Rand Report, a study commissioned by the SBA from the Kauffman-Rand Foundation.
The report presents disparity ratios for WOSBs, computed in four ways:
To read the full report, click here.
By implementing the existing statutory where 5 percent of federal contracting dollars go to WOSBs, the final rule provides even more opportunities for women in business. NAWBO advocated for this 5 percent federal procurement goal and other steps designed to assure women business owners access their fair share of federal contracts and contract dollars.
Using NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) codes, the final rule identifies 83 industries in which women-owned small business are under-represented. It authorizes a set-aside of federal contracts for WOSBs and economically disadvantaged women owned small businesses (EDWOSBs) where the anticipated contract price does not exceed $5 million for manufacturing contracts and $3 million for other contracts.
In addition to allocating set government funds, the final rule removes requirements mentioned in previous versions in which federal agencies had to certify that they had engaged in discrimination against WOSBs in order for the contracting program to apply to their agency. In theory, WOSBs will now self-certify their status or seek third-party certifiers like government entities and private certifications groups.
The SBA is currently developing the process in which entities can become approved to certify businesses as either WOSBs or EDWOSBs. In the meantime, women business owners and NAWBO members nationwide celebrate new contracting opportunities on the horizon!
