On September 25, the Senate approved, by unanimous consent, legislation (S. 1375) to reauthorize programs administered by the Small Business Administration through FY 2006. The Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee passed the bill on July 10 (see The Source, 7/11/03). The House Small Business Committee approved its version of the bill (H.R. 2802) on July 24 (see The Source, 7/25/03).
Sponsored by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), S. 1375 incorporates provisions of the Women’s Small Business Improvement Act (S. 1154), Sen. Snowe’s bill to strengthen the SBA’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership, the National Women’s Business Council, the Women’s Business Centers Program, and the Interagency Committee on Women’s Business Enterprise.
The National Women’s Business Council would be reauthorized at $1 million each year in FY2004 through FY2006. The bill would change the Council’s research allocation from its current $550,000 to 30 percent of allocated funds. In addition, the Council would be authorized to create a clearinghouse on women’s business ownership. Established in 1988, the National Women’s Business Council was created to serve as an advisory body to the President, Congress, and the Small Business Administration.
S. 1375 would make permanent the Women’s Business Centers program, which had been scheduled to sunset this year. It also would be restructured to offer competitive grants for both new and successful existing centers. Established in 1988, the program provides long-term training and counseling for women entrepreneurs in almost every state. In FY2002, the SBA estimated that the program had an approximate return of $161 for every $1 invested in the program. The Senate bill would reauthorize the program at $15 million in FY2004, $16 million in FY2005, and $17.5 million in FY2006.
S. 1375 also would direct federal agencies to develop marketing and outreach programs, as well as procurement training programs, on federal government contracting, in an effort to limit the practice of contract “bundling,” which small businesses say has hampered their ability to win federal government contracts. Contract bundling is the practice by a federal department or agency of consolidating several small projects, which would normally be contracted out separately, into one single mega-contract that favors large companies. The bill also would require studies of any contract bundling in excess of $5 million at the Department of Defense and $2 million at other federal agencies. The legislation would expedite the completion of a GAO study required as part of legislation (P.L. 106-165) approved by Congress in 1999, creating a Procurement Program for Women-Owned Small Business Concerns. Before the procurement set-asides for women-owned businesses can be implemented, the law requires that a GAO study first be conducted to prove that such businesses have been treated unfairly. S. 1375 would require that the study be completed by the end of this year.
The bill also would create a new pilot program to allow non-profit child care providers to qualify for loans under the 504 loan program.
