A resolution (H. Res. 15) urging federal agencies to contract with women-owned businesses was approved, by voice vote, by the House Government Reform Committee on April 5.
Sponsored by Rep. Sue Kelly (R-NY), the resolution states that 8 million women-owned businesses provide jobs for more than 15 million people and generate almost $1.4 billion in annual sales. Although the federal government has suggested that all agencies strive to award at least 5 percent of their contracts to women-owned businesses, Rep. Kelly told the committee, “Women still receive only 1.9 percent of all federal contracts. That’s a 1 percent increase from last year, hardly an improvement.” While some agencies are “surpassing the 5 percent goal,” she said, many agencies “have yet to even report their figures…that were due at the end of FY99.”
The resolution recommends that agencies make information about contracting readily available to women-owned businesses, provide electronic announcements regarding available federal contracts, institute mentoring programs to teach new business contracting practices, and adopt a “rule of one” approach by ensuring that at least one women-owned business is allowed to compete for each contract.
