| Weekly Update from Sam |
Dear Friends,
In continuation of the House Small Business Committee’s efforts to address impediments to small businesses in the federal procurement process, Committee members introduced three bipartisan bills this week.
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) and Rep. Kurt Shrader (D-OR) introduced the Small Business Opportunity Act of 2012, which will help provide more opportunities for small business contractors by requiring that small business advocates be part of federal procurement and acquisition planning processes.
Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) introduced a bill that would address problems with size standard inconsistencies. Currently, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is creating new group size standards that will define what businesses qualify as “small”— however, the proposals that lump different industries together are overly broad and are forcing small businesses to unfairly compete with large competitors. To remedy this, Walsh and Connolly’s Small Business Protection Act of 2012 would protect legitimate small businesses by requiring that the size standard assigned to each common group is appropriate for each individual North American Industry Classification System code that is put in the new group.
Lastly, Rep. Bobby Schilling (R-IL) and Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) introduced the Building Better Business Partnerships Act of 2012, a bill that will encourage equal treatment among small business training programs. The legislation would allow the SBA to oversee civilian agency mentor-protégé programs in an effort to promote portability of agreements between the agencies and ensure that the mentor-protégé agreement doesn’t inadvertently harm the protégé’s small business status.
Contracting reform is a triple play for the economy – It’s good for small businesses, it’s good for the taxpayer, and it’s good for the government. We should be removing the barriers and complexity from the procurement system so that small companies in our communities have the opportunity to compete and win federal contracts. For the latest on the Committee’s contracting reform efforts please visit here.
Sam Graves
Chairman |
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Latest Committee Action
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On Wednesday, Chairman Graves held a full committee hearing to examine the SBA’s outdated computer systems used to manage its lending programs. This hearing was a follow-up to the Chairman’s request that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) review the SBA’s modernization efforts. At the hearing, GAO confirmed that since 2005, when the modernization project began, the SBA has completed only one step in the modernization. With a lending program portfolio that exceeds $80 billion, the SBA should be able to manage its information technology in a way that does not waste or risk taxpayer dollars and ensure that it can obtain accurate information on its loans.
On Thursday, Contracting and Workforce Subcommittee Chairman Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) held a hearing to examine the impediments that small businesses face when competing for federal government construction contracts. Costly and burdensome regulations often prohibit small businesses from successfully competing for construction contracts. This hearing addressed how the government can level the playing field so that small companies have just as much opportunity to succeed in construction contracting as their larger counterparts.
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Stay Updated
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News From Washington
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On Tuesday, the House passed the Civilian Property Realignment Act (H.R. 1734) by a vote of 259-164. This bill would establish an independent commission known as the Civilian Property Realignment Commission (CPRC) to provide recommendations on civilian federal properties that can be sold, transferred, exchanged, consolidated, or redeveloped, to reduce the civilian real property inventory, minimize the operating costs of the government, and create the highest value and return for the taxpayer.
Also on Tuesday, the House approved the Budget and Accounting Transparency Act of 2011 (H.R. 3581) by a vote of 245-180. This legislation would require federal credit programs to be accounted for on a fair value accounting basis. This means that federal accounting would have to consider not just the borrowing costs to the federal government, but also the cost of the market risk the federal government is incurring.
On Wednesday, the House passed the Expedited Legislative Line-Item Veto and Rescissions Act (H.R. 3521) by a vote of 254-173. This bill would allow the President to propose rescissions within 45 days of enactment of legislation, and sets up a process requiring Congress to consider the President’s request within an expedited timeline.
On Thursday, the House passed the bipartisan STOCK Act by a vote of 417-2. This bill would prevent Members of Congress, federal officials and staff from using non-public information for financial gain.
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| February 10, 2012 |
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