WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP), the nation's largest bipartisan women's business group, spoke out against a Small Business Administration proposed rule that reduces federal contracts protected status for women-owned businesses to only four of over 2,300 business categories.
"While Washington was quiet this holiday season, the SBA was working to deliver a lump of coal to women business owners," said WIPP President Barbara Kasoff. "This proposed rule demonstrates that women business owners are not important to this administration nor the political process. It is a drastic step backwards in chipping away at the little progress that women made over the past seven years to gain a mere five percent of federal contracts, while half of all privately held companies have a woman owner."
The rule, if enacted, would drastically limit the number of governmental contracts awarded to women entrepreneurs by requiring women-owned businesses to show under-representation in thousands of industries and direct discrimination by a government agency to qualify for protected status. The new rule would only extend protected status to women-owned businesses in four categories listed by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS): kitchen cabinet manufacturing, engraving, other motor vehicles and intelligence.
Further raising the bar of entry for women entrepreneurs in the area of government procurement, the SBA has also proposed that in order for an agency to set aside a new contract under the proposed rule, the procuring agency would have to conduct an appropriate analysis of its own procurement history to show that there has been discrimination against women-owned small businesses in the past.
"One of our members is the nation's only woman-owned munitions designer, and according to this new rule, SBA believes the munitions industry is over-represented by women and faces no discrimination in procurement," said Kasoff.
Passed by Congress in 2000, Public Law 106-554, was created to allow federal contracting officers to award up to five percent of all contracts to women-owned businesses. However, according to the most recent government report, that goal continues to fall short, with women entrepreneurs receiving only 3.3 percent of contracts in 2005. Many of these figures were supported by Rand Corporation study, released in April 2007. The study, conducted at SBA's request, confirmed that women-owned small businesses are under-represented in 87% of industries.
"Access to government contracts is imperative for the survival of women-owned businesses. As the figures demonstrate, at the heart of SBA's proposed change is not the issue of preferred status for women entrepreneurs, it is the question of 10.4 million women-owned small businesses getting their fair share of federal business." said Kasoff. "Each year, access to government contracts is identified by our member survey as one of the top challenges facing women business owners, and continues to be a high priority for WIPP."
About Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP):
WIPP is a national bi-partisan group comprising over half a million members. The non-profit organization is the public policy voice for 45 national Women in Business groups and is The Voice for Women in Business in Our Nation's Capital. WIPP strengthens its members' sphere of influence in the legislative process, creates economic opportunities for members and builds alliances with other small business organizations. Visit http://www.wipp.org/.
Women Impacting Public Policy
