The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has passed legislation to get agencies to break up large contracts so small businesses could compete for them more easily against larger corporations.
Introduced by Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, the chair of the contracting and technology subcommittee, the legislation would change contract bundling requirements in the Small Business Act and increase government-wide goals for small business participation in federal procurement and contracting – including overseas contracts.
The bill would require agencies to submit to SBA and Congress plans for meeting small business procurement goals at the beginning of each fiscal year.
HR-1873, the Small Business Fairness in Contracting Act, would require some small businesses to re-certify their eligibility for small business contracts, and direct the SBA administrator to develop and maintain a database to help small businesses market to large corporations that fall shot of small business goals.
It also calls on the SBA administrator to contact small businesses regarding contracting opportunities, and would prescribe regulations governing SBA review of subcontracting plans, flag businesses in the central contractor registry that have lost a protest over their size, and purge businesses from it no longer deemed small.
