Small Business Contracting Transparency Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to vote for my bipartisan and very much commonsense legislation, the Small Business Contracting Transparency Act, that will help level the playing field for underrepresented entrepreneurs across the country.

I thank my Republican colleague, Representative Pete Stauber, for his partnership on this legislation. Furthermore, I thank Chairman Williams and Ranking Member Velazquez for their leadership in advancing this legislation through the Small Business Committee on a unanimous basis. I thank them for me being able to stand on their shoulders on this.

As a former entrepreneur myself, I understand the many challenges that come with running and scaling a business. Every day brings a unique challenge. I regularly hear from businessowners in my own community, in Pennsylvania's Sixth District, who are navigating inflation, supply chain challenges, workforce needs, and so much more.

One way that our Federal Government can help protect entrepreneurs is to address these issues and ultimately succeed. One way they can do that is by providing contracting opportunities for small business owners. For entrepreneurs who are seeking to do business with our Federal Government, I know that every single contract secured or lost can be the difference in keeping Americans on their payroll or losing them, expanding or scaling back their operations, or beating or missing their projections.

That is why the Federal small business contracting programs are so very important. Through these programs, the Federal Government maintains its various statutory goals that ensure equitable participation by small businesses, and importantly, by underrepresented small businesses in Federal contracting.

Across various agencies, the Federal Government aims to provide 5 percent of Federal prime contracts to women-owned small businesses, 3 percent to service-disabled veteran-owned businesses, and 3 percent to the Historically Underutilized Business Zone, otherwise known as HUBZone, small businesses, as well.

While figures like 5 percent or 3 percent may not sound a whole lot like large targets, our Federal Government, unfortunately, struggles regularly to meet them.

Indeed, in fiscal year 2022, the Federal Government failed to reach its target goals for both women-owned businesses and HUBZone small businesses, as well. Even more troubling, the Federal Government has only met the statutory goal of awarding 5 percent of contracts to women-owned businesses twice in the last 23 years.

In addition, the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, has cited deficiencies in the Small Business Administration's oversight of the program.

It is clear that disadvantaged entrepreneurs continue to be underrepresented when it comes to Federal contract funding, and that is hurting the economy, both at a micro level and at a macro or national level. It is well past time that Congress is able to act to ensure that these programs are working as they were designed and intended to do.

That is why I introduced my bill, H.R. 4670, the bipartisan Small Business Contracting Transparency Act. My legislation will increase transparency, oversight, and will increase accountability of the Small Business Administration's Women-Owned, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned, and HUBZone Small Business Contracting programs.

Notably, this bill requires the SBA to submit to Congress annual reports that benchmark critical data, including: the number of small businesses that are certified, the total dollar amount of contracts awarded to qualifying businesses, and the number of contracts that are incorrectly awarded to ineligible recipients, among other figures, as well.

Simply put, my bill, the Small Business Contracting Transparency Act, will allow Congress and the SBA to improve these Federal contracting programs to ensure that these programs run efficiently and to ultimately benefit disadvantaged entrepreneurs in their pursuit of securing government contracts. In turn, we will strengthen our economy, we will support Main Streets all over in every ZIP Code, and we will grow the middle class.

The time to act is now, especially as the Federal Government works to award additional contracts through this historic implementation of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act, the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, as well.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my Republican colleague, Representative Pete Stauber, for his partnership in this really important legislation. Once again, I thank Chairman Williams and Ranking Member Velazquez for their leadership in this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote for this Small Business Contracting Transparency Act that will help level the playing field for entrepreneurs in Pennsylvania, and indeed, across the Nation, as well.

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