Wosb Certification and Opportunity Expansion Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LaLOTA. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Williams for yielding me the time today and Ranking Member Velazquez, a fellow proud New Yorker, for leading this effort with me. It is a good day when Members of the same State delegation from different parties can work together to benefit New York's small businesses and small businesses throughout this great country of ours.

Mr. Speaker, our bipartisan WOSB Certification and Opportunity Expansion Act would phase out self-certified, women-owned small businesses from the governmentwide procurement goals. In doing so, this bill would achieve two main things. It will protect the integrity of the women-owned small business program, and it will prevent the abuse of Federal small business contracting goals.

Self-certification, according to the SBA Office of Inspector General and others, presents significant risks of fraud and impedes the progress of businesses which rightfully qualify. While others can self- certify, women small business owners in the SBA's women-owned small business program undergo a certification program to ensure that only women-owned firms enter.

This bill aligns the women-owned small business program with similar programs that no longer count self-certified firms in the SBA's goals. A similar provision phasing out self-certified service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses from the procurement goals passed in the FY24 NDAA.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support the WOSB Certification and Opportunity Expansion Act.

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