[BwayDems] RANGEL: New Federal Initiative To Aid Women-Owned Businesses

[Solano, Socrates]

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PRESS RELEASE
CONGRESSMAN CHARLES RANGEL
http://rangel.house.gov

Contact:   Emile Milne 202 225-4365                                                         October 6, 2010
                 Elbert Garcia 212-663-3900


New Federal Initiative To Aid Women-Owned Businesses
SBA Launches Program to Help Women Acquire Government Contracts

WASHINGTON - Congressman Rangel applauded the Small Business Administration's official roll-out of an important new program called the Women's Contracting Rule that would help put more federal contracts in the hands of women who own small businesses. The announcement was made by SBA Administrator, Karen Mills, at the White House Women's Entrepreneurship Conference held on October 4, 2010.

"Women own nearly one-third of all businesses in the United States, but only make up 3.7% of the federal contracts," said Congressman Rangel. "Tools to help them navigate through the government contracting system and secure some of the contracts will empower women to take their business to the next level and create more jobs we badly need."

America's 9.1 million women-owned businesses employ 27.5 million people and contribute $3.6 trillion to the economy - yet women are underrepresented in government contracting.

The final rule filed on Monday focuses on 83 industries in which there are too few contracting dollars and/or too few contracts going to small women-owned firms (see an unabridged list<http://fcw.com/blogs/acquisitive-mind/2010/03/83-naics-codes-wosbs.aspx> of the industries). This is a departure from the previous rule established by the Bush administration, which identified only four industries in which women-owned small businesses were underrepresented, based solely on the share of contracting dollars.

Under an amended statute, contracting officers can set aside a contract for women business owners without giving first preference to a particular type of small business, on deals less than $3 million for most contracts and $5 million for manufacturing.
Working with the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, SBA officials will begin a four-month implementation of the Women-Owned Small Business program. Contractors will be able to start making contracts available to women in early 2011.

"As a result of great initiatives such as this, I hope to see at least one out of the 68 women-owned businesses from my Upper Manhattan district acquire a federal contract," added Congressman Rangel.
The program is expected to help the government reach, for the first time, the federal statutory goal of awarding 5 percent of all contract dollars to women-owned small businesses (under the Equity in Contracting for Women Act of 2000). The shortfall between the contracting dollars awarded to women has been in the range of $5 to $8 billion annually, according to the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce.

To qualify for the new Women's Contracting Program
To be eligible for the program, a firm must be 51 percent owned, controlled and primarily managed by one or more women who are U.S. citizens. The firm also must qualify as "small" in its primary industry. Women-owned small businesses will be allowed to self-certify for the program, or be certified by a third party, such as an industry association.
To find out more about how to get started with federal contracting, please visit http://www.womenbiz.gov.

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To learn more about Congressman Rangel's stance on health care reform and what he is doing in Washington and around the district, please visit his website at www.rangel.house.gov.




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