Women Legislators
Seek to Increase Access
to Federal Contracts By Ann Sullivan WIPP Government Relations
A
dvocates for the women’s contracting community are alive and well in Washington. An issue that has limited the success of a program designed to help women access the federal market has taken center stage in both the House and the Senate. Moving forward will require the united voice of the women’s business community and the understanding of where this program came from and where it needs to go. Women business owners have thrived since the government began tracking business ownership in 1972. The growth and success of women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) has often relied on approaching and jumping into new markets where they often faced barriers. But, as successful business owners will tell you, you have to go where the business is. One such area is the federal procurement market, where opportunities now total more than $500 billion annually. As businesses look to increase revenue, selling goods and services to the federal government – the world’s largest consumer of goods and services – can be lucrative.
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But historically, women business owners had only peripheral access to these opportunities, and even then, often only through subcontracting. In an attempt to change this, Congress established a government-wide goal of awarding 5% of federal contracts to WOSBs in 1994. They hoped this effort would galvanize agencies into working with women-owned companies. But that effort simmered and government contracting with women-owned businesses grew only marginally. For this reason, Congress established a program to help the contracting community and assist the women’s business community with finding opportunities. Unfortunately, it took more than a decade to implement the program. In 2011, 11 years after Congress acted, the Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program (“WOSB Procurement Program”) was established to increase access to federal contracts by limiting competition to women-owned firms only. Yet the program came with significant restrictions—restrictions other small