OMB RFI: Methods and Leading Practices for Advancing Equity and Support for underserved Communities

Council Exchange Board of Trade Looking Forward Research & Development

DISCOVER2021

Advancing Equity ECONOMI C E QU AL I Z AT I ON

OMB RFI INDUSTRY RESPONSE Office of Management And Budget, Executive Office of the President

Docket Number: OMB-2021-0005 Responsive to Area 3 Procurement and Contracting

Action: Request for Information (RFI) Methods and Leading Practices for Advancing Equity and Support for underserved Communities Through Government.

Karl Cureton, CEO Council Exchange Board of Trade karl.cureton@cebot.us

Building Economic Health The contents of this briefing is being made available to all Federal agencies and their employees on an internal-togovernment website accessible only to agency staff persons.

The Council Exchange Board of Trade (CEBOT), (DBA - National Minority Technology Council), represents the common economic and business interest of the minority technology industry.

CEBOT is organized as a 501c6 trade association that intermediates the innovation ecosystem made up, in part, of minority tech company owners, government, academic, communities, parents, stakeholders and individual CEBOT members who subscribe to CEBOT's Cohesion Framework.

PROCUREMENT &CONTRACTING

Approaches and methods for assessing equity in agency procurement and contracting process.

At its core America is known throughout the world as a land of opportunity. Over time history has been kind to many cultures who have traveled to the U.S. to taste the milk and honey of this great nation. However, for some segments of our citizenry this phenomenon is elusive.

President Biden's January 20, 2021 Executive Order 13985 opens a new policy portal that provides an asset-based view of inclusion that gives rise to a new and innovative approach to procurement and community resilience.

Resting at the foundation, equity is in the federal data science domain. Current legacy policy views are embedded in recompense not supply chain management and community resilience.

The federal procurement ecosystem, particularly for large and very large acquisitions, is an oligopolistic market where sole source contracts prevail.

One key area of change is in how the federal government considers the minority business ecosystem. CEBOT recommends federal policy makers consider a "sector-based" approach where specific high growth minority industry sectors are both researched and supported.

CEBOT is researching two industry sectors to include the minority technology sector and the sector made up of colleges and universities serving people of color.

CEBOT is researching how these two sectors intersect from an innovation ecosystem perspective. There is growing evidence that collaboration in this space produces an increase in capability and ability to increse the number of transactions above $100 and $500 Million.

REISE | PAGE 4

This is evident on the federal open data site www.usaspending.gov. Chart1: Federal Data on Transactional Disparity for Minority Business illuminates the estimated $1.2 Trillion in revenue averted from minority communities, over the past 12+ years, due to a lack of parity in the U.S. procurement system.

Federal OSDBU Directors, policy makers and procurement officers often use www.usaspending.gov as referential data.

However, benchmarks are made based on past performance and procurement goals that are not representative of the growth of the U.S. minority population. CEBOT recommends the federal government changes how it regards procurement from a paradigm of "goal reaching" strategies to a more system oriented approach to federal acquisition.

Council Exchange Board of Trade

Chart 1: Federal Data on Transactional Disparity for Minority Business Awards as of 7.06.2021 from 2008 (12 years of data)

Total Number **Award Amount of Awards $1,000,000 & Under 43235981 $1,000,000 - $25,000,000 523902 $25,000,000 - $100,000,000 26526 $100,000,000 - $500,000,000 6378 $500,000,000 & Above 1402

Total Number of Percentage Minority of Minority Percent U.S. Awards Awards Minority* 2893168 6.7% 39.9% 100643 19.2% 39.9% 2335 8.8% 39.9% 304 4.8% 39.9% 16 1.1% 39.9%

Number of Contracts at Parity 17251156.4 209036.898 10583.874 2544.822 559.398

Total Economic Impact Available ** www.usaspending .gov *U.S Census (est. July 1st, 2019) https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219

Responsive to Areas 3 Procurement and Contracting

Range Multiplyer $ 10,000 $ 1,000,000 $ 25,000,000 $ 100,000,000 $ 500,000,000

Total Estimated Economic Power at parity $ 172,511,564,190 $ 209,036,898,000 $ 264,596,850,000 $ 254,482,200,000 $ 279,699,000,000

$ 1,180,326,512,190

OFFICE OF MINORITY BROADBAND INITIATIVE An Illustration of Federal Best Practice The CEBOTrecommends that federal policy makers and procurement professionals investigate and benefit from an analysis of the work now underway at the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Office of Minority Broadband Initiative (MBI).

Federal Site https://www.ntia.doc.gov/category/minoritybroadband-initiative CEBOT recognizes the years of stakeholder research, engagement and capacity building completed by NTIA-MBI. NTIA-MBI worked in partnership with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), particularly in the rural south, facilitate collaboration between university officials including University/College Chief Information Officers in order to build the idea of joint capacity and scale through collaboration.

NTIA-MBI’s initiative will directly fund institutions throughout the nation to promote them as hubs of digital applications and innovation, while ensuring their inclusion and awareness of broadband deployment grant opportunities. NTIA-MBI plans to use broadband infrastructure investment as a catalyst for adoption that will result in job growth and economic development and deployment of advanced mobile technologies primarily in the economically distressed communities of the rural South.

This innovative technical assistance at the federal level has inspired HBCU collaboration to increase federal grant and contract acquisition, particularly for larger opportunities. One example is the SMART HBCU Consortium governed in Virginia at Norfolk State University's Center of Excellence for Governance, Research & Education. The current funding opportunity at NTIA-MBI and the federal outreach has resulted in the SMART HBCU Consortium agreeing to strategically align resources in order to develop larger grant and contract opportunities and to partner with the minority technology ecosystem that CEBOT represents.

(See Appendix A) The Council Exchange Board of Trade (CEBOT) represents the now over 65,000 U.S. minority technology companies located across the nation. As a 501c6 trade association CEBOT recognizes that today, more than ever before, unity is the best solution for success in our urban and rural disenfranchised communities.

Appendex A

COUNCIL EXCHANGE BOARD OF TRADE | JULY 2021

SMART Communities CMC PILOT Internet as a Utility GROWTH ALGORITHMS Developing an International Digital Community Collaboration Platform with Fintech enabled Performance Data Networks aligned with Mission Metrics

Conn

ecting Minority Com

s e i t i mun

SMART HBCU HUB - GOVERNANCE WWW.CMCPILOT.ORG