The House Small Business Committee approved six bills aimed at improving small business federal contracting on March 5.

      The most talked-about legislation is probably HR 4093, sponsored by Rep. Sam Graves, R-MO, the committee’s chairman, which would raise the government’s small business prime contracting goal to 25%, from the current 23%. The GovTrak service recently evaluated the bill as having a 20% chance of passage.

      Another Graves-sponsored bill is HR 4094, which would require more data from federal agencies on contract bunding and consolidation. GovTrak gave it a 35% chance of passage, the highest of the group of bills.

      The other bills were:

• HR 2751– Prohibits reverse auctions for federal construction contracts under some conditions, sponsored by Rep. Richard Hanna, R-NY.
• HR 2882 – Transfers responsibility for verifying the status of service-disabled veteran-owned businesses to the Small Business Administration, from the Veterans Affairs Department. Sponsored by Rep. Mike Coffman, R-CO.
• HR 776 – Loosens requirements for surety bonds for federal construction contracts. Sponsored by Hanna.
• HR 4121 – Requires reports on, and additional data for, SBA Small Business Development Centers, among other changes. One of the goals is to standardize how small business assistance programs are supported and evaluated by the SBA, a source familiar with the bill told Set-Aside Alert. Sponsored by Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-NY.
• HR 2452 – Women’s Procurement Program Equalization Act of 2013, sponsored by Velazquez, would standardize sole-source authorities for SBA procurement programs.