The House Small Business Committee approved a package of contracting bills that sponsors say will boost job creation by providing more opportunities for small firms.

Several of the bills have bipartisan support. Taken together, they represent the most far-reaching changes in small business contracting rules in years.

The GET Small Business Contracting (Government Efficiency through Small Business Contracting) Act, H.R. 3850, would withhold bonuses from senior executives when their agency failed to meet its small business goal. Those bonuses often amount to tens of thousands of dollars. The sponsors, committee Chairman Sam Graves, R-M, and Rep. Bill Owens, D-NY, said it would hold agency officials accountable for their performance.

The bill would also increase the governmentwide small business contracting goal to 25%, from the current 23%. The government has never reached the 23% goal.

Other provisions of the bill would make it more difficult for agencies to achieve their goals by eliminating exemptions in contract reporting rules. Agencies would be required to count contracts awarded overseas in calculating their small business performance. In addition, the calculation of small business contracts would include the few agencies, such as the Federal Aviation Administration, that do not operate under the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

The committee staff said the exempted contracts added up to $100 billion in 2010. Including them in the official figures would likely reduce the official small business share of the federal market.

The bill would not change the goals for small disadvantaged, woman-owned, HUBZone or service-disabled veteran-owned businesses. It would increase the subcontracting goal to 40%, from the present 35.9%.

The Small Business Procurement Improvement Act, H.R. 4118, would require annual governmentwide goals for small business contracting on task and delivery orders under GSA schedules and other multiple award contracts, blanket purchase agreements and basic ordering agreements.

Multiple award vehicles are taking a growing share of contract dollars, including about half of service contract spending.

The Subcontracting Transparency and Reliability (STAR) Act, H.R. 3893, prohibits small businesses from subcontracting more than 50% of the contract value to a large business (85% for construction). To encourage teaming, there would be no limitations on one small business subcontracting with another.

The bill orders changes in the government’s subcontract reporting system to catch excessive subcontracting. A prime contractor would have to report its subcontracts every 180 days while the work is in progress.

Before insourcing work done by a small contractor, an agency would have to give public notice and allow time for comment. The agency would have to describe the procedures it used in deciding to insource the work, and small business would be allowed to protest an insourcing decision.

“Small business shouldn’t be losing a contract under a secret process,” Chairman Graves said.

The Small Business Opportunity Act, H.R. 3980, requires agencies to include OSDBU directors and SBA procurement center representatives in acquisition planning, inviting them to meetings and providing them with copies of planning documents. Sponsors said agencies sometimes bypass small business representatives when writing requirements.

The Early Stage Small Business Contracting Act, H.R. 4121, would create a new set-aside category for early-stage small firms with no more than 15 employees and $1 million in average annual receipts. Set-asides for those firms would be permitted, but not required, on contracts worth between $3,000 and $150,000.

The Small Business Advocate Act, H.R. 3851, requires that all OSDBU directors hold equal rank with the agency’s chief acquisition officer or senior procurement executive and that the OSDBU director have no other duties.

The committee plans to act shortly on several other contracting bills, including ones related to bundling and to the women’s set-aside program.