Women’s Groups Seek Action on Set-Aside While women’s business groups denounced the six-year delay in implementing the set-aside program for woman-owned firms, SBA’s deputy administrator said the agency is “committed” to the program. In testimony prepared for the House Small Business Committee’s Subcommittee on Contracting and Technology on March 21, Deputy Administrator Jovita Carranza said, “I speak on behalf of the agency and on behalf of Administrator [Steven] Preston when I say that SBA is focused on this issue and ensuring the implementation of the program.” On the day before the hearing SBA said its goal is to implement the program by the end of the year. It is the first time the agency has set a timetable. The CEO of the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce, Margot Dorfman, called the delay a “travesty.” “Year in and year out the SBA claims they are going to implement the six-year-old Women’s Federal Procurement Program – but they don’t,” she told the subcommittee. She urged Congress to order immediate implementation of the program. The Women’s Chamber sued SBA in 2004 over the delay in implementing the program. Federal Judge Reggie Walton in Washington has ordered the agency to provide periodic progress reports. Carranza said federal prime contract dollars going to woman-owned firms have increased from 2.88% in 2000 to 3.34% in 2005. But the government has never reached the statutory goal of 5% contracting with woman-owned companies. Dorfman derided what she called a “culture of failure that has become pervasive at the SBA and all the federal agencies that are not meeting their goals.” SBA said last month that a Rand Corp. study to determine eligibility for the set-aside is near completion and should be released shortly. According to the law, in industries where women are found to be underrepresented in federal contracting, small firms owned by socially or economically disadvantaged women will be eligible for set-aside contracts. In industries where women are “substantially underrepresented,” all woman-owned firms will qualify for set-asides. The Rand study was to identify the industries that fall in the eligible categories.