The House Small Business Committee has voted to give the women’s set-aside program equal treatment with other small business set-asides.

The Women’s Procurement Improvement Act, H.R. 4203, would remove the $4 million cap on women’s set-asides ($6.5 million for manufacturing contracts); competitive set-asides would be allowed in unlimited amounts. It would permit sole-source awards to woman-owned firms up to $4 million, or $6.5 million for manufacturing. Those provisions are the same as the 8(a), service-disabled veteran and HUBZone programs.

The bill would also make it easier for woman-owned companies to certify their eligibility. The sponsor, Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-NY, said contracting officers currently serve as “de facto certifiers” because they are required to verify each business’s eligibility before awarding a set-aside contract. She said the current rules are “nearly unworkable.”

Her bill would make SBA responsible for certifications, along with third-party certifiers approved by SBA. “This is SBA’s responsibility and they need to step up to the plate and certify businesses if the program is to succeed,” she said at the March 22 markup on the bill.

A bipartisan majority of the committee approved the bill on a voice vote.

The committee also approved four other bills that would change many of the rules for small business contracting programs:

The Building Better Business Partnerships Act, HR 3985. It would put SBA in charge of all civilian agency mentor-protégé programs. Programs in different agencies now operate under different rules.

Sponsors said the change would promote portability of agreements between agencies, guarantee that the programs benefit small businesses and ensure that the mentor-protégé agreement doesn’t inadvertently harm the protégé’s small business status.  

The Defense Department program would continue to operate under different rules.

The Small Business Protection Act, H.R. 3987. It would prohibit SBA from grouping several NAICS codes under a single size standard unless the agency could show that the standard is appropriate for each individual NAICS code. “By the SBA’s own analysis, these proposals that lump different industries together are excluding legitimate small businesses from the SBA contracting programs,” the committee said.

The Contractor Opportunity Protection (COP) Act, HR 4081. It prohibits contract bundling unless the agency can show that the bundled contract provides “substantial measurable benefits.” The bill also provides for a third-party review of bundling decisions when they are challenged by a small business.

Congress and the Office of Management and Budget have tried a number of ways to control unnecessary bundling, but many small contractors say the practice continues to be common.

The Contracting Oversight for Small Business Jobs Act, HR 4206. It stiffens penalties for companies that willfully misrepresent themselves as small businesses. A company could be fined twice the amount of the affected contract and officers could go to prison for five years. Companies could also be suspended or debarred from contracting.

Chairman Graves released a list of two dozen trade associations that support the contracting package, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Women Impacting Public Policy and the Minority Business Roundtable.

The committee approved additional contracting legislation on March 7. (SAA, 3/23)