SBA’s Hidalgo outlines actions for small biz fed’l contracting

      The Small Business Administration’s top executive for federal contracting appeared before a House panel recently to describe recent actions taken to improve procurement opportunities for small vendors.

      Bibi Hidalgo, the SBA’s associate administrator for government contracting and business development, described five significant policy changes implemented by President Biden and SBA to increase federal contracting with small firms.

      “We have seen a governmentwide overhaul in how federal agencies, from contracting offices all the way up to front offices, approach and promote small business procurement,” Hidalgo told the House Small Business Committee on June 23.

     The five policy changes are:

• Market Access—SBA has begun tracking the number of new entrants to the federal marketplace for the first time. “We are hearing of positive trends,” Hidalgo said at the hearing;
• Procurement Goals--President Biden raised the governmentwide Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB) goal to 11% this fiscal year and aims to raise it to 15% by fiscal 2025. Hidalgo said SBA negotiated with procurement agencies to establish “ambitious agency-specific goals” for SDBs;
• Performance Evaluations—The Biden Administration has directed federal agencies to add small business and socioeconomic goals into annual performance evaluations for acquisition staffs as well as Senior Executive Service officials in program offices overseeing contract activities. Asked about HUBZone and Women-Owned goals specifically, Hidalgo said both were included in the performance evaluations;
• Category Management--Based on new guidance developed by the White House, SBA and other agencies, all socioeconomic small business contractors--more than 30,000 SDBs, Women-owned, Service-Disabled Veteran-owned and HUBZone--are now automatically provided Tier 2 credit for Category Management. “As a result, contracting officers are incentivized to take maximum advantage of socioeconomic small businesses both through open market transactions and on existing vehicles,” Hidalgo said; and
• Transparency—For the first time, SBA has publicly released data on the percentage of federal awards for Black, Latino, Asian American, Native American, and tribally owned small businesses.

      Economists have noted large and statistically significant disparities in the rate of minority small business ownership throughout the U.S., in each major category and industry sector. Hidalgo said that the tracking allows SBA and the public to monitor its progress on reducing such disparities in the federal market.

More Information:
Hidalgo testimony: https://bit.ly/3u7RCUe
Hearing video: https://bit.ly/3A7gq2b

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