Senators: Change or Delay Women’s Set-Aside Bipartisan leaders of the Senate Small Business Committee called on SBA to delay implementation of the set-aside program for woman-owned businesses until a new administration takes office, unless changes are made in the program. In a letter to Acting SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza, Chairman John Kerry, D-MA, and ranking Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine renewed their call for broadening the narrow set-aside program proposed by SBA. In the absence of changes, they wrote, a delay “will ensure that the next Administration, regardless of political affiliation, will have the opportunity to review and evaluate the proposed rule before the rule becomes final.” SBA proposed in December that the set-asides be limited to just four industries, none of them major players in the federal market: national security; coating, engraving, heat treating and allied activities; furniture and kitchen cabinet manufacturing; and recreational vehicle dealers. The agency said any broader set-aside would not stand up to a court challenge. According to the House Small Business Committee, only 1,247 woman-owned firms would qualify for set-asides, out of more than 55,000 listed in the Central Contractor Registration. The proposed rule also requires each agency to determine whether it has discriminated against woman-owned firms before awarding any set-asides. “We find it difficult, if not impossible, to envision a scenario where a Federal agency would make such an admission,” the senators wrote. The Bush administration also defended this provision on legal grounds. Snowe and Kerry, along with many colleagues in both houses of Congress and most major women’s business organizations, have attacked the proposal as so narrow as to be useless. The Bush administration has defended its approach by pointing to court decisions limiting affirmative action. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Papez testified in January, “For contracting programs, federal courts have consistently held that…the government must show genuine, non-hypothetical evidence of discrimination in the particular field where the program will operate,” SBA released its proposed rule December 27, more than seven years after Congress approved the set-asides for women. No timetable has been published for issuing a final rule.