More Delay For Women’s Set-Aside SBA has announced another delay in the women’s set-aside program, one that will push it back into 2008 at the earliest. Administrator Steven Preston said the SBA had to revise its proposed rule implementing the program after other agencies raised “various issues.” He said the new language was submitted Oct. 3 for a second round of review by 24 agencies, a process that will take at least 90 days. House Small Business Committee Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez, D-NY, said she is preparing legislation that would implement the program immediately. “I have heard every excuse in the book,” she told Preston at an Oct. 4 hearing. The women’s set-aside was signed into law by President Clinton in December 2000, but has never been implemented. SBA said it submitted its proposed rule for inter-agency review in April, only to be told to rewrite the rule. “It’s taking too long,” Preston said. “I share your frustration.” But he denied that he ever promised to implement the program by Sept. 30, as Velazquez and other members of Congress have alleged. “I said I hoped it would be,” he testified. Velazquez said her bill, not yet introduced, would permit agencies to begin setting aside contracts for woman-owned businesses immediately, and would direct SBA to complete work on its rule within 90 days after the legislation is enacted.