SBA is taking its show on the road with an “Economic Growth Tour.”

Events around the country over the next few months will enable entrepreneurs and small-business owners to meet with their local bankers, venture capitalists, resource and trade partners, and local SBA staff to get information about starting a new small business or advance an existing one, the agency said. SBA officials and representatives from each community will discuss the challenges of owning a small business and how to improve opportunities for entrepreneurs. The first session was held Oct. 7 in Bangor, ME. Future events:

•Oct. 20, Syracuse, NY;
•Nov. 10, Bend, OR;
•Nov. 18, Davenport, IA;
•Jan. 26, Jacksonville, FL;
•Feb. 9, Reno, NV;
•Feb. 23, Albuquerque, NM;
•March 8, Clarksburg, WV;
•March 22, Green Bay, WI;
•April 5, Denver, CO;
•April 12, Springfield or Kansas City, MO.

For more information, go to http://www.sba.gov/50/regionevents.html.

The General Services Administration expects to produce faster and more accurate reports on contracting with its new Federal Procurement Data System Next Generation.

The upgraded system went online Oct. 10, replacing a system that had been widely criticized. The system tracks contract dollars by industry and socioeconomic category, among other things. Under the old system, data was not available until months after the end of a fiscal year, and many agencies complained that the FPDS numbers did not match their own data.

The Next Generation system, developed by Global Computer Enterprises, is designed to allow agency buyers to get timely information on contractors and to compare other contracts similar to their own.

SBA presented its National 8(a) Minority Small Business of the Year Award to Rhonda Herschell, president of Cherokee General Corp. of Fairview, OR.

Cherokee General is a construction company that explores opportunities to combine engineering and design with construction to streamline projects and ensure project continuity.

Tony Reid, president of Automated Precision Technology LLC of Norfolk, VA, received the 8(a) Graduate of the Year Award.

SBA Administrator Hector Barreto presented his Leadership Award to Angela Styles, former administrator for Federal Procurement Policy in the Office of Management and Budget.

“Ms. Styles has demonstrated her unwavering commitment to the minority small business community, but more importantly to small business,” Barreto said.

The awards were presented during Minority Enterprise Development Week in Washington.

SBA has issued a final rule allowing expansion by the certified development companies that handle the agency’s Section 504 loans.

Under the rules, development companies would be permitted to operate statewide and across state lines and to compete with other development companies for loans. Previous regulations generally limited the companies to serving only a local or regional market within a state.

SBA said it is “allowing market-driven forces to determine availability of 504 Program service.”

Many of the companies are operated by local or regional government agencies and are prohibited from expanding, but others are eager to expand.

The rule was published in the Oct. 7 Federal Register.

Deidre Lee, the Defense Department’s director of procurement and acquisition policy, has been assigned temporarily to oversee contracting by the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

Lee, a career civil servant, said she would spend at least a month with the Authority, beginning Oct. 14. The Authority has been plagued by questions about contracts awarded on a sole-source or limited-bid basis to Halliburton Co., Bechtel and others.

“These new contracts we will award will be highly visible,” Lee told a conference sponsored by FCW Media. “We want to do a better job explaining how we make the awards.”

NASA selected 145 research proposals as Phase 2 of the agency’s Small Business Innovation Research program.

The projects have an approximate total value of $86.5 million and will be conducted by 119 small technology firms from 29 states. Each of the contract awards could be worth up to $600,000 for a 2-year performance period.