Judge: No Timetable for Women’s Set-Aside A federal judge has refused to set a timetable for SBA to implement the set-aside for woman-owned businesses. At a Nov. 7 hearing in Washington on the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce’s lawsuit over the issue, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said he is “not happy” with the long delay in implementing the program, which was signed into law by President Clinton seven years ago. He said “It doesn’t look like a whole lot’s been done” in the two years since he last heard arguments in the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Van Horn, representing SBA, said the Office of Management and Budget is now reviewing the proposed rule implementing the program. “A timeline is not really possible to lay out with precision because the rulemaking process is not within SBA’s control,” he told the judge. He said the OMB review, which involves 24 agencies that will be affected by the program, is due to be completed in January. The Chamber’s attorney, Sarah Wilson, said the OMB review is “a wholly unnecessary step” that appears to be “nothing more than another delaying tactic.” SBA submitted one proposed rule to OMB last spring, but withdrew it in October and submitted another one “at the eleventh hour of the review process,” Wilson said. Van Horn said the current round of review involves the Rand Corp. study that identified industries in which women were underrepresented in federal contracting. The law allows set-asides for woman-owned firms in underrepresented industries. Van Horn said the Rand study raised a “very important policy issue” as well as a constitutional issue over the need for preferential treatment for woman-owned businesses. Rand found that women were underrepresented in more than half of the industries when measured by the number of contracts they received. But when measured by the contract dollars going to women, the study found little evidence that woman-owned firms were underrepresented. (SAA, 5/18) SBA has not said which measurement it will use to decide who is eligible for the set-aside, but Van Horne gave a hint: He said the 5% procurement goal for woman-owned businesses is measured in dollars, suggesting that underrepresentation should be determined the same way. The House has adopted legislation using the broader Rand findings, making 22 industries eligible for the set-aside. The bill would order immediate implementation of the program. (Story, p. 1; list, p. 6.) Judge Walton set another status hearing for Jan. 25. By that time, the OMB review should be finished. If so, the judge said, “We will pin down the SBA on how long it will take them” to publish the rule. If OMB has not completed its work, he said he would want to know why. Van Horn said SBA Administrator Steven Preston “is pushing as hard as he can” to implement the program. “Nothing is higher on his agenda.”