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Federal Market Intelligence for Small Business |
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Set-Aside Alert news analysis:Who’s left out of US Senate small biz honors?Nearly two dozen small firms have been awarded “U.S. Senate Small Business of the Week” honors by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, this year--all of them in Florida. Rubio is the chair of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, which has traditions of its chair recognizing successful small businesses. In recent years, the committee chairs have bestowed the awards to firms primarily in their home states. Rubio is generally following in those footsteps but his staff says he is working to make the awards process “more inclusive.” Committee members for decades have recognized outstanding small firms in their states with various wording in the Congressional Record. All senators have authority to do the same. Starting in 2015, committee Chair David Vitter, R-LA, began regularly awarding Small Business of the Week honors in his state. Following him as chair, James Risch, R-ID, selected and publicized Idaho Small Business of the Month on the committee website. Rubio is expanding and modifying the practice of awarding the small business honors, not least by adding “U.S. Senate” to the title. Although the title references the U.S. Senate, neither the Senate nor the committee vote on the designations. Rubio also names awardees more frequently and gives them greater visibility by utilizing videos, tweets and news releases on the committee website. Rubio announces new awards every week. Risch, who chaired in 2017-early 2019, named them every month. Rubio also has encouraged Sen. Ben Cardin, D-MD, the committee’s senior Democrat, to join in awarding similar honors. Cardin’s awardees are all in Maryland. While most of the announcements get positive publicity, there has been some grumbling among small vendors who are put off by the narrow geographic distribution under the current setup. Washington, DC contractors, who have no U.S. senators, appear to be permanently ineligible. Even just allowing all committee members to select awardees would be a major improvement, a vendor told Set-Aside Alert. “The committee should at least go around to each member to make awards in their states,” the vendor said. A spokesperson for Rubio told Set-Aside Alert he has made the process more inclusive by inviting all U.S. senators, of both parties, to make nominations in their home states. Small businesses also can ask to be nominated, the spokesperson said. Meanwhile, the committee website shows the 2019 honors going only to companies in Florida and Maryland. Once the nominations are made, candidates are vetted, Rubio’s spokesperson said. “We have a robust and thorough vetting process that includes checking small business size, campaign contributions and their standing in the community,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. It wasn’t immediately clear how those factors are weighed in the vetting. During Rubio’s tenure, several committee members have announced small business awards on their own websites, including Sen. John Kennedy, R-LA, in April and Risch in May. Despite such efforts, there have been some complaints about the awards going to few states. Details of the process are not widely known. “What is the criteria for being a (U.S. Senate) Small Business of the Week?” a Twitter user asked. “Republican donor?” another Twitter user asked.
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