Government Research Reports

Small Business Federal Contracting: Trends and Drivers (May 2012)

This report provides analysis of trends in prime contracting and subcontracting small business goal achievement and contract obligations by industry segment of 24 Federal Agencies.

Description

The Small Business Administration (SBA) established a small business goaling program over 30 years ago to ensure small business participation in Federal Government contracting. The SBA uses Small Business Scorecards to evaluate small business goal achievement at the agency-level as well as Government-wide.

Small businesses can benefit from the recent NAICS Code size standard increases and the implementation of the WOSB Contracting Program which was formalized during the fourth quarter of FY 2011. In addition, large firms under “covered contracts” are required to develop subcontracting plans with multiple small businesses as subcontractors. Other benefits include the use of “parity,” in Government contracting, the elimination of the “competitiveness demonstration program” and the expansion of the small business set-aside program into multiple award contracts including GSA Multiple Award Schedule Contracts.

Despite shrinking budgets Government-wide, there has been a renewed emphasis on supporting and expanding the role of small businesses in Government Contracting. Federal agencies are participating in interagency groups to focus on communicating best practices and proven strategies for increasing small business utilization across multiple agencies.

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