Every year, the federal government spends over $400 billion on goods and services, making it the largest purchaser of goods and services in the world. Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration released the annual Fiscal Year 2019 Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard, which tracks and assesses each agency’s yearly and individually negotiated small business prime and subcontracting performance and determines grades ranging from A+ to F
We are very pleased to announce that in FY19 the federal government not only exceeded its small business contracting goal, but it awarded a historic $132.9 billion or 26.50 percent in prime contract dollars to small businesses. This is an increase of $12 billion from FY18, earning the federal government an “A” on SBA’s Scorecard. This smashes the record-setting $120 billion the federal government awarded to small businesses in FY18!
It was a record-breaking year for women-owned small businesses too! For the second time ever since the implementation of the women-owned contracting goal, the federal government met the five percent contract goal awarding $26 billion in federal contracts, or 5.19 percentto women-owned small businesses.
The federal government also awarded nearly $90.7 billion in subcontracting dollars to small businesses. The prime and subcontracting dollars combined amount to one million jobs that are supported annuallyr through federal contracting. These jobs help to build communities and fuel the nation’s economy.
I have spent 25 years of my government tenure as a professional program administrator, as the Chief Procurement Officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Director of Acquisition and Contracting for the Federal Aviation Administration and the Chief Acquisition Officer at the Department of Energy. I am pleased to oversee the SBA’s Office of Government Contracting and Business Development, which is charged with making sure that the federal government spends at least 23 percent of its contract dollars with small businesses annually.
The goal of my office is to increase support to the small business contracting community, namely, the agency procurement personnel which includes SBA’s Procurement Center Representatives, Commercial Market Representatives, the Office of Small Disadvantaged Business Utilization, the Office of Small Business Programs and contracting officers who are responsible for actually making the contract awards to small businesses to achieve the 23 percent goal.
I am so pleased to see this shared result between the SBA and its colleague agencies and partners despite the challenges caused by the pandemic caused. Meeting these small business contracting goals is part of our commitment to ensuring that entrepreneurs are adequately supported and represented throughout the government.
These positive results are also because of small business owners like:
- James Moore, Managing Partner of Expert Maintenance and Construction Services, LLC (EMCS), an 8(a) and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise-certified firm of Prairieville, Louisiana and SBA’s Louisiana 2020 Small Business Person of the Year. James founded his business with just two employees and has grown his business to 85 employees, with $16 million in revenues.
- EMCS has performed numerous contracts with federal, state, and local agencies in addition to private entities and has completed projects in multiple states, including Louisiana, South Carolina, Kansas, Missouri, and Texas, with offices in all five states.
SBA is incredibly proud of the small businesses that we support. We are deeply gratified to work with our federal partners and are appreciative of their efforts in helping to achieve and exceed the 23 percent goal. This achievement is not only a win for the federal government; it is a win for small businesses and the nation’s economy.
