Posted on 09/27/2010 3:28:42 PM PDT by Mojave
President Obama signed the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act this afternoon, ending the mandatory federal contracting award preference a business operating in a Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone) has long held over a competing Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB). This change in the law is expected to help level the playing field for service-disabled veterans seeking opportunities to do business with the federal government.
Prior to the passage of this legislation, small businesses located in economically depressed areas (HUBZones) were required to be given a price evaluation preference over other businesses submitting proposals in response to a federal contract solicitation. By contrast, preferences extended to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses were made at the discretion of the Contracting Officer responsible for the proposed contract. Partly due to this disparity, the percentage of awards made to SDVOSBs has consistently fallen short of the Small Business Administration goal of 3% of federal contracts for most agencies and their operating divisions.
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If he had a line-item veto it’d be gone.
I’ve got a service related disability and still think this is “yet another un-needed law.”
Many of the HUB Zone firms are set up by savy operators and have little to do with creating jobs in disadvantaged areas — in other words, vehicles for Federal Contracts.
The Service Disabled firms are vastly under capitalized to perform contracts of any size. It is extremely difficult to have the insurance, prevailing wage capability and business capital to work on Federal projects — some with many of the toughest standards in the construction industry.
I have had projects with hundreds of supplier and subcontractor bids and despite efforts to generate interest, no SDV bids were recieved.
I’m against all preferences. I’m a mortgage-paying homeowner, and I still think interest deductibility should be scuttled IF - PROVIDED - that such elimination was part of a simplification of the tax code to make it broader, flatter, and lower.
Just how many distortions do we need before free markets are no longer free markets?
It looks like they're already complaining.
"This is going to seal the fate of the HUBZone program," said Jim Slagle, executive vice president for sales and marketing at Mission Critical Solutions, a Tampa, Fla. HUBZone firm that first challenged the parity statute in court. "They are not going to prioritize HUBZone firms. I don't know that we will survive this."Congress restores small business contracting parity
Probably. Senator Olympia Snowe, a Republican (barely), sponsored the section giving service-disabled veterans parity in the contract award process relative to HUBZone operators, but then voted against the bill.
The number of Service Disabled Vetern Owned firms that can compete with HUB Zone firms is very small.
I doubt that it will make that much difference in the 10% advantag3e they get against large business, small business, 8A and DBE firms.
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