News

Committee Approves Small Business Contracting Bills, Submits Views & Estimates on SBA Budget

Today, the House Small Business Committee, chaired by Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), held a full committee markup of six small business contracting bills recently introduced. AGC recently testified before the committee to discuss its priorities. The legislation marked up included:
  • H.R. 3850 -- The GET Small Business Contracting (Government Efficiency Through Small Business Contracting) Act of 2012, sponsored by Chairman Graves and Rep. Bill Owens (D-N.Y.)- PASSED by voice vote.
  • H.R. 3851 -- The Small Business Advocate Act (SBAA) of 2012, sponsored by Chairman Graves- PASSED 11-7.
  • H.R. 3893 -- The Subcontracting Transparency And Reliability (STAR) Act of 2012, sponsored by Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce Chairman Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.)- PASSED by voice vote.
  • H.R. 3980 -- The Small Business Opportunity Act of 2012, sponsored by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) and Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Regulations Ranking Member Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.)- PASSED by voice vote.
  • H.R. 4121 -- The Early Stage Small Business Contracting Act of 2012, sponsored by Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.)- PASSED by voice vote.
  • H.R. 4118 -- The Small Business Procurement Improvement Act of 2012, sponsored by Rep. Mark Critz (D-Pa.)- PASSED by voice vote.
AGC is working with the committee to ensure this legislative package will provide greater transparency to the federal procurement process and help create additional opportunities for small and medium sized firms engaged in the federal construction market. AGC previously recommended that  Congress reform the federal procurement process to: (1) create safe harbor standards that do not penalize contractors for making good faith efforts to abide by Small Business Administration rules and regulations, (2) limit overreliance on construction to achieve overall agency small business contracting goals, (3) ensure that small business goals take into consideration actual small business capacity in relevant specialty markets, (4) count all small business participation at all contracting tiers, and (5) revise the bundling definition to clarify that contract bundling rules apply to construction procurements.  AGC believes these reforms will encourage the development of successful and enduring small construction businesses and will continue working with congressional small business leaders to ensure enactment of these recommendations. For more information, please contact Marco Giamberardino at (703) 837-5376 or giamberm@agc.org.