Transparency and Predictability in Small Business Opportunities Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MFUME. Madam Speaker, I thank Chair Roger Williams and Ranking Member Nydia Velazquez for their cooperation in getting this piece of legislation to the floor.

This amendment represents, in many respects, the sort of amendments that are bipartisan that have come about under their leadership, first in this Congress and then in the previous Congress when their roles had been reversed. It is a good process to have, and I honestly hope that other committees can follow the example here.

The U.S. Federal Government, in case people don't know, is the largest customer in the entire world. The government spends more than $690 billion every year on products and on services and is required by law to have those services meet the application, meet the solicitation, and then be considered properly. The government requires also by law that it gives equal consideration to businesses where applicable.

Once an agency has evaluated and assessed their needs, acquisition personnel will post a solicitation on the Federal Government's System for Award Management. It is also commonly known as SAM.gov.

That posting then is used to document and to track the eligibility of an individual or an entity to be able to receive Federal funds.

Now, winning a contract can secure for a small business tens of thousands of dollars for their products or their services where applicable, which also results, obviously, in huge financial gains, but the problem here is that this is not a simple feat.

Successfully securing a government contract requires fortitude and tenacity over and over again, day in and day out, as small businesses will need to do in order to be able to take advantage of that solicitation.

Now, not only can it take a long time for a small business to win their first government contract, but it also requires a significant amount of financial resources. They have to be invested in the process.

Some businesses in this country spend on average $80,000 to $130,000 just to be able to earn their first contract. They have to get the right consultants. They have to put together the right teams. They need the right expertise that goes above and beyond what their capabilities are, and it is work, work, work.

Additionally, it can take small business owners up to 2 years to start making a return on that same investment, making the need for an adequate cash flow absolutely essential. You have to be able to ride that tide, as many small businesses will tell you, and cash flow is a huge part of that.

Now, despite the prospective awardees' heavy lift, and it is a heavy lift, agencies on their own, unilaterally, without reason, can cancel the solicitation without ever disclosing why, leaving the small businessperson or the small minority business left on their own to recoup the money that they have put in and also being unable to bid right away on something else.

It leaves entrepreneurs in the dark. It causes them to be depleted of their resources and absent of any guidance on a path moving forward. The government doesn't say we have taken your solicitation, here is what you have to do. They just say we have canceled the solicitation, and then the small business entity has to figure out what they do next after that large investment.

Small business owners, in my opinion, deserve better allies in the Federal Government. That is why the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Alford) and I have put together in a bipartisan way the Transparency and Predictability in Small Business Opportunities Act. We think it is a remedy for a very serious problem.

The act requires the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to issue regulations that would provide for the disclosure of additional information when a small business solicitation is canceled.

In other words, if you are going to make a unilateral decision, you have to at least tell the small businesses who have invested money in trying to provide for that why you did it. We have a good SBA Administrator. I think that she just needs the right kind of language in a bill and the authority to be able to do just that.

The bill would also require the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization to help small businesses seek additional opportunities if a solicitation that they bid on is arbitrarily and unilaterally canceled.

It is my hope and the hope of the gentleman from Missouri as well that we are able to provide them with the opportunities they need to be able to continue to grow and develop their businesses and the opportunity to be successful rather than to be in a punitive situation where we offer bait and then snatch it back after businesses are, in fact, vested on a course of winning a contract.

Small businesses, needless to say, really have been the driving force in our economy, and I know that Mr. Williams and Ms. Velazquez will agree. After all the hard work these small businesses do, they deserve the courtesy of disclosure from the Federal Government and its contracting agencies.

Madam Speaker, I urge all Members on both sides of the aisle to vote in favor of this.

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