WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Small Business Committee, today joined Sen. Chris Coons (D-Conn.) in introducing the bipartisan Small Business Contracting Transparency Act to help more businesses that participate in the Small Business Administration (SBA) programs win contracts with federal agencies.

“Louisiana’s small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and they deserve a fair shot at working with the federal government. The Small Business Contracting Transparency Act would require the SBA to tell the public about the contracts it grants so that job creators can take advantage of every opportunity that’s open to them,” said Kennedy.

“When small businesses are able to fulfill federal contracts, everyone wins. This commonsense, bipartisan legislation is a key step toward ensuring the federal government keeps its promises to women, veterans, and underserved communities when awarding federal contracts. This bill will increase oversight of programs that provide valuable opportunities for the hardworking yet underrepresented entrepreneurs and small businesses that are the foundation of our state’s economy,” said Coons.

Federal agencies are supposed to award participants in certain SBA programs—including the Women-Owned Small Business program (WOSB), the Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) initiative and the Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) program—with a certain percentage of awards. However, since 2000, government agencies have only met their goals twice.

The Small Business Contracting Transparency Act would require the SBA submit reports on:

• The number of small businesses certified to participate in the WOSB program, the HUBZone program and the SDVOSB program.

• The total dollar amount and percentage of federal contracts that agencies award to qualifying small businesses in each SBA program. 

• The number of ineligible businesses in each SBA program that agencies mistakenly awarded a contract. 

Full text of the Small Business Contracting Transparency Act is available here.